Taizhou’s City Flower —— Laurus is a species of plant in Oleaceae family. Having gray coarse trunk and a spherical shape of the top, laurus can grow up to 10 meters. The elliptic leathery leaves of Laurus, with jagged brim before grown, usually grow one against another up a stem. Majority of Laurus flowers blossom at the young branches grow at that very year’s spring while some also blossom at those two-to-three-year-old branches. Commonly three to five flowers grows together at a leaf axil, the petals of which can be milky white, yellow, orange or in other colors. They are all aromatic. The most four common species are golden laurus, silver laurus, red laurus and Four Season Laurus. And those dark-purple berries of laurus are called Laurus seed. 

Originated from the Southwest and middle part of China, Laurus now are popularized in Yangtze River region and the areas to the south of the region. As the same as temperate species, it can endure hot and moist climate rather than cold and frosty one. Laurus is a leafy evergreen plant that can live for a long time and blossoms in autumn. With aromatic flowers, it is labored as one of China’s special ornamental and aromatic plants. Besides Xianning, Hubei province, homeland for laurus, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Guilin are also well-known for voluminous laurus. Laurus has lots of usage. Trunk of laurus can be used in many ways with hard and fine-grained timber. Laurus flower, with mild flavor, has a good effect in curing expectoration and coughing, and killing toothache. Fresh laurus petals can be made into laurus cake, laurus sweet, laurus wine, etc.

Taizhou’s City flower ——plum blossom, top in China’s twenty four flowers list, is famous for its impressively cold beautiful image by blossoming in frozen winter, reflecting its shadow in the snow with jade-green foliage and broken branches and spreading vague and indistinct scent. It is so popular for being the first blossoming among all the other flowers that there is even a poem depicting its earliness, saying: “Ten thousand of plums on one tree dare to blossom in the snow, sending the world the first news, that spring is approaching.” Besides, winter sweet’s beautiful silence also emblems Chinese people’s traditional spirit: always follow your heart and never give up. A poem was written to praise winter sweet blossoming in a corner doesn’t care other’s attitude but still shows the world its beauty though growing in a bad environment. Winter sweet can live for the longest time among flowers and planting Winter Sweet in China can be dated back to Shang Dynasty, four thousand years ago. In the city of Huang Mei, Hubei province, A one-thousand-and-six-hundred-year-old winter sweet still blossoms every year. People can find inspiration from winter sweet to learn persisting and never give up so that they will greet the spring of their life, as it is said: “In the wind and rain, seeing spring departed; in the wind and snow, seeing spring arrived; it blossoms on the frozen-cold cliff, not competing with others but only noting you the coming of spring. And lastly she smiles, so beautiful among such a mountain of flowers.”

Plum blossoms (Prunus mume) originate from China and are mainly cultivated in the Yangtze River Basin and Southwest China, which prefers a warm and slightly humid climate condition, and are suitable to grow in ventilative and cool places under full sun. Fears of flood as well as drought resistance are the two main characteristics of plum blossoms.

The city tree of Taizhou—the Camphor Trees

Type: Evergreen trees, generally 20-30m tall, maximum height up to 50m, 4-5m in pectoral diameter, corona broadly ovate; bark grayish brown, longitudinally fissured; leaves alternate, ovate-elliptical, 5-8m in length, thinly leathery, triplinerved, glands present in axils of veins, entire Characteristics and Garden Uses: With thick branches and leaves, big crown, dense shade and majestic tree performance, this kind of tree is fine tree species for urban landscaping, which is used widely for shade trees, border trees, shelter forest and landscape forest. It could be planted on the pond, by the riverside, on the hillside as well as on the level ground. If being planted alone in an open space, it should let the crown fully grow with dense shade covering the ground which may look better. It can be used as clump planting, mass planting or background. The camphor tree has a strong ability of poison sucking and resistance, so it could be used as greening tree species in the factories and mines. Economic Values: The camphor tree is a kind of species with rich economic values. The wood is fine and close, easy to manufacture with moisture resistance, fragrance and anti-moth, which can be used for architecture, shipbuilding, furniture, cabinets, carvings and musical instruments, etc. Each part of the tree can be extracted to make camphors and camphor wood oil, widely used for chemical industry, medicine and perfume, etc., which is an important export product in our country. In short, the camphor tree is a city landscaping species with extreme high economic values.

