Shanghai is a city of flowers, and not only in the parks. Flowers are bought weekly for the home the way groceries are, bunches are sold from buckets outside wet markets and metro stations, and the older residential blocks are covered in balcony gardens - pots of jasmine, orchids, cacti, camellias and vegetables crowding every railing. Following the flower trade for a morning gives an unusual view of ordinary city life, and it is also the cheapest way to buy something beautiful to take home.
The trade
The wholesale end of the business starts very early, with halls on the outer ring where cut flowers arrive from the growers in the delta and from Yunnan, which is where most of China's roses, lilies, carnations and eucalyptus come from. Buyers from shops and hotels work through the night, and by six in the morning the best stock has already gone. Inside the city, the retail trade is everywhere: shops selling cut flowers and arrangements, plant nurseries with pots, compost and tools, and market stalls selling a few dozen stems at a time for the price of a coffee. Potted plants - orchids, money trees, lucky bamboo, citrus - are a large part of the trade, especially before the Lunar New Year.
What grows on a Shanghai balcony
The climate is humid, with hot summers and cool damp winters, which suits camellias, gardenias, jasmine, hydrangeas, magnolias and orchids, and makes life difficult for anything that needs a cold dormant season. In the older neighbourhoods you will see climbing plants trained up bamboo frames, vegetables grown in foam boxes, goldfish bowls set among the pots, and birds hung out in cages beside them. Plant-related hobbies are taken seriously: there are clubs, competitions and a long tradition of penjing, the Chinese art of miniature trees, with public displays in several of the city's parks.
Practical notes
For cut flowers, go early; for plants, any garden centre or market works. Most plants and cut flowers cannot be taken across borders, so treat a purchase as something for your hotel room or a gift to someone in the city rather than a souvenir for the flight home. If you are interested in penjing, the classical gardens of the city and its parks hold permanent displays, and the Yu Garden area has a plant market alongside the bazaar, though it is priced for visitors.
