Flourishing flower power gets a boost from internet

Gone are the days when a lack of supply had the price of some succulent plants soaring into the stratosphere.

Zhou Jianqiao has no doubt about it: The flower power he now wields is largely attributable to pixel power.

"The popularity of succulent plants in China comes from the internet," says Zhou, founder of Zhejiang Wanxiang Flower Co