Wholesale Plant Market in Pudong

Harvest from plant shopping

It's spring and I can only think of plants, flowers, soil, fertilisers and flower pots...It has become quite an obsession. I could have gone to the nearest plant market to stock up - only I want variety and I want it cheap(er), and thanks to one of my neighbours I have discovered a wholesale plant market in Pudong. That was where I've spent my morning yesterday.

A wholesale plant market in Pudong

I haven't suddenly discovered that I have a green thumb. It is because I don't that I need to make sure that I do not spend a fortune on plants that I'll have to buy again in no time. Actually many of the sellers have no clue either how to look after the plants or make them grow again (or they'd rather not tell) - they just know how to collect money from you.

Never go to the plant market on a hot day. It would be too horrible as you would need to walk around quite a bit - as I've discovered on my first trip there. The weather was cool yesterday so it was perfect for shopping in the wholesale market. Though one still risked being knocked down by a van or having one's foot spit on as usual.

You may find outdoor plants, decorative stone sculptures, wooden material, indoor plants, orchids (they mostly come from Taiwan), bonsai, flower pots, soil/fertilisers, roses, cacti, fruit etc. Some of the sellers come from other parts of China like Guangzhou and Chaozhou, in fact I gave some of them a shock when I let known that I could understand what they were saying to each other when they were speaking Teochew. But still they wouldn't reduce the price as it was normally meant for people who buy in bulk.

Bought this plant in 3 colours : white, purple and cross-bred. Like father, mother and baby :-)

Afternoon spent repotting the plants

I only bought a few plants and pots as it took a lot of time looking through each shop and sifting through the rubbish that some of them contained. Then of course I was as usual indecisive. I do not need a garden since we have a common one in the compound that is looked after by an army of gardeners, but I feel that I still need a few plants of my own to look after myself.

My new green flower pot

Does the salon need more plants?

I have no idea what most of the plants are called, but I am pretty pleased with them and can only hope that they will live for a while. I found this green flower pot yesterday that was quite lovely which made me want to buy more plants so that I could hunt for more pots for them. I think I'm going to give another smaller and nearer plant market a go next week to see what I can find in it. And I'll need to hunt for a low table to carry my flower pot - so it'll be back to a spot of furniture hunting.