CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- Deng Jihui is at her busiest when the wintersweet opens in winter. She was born after the generation of 1985 and grew up in Jingguan Town in Beibei, Chongqing, “Hometown of Wintersweet in China”. With her own efforts, Deng Jihui has brought the wintersweet of Beibei Jingguan to the whole country, and she is also known as the “Wintersweet Fairy” by local flower growers.

Deng Jihui once worked as a florist and founded a floriculture training school. In 2016, she brought a bunch of wintersweet to a floral show in Guangzhou, where the crowd praised the beauty of the flowers; however, they did not know the name of the small yellow flower and where it came from. She was a little lost at that moment. Wintersweet is the pride of her hometown, but why did people not know it? Deng Jihui decided to return to Chongqing.

The history of planting wintersweet in Beibei Jingguan Town in Chongqing, “Hometown of Wintersweet in China”, dates back to the Ming and Qing dynasties, when flower growers relied on wintersweet to support their families for generations. However, the sale of Jingguan wintersweet has been limited to a 100-mile radius due to geographical and other factors, so Deng Jihui wanted to change all that. During the winter, she often visited various wintersweet plantations and talked to the growers to learn more about the characteristics of wintersweet in Jingguan Town and to find ways to enhance sales. She was also commissioned by florists from out of the town to purchase some wintersweet on behalf of them and to help with shipping.

In 2018, Deng Jihui returned home officially to start her own business, believing strongly that Chongqing’s wintersweet could be sold far and wide across the country. A wintersweet seedling grows for three years before it is able to flower. In the early days of her return, she witnessed a flower grower cutting down a dozen-year-old wintersweet tree on the grounds that it was “not profitable”. The low price of flowers hurts growers. The only way to preserve these wintersweet plantations is to make it more valuable. As a result, Deng Jihui went door-to-door to negotiate with flower growers and took the initiative to increase the purchase price.

Bunches of wintersweet are boxed and packed, and most of them are shipped to wholesale flower markets in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and other parts of China via shipping, while a small number are made into creative wintersweet products and retailed to wintersweet lovers. The majority of wintersweet from Beibei Jingguan and the surrounding towns were bought by Deng Jihui’s team this year, totaling around 50,000 bunches and 500,000 stems.

Beibei wintersweet, represented by chimonanthus praecox, has pure yellow, unadulterated flowers with a strong fragrance. For building the wintersweet sales industry chain, Deng Jihui has signed with more than 50 flower growers and cooperated with hundreds of flower growers on the supply side, connecting the national wintersweet distribution channels. She has also created and hosted “Jingguan Cup” Traditional Flower Arrangement Competitions three times to raise the profile and added value of wintersweet.

A bunch of wintersweet brings warmth and vividness to a gloomy winter day. The wintersweet blossom season coincides with New Year’s Day and Spring Festival. Aiming at the gift market of the “two festivals”, Deng Jihui, as a senior florist, has also developed a variety of creative wintersweet gift boxes, with prices ranging from RMB 68 to RMB 198, which gives wintersweet a higher price and also enchants the purchasers.

“Not only do I want to make wintersweet more beautiful, but I want to grow and sell it better.” As the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Jingguan Flower Arrangement Art in Beibei District, Chongqing, Deng Jihui is seeking a new breakthrough by inviting experts in agronomy and forestry to guide flower growers to grow better wintersweet; she is also developing floriculture training, wintersweet tea, and hosting “Jingguan Cup” Traditional Flower Arrangement Competitions... “The Economic Picture of Wintersweet” in the mind of the “Wintersweet Fairy” is becoming bigger and bigger! (Translated by Wang Huixin, Fathom Language Limited)