[Explanation] After a rain shower in August, in the 100-acre rose garden in Wenjiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan, a 72-year-old Japanese gardener Masao Okada took advantage of the rain to stop and stepped on the muddy road to check the condition of the roses. , Fix the vines bent by the rain with a string. The fond memories of growing roses at home as a child made the old man choose to stay with roses for life.
[Explanation] In 2005, Masao Okada, who has more than 30 years of gardening experience, came to Chengdu to participate in the China Flower Fair. At that time, China's vast flower market made him decide to stay and build a rose garden and become a member of the millions of "Rong Diao". But this venture quickly failed due to lack of experience. In 2015, the 67-year-old Okada Masao led a team of people from China, Japan and France to re-enter the business-to build the "May Rose Garden" in Yongfu Village, Wenjiang, with more than 1,500 roses.
[Concurrent] (Japanese gardener Masao Okada)
After making this decision, I discovered during the process of building a rose garden that Chengdu actually has less sunlight and higher humidity, which is not good for growing roses. So after this, I will adjust carefully. For example, we use garden roses to replace cut roses, so now we have built a garden rose garden.
[Explanation] Nowadays, the rose garden of Masao Okada has developed into a rose industrial park integrating visits, wedding photography, rose sales and variety cultivation, which can attract more than 20,000 visitors a year. Masao Okada stays in the rose garden every day, pulling weeds, pruning branches, fertilizing, and taking care of these roses. At the same time, he also asked the park not to use automatic sprinkler irrigation equipment, because manual watering can observe each rose up close and discover problems in time.
[Concurrent] (Japanese gardener Masao Okada)
Every day I come to the rose garden, first I will take a look at it all. See what needs to be treated or pests, and then tell the workers what to do today. The daily care is to make tourists feel satisfied whenever they come. The Chinese government is also advocating (agricultural technology) innovation, and it also needs some advanced foreign technology. We also hope that our rose garden will serve as a window and platform for (agricultural) technical exchanges and cooperation.
[Explanation] In order to create a rose garden that brings together Chinese and Western varieties, Masao Okada collected more than 100 Chinese native rose varieties from various places. Every year, he will visit Europe and the United States to exchange experience with rose experts from all over the world. Okada Masao said that a rose may not be eye-catching, but cultivating this variety often takes more than ten years of effort from breeders. My dream is to bring together rose varieties from all over the world here, and combine them with garden art to bring people spiritual enjoyment.
[Concurrent] (Japanese gardener Masao Okada)
This rose garden has Chinese tourists as well as foreign tourists. We have also collected all kinds of roses in the world. Our planning goal is to make it truly a rose expo garden for everyone to like. Being able to take care of these flowers for a long time is also a kind of happiness.
[Explanation] Okada Masao, who stood on a high ground and looked at the entire rose garden, said that these roses are growing every day. Although he is 72 years old, he still has no idea to stop.
Chen Xuanbin reports from Chengdu
Editor in charge: [Song Fangcan]