Distribution: Camphor trees (Cinnamomum Camphora) are generally distributed to the north boundary lies the Yangtze River to the south are the Guangdong, Guangxi and southwest China, especially abundant in the southeast coastal provinces such as Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and Taiwan. The maximum vertical distribution of camphor trees can reach up to an altitude of 1,000m. In nature, camphor trees are most commonly found among domed peaks, rolling hills and nearby villages. Camphor trees are also produced in Korea and Japan, and in addition, the trees are often introduced into cultivation by other countries in the world.

Habits and characteristics: Camphor trees prefer light and a warm and humid climate condition, with shade endurance, but poor cold resistance. The new born branches of Camphor trees can be damaged by cold injury under a temperature at or below -18℃. Camphor trees do not require high standards of soil, simply, thick, abundant, humid and slightly acidic clay soils are best for growth. Camphor trees have strong resistance to wet conditions, but poor resistance to drought, inferior soils and saline-alkali soils. Camphor trees have strong, deeply embedded roots, which are able to fight against wind, but they can easily be damaged and early declined by wind injury because of the shallowly embedded roots into the plains with high groundwater levels. Camphor trees have strong capacities for sprouting and cut resistance. Camphor trees have a medium to low growing speed, which accelerates at their younger stages, then slows down after middle stages. Camphor trees usually grow up to a height of approximately at 6m for the ten-year ones and approximately at 15m for the fifty-year ones. Camphor trees are able to be alive for over one thousand years. Camphor trees have a good adaptability of city environment as they have certain resistance to tide wind, smoke dust and toxic gas by adsorption of various kinds of toxic gas.

Propagation and Cultivation： Mainly employ seeding propagarion, while such propagation methods as soft wood cutting propagation and transplanting root greenbrier also work. When the fruits are ripe between October and November, please collect seeds immediately and steep them in the water for two to three days. Remove the flesh and mix with the plant ashes to defat for 12 to 24 hours. Then clean the seeds and after drying, mix them with sands for storage. Sow in drill until next spring (between the end of February and the beginning of March). The distance is 20-25cm with 10-13kg per acreage. If seed soaking in warm water (50℃) for 3 to 4 days before sowing, they could germinate ten days in advance and emerge neatly. General germination percentage is around 80%. The height of one-year seedling is 30 to 50cm. The seedling prefers shade to freeze so put on grasses or bank up with earth to protect against cold in winter. Since the camphor tree has a deep taproot with few lateral roots, please pay attention to cultivate the lateral roots when grow seedlings. In the nursery, there should be transplantation for twice generally. When transplanting a small seedling, cut a section of the taproot, leaving only 10 to 15m. When transplanting a large seedling, please pay attention not to hurt the root, bringing the ball and thinning out one third of the branches and leaves properly. When transplanting a big tree, please focus on cutting the tree crown (thinning out half of the branches and leaves), bringing the ball and drying and moisturizing with straw ropes. Only by watering adequately and spraying the branches and leaves, they could be alive. The best time for transplantation is when the bud starts germinating. Please don’t transplant too deeply, subject to the ground-line of the plain.

Ornamental  Characteristics and Garden Uses: With thick branches and leaves, big crown, dense shade and majestic tree performance, this kind of tree is fine tree species for urban landscaping, which is used widely for shade trees, border trees, shelter forest and landscape forest. It could be planted on the pond, by the riverside, on the hillside as well as on the level ground. If being planted alone in an open space, it should let the crown fully grow with dense shade covering the ground which may look better. It can be used as clump planting, mass planting or background. The camphor tree has a strong ability of poison sucking and resistance, so it could be used as greening tree species in the factories and mines. Economic Values: The camphor tree is a kind of species with rich economic values. The wood is fine and close, easy to manufacture with moisture resistance, fragrance and anti-moth, which can be used for architecture, shipbuilding, furniture, cabinets, carvings and musical instruments, etc. Each part of the tree can be extracted to make camphors and camphor wood oil, widely used for chemical industry, medicine and perfume, etc., which is an important export product in our country. In short, the camphor tree is a city landscaping species with extreme high economic values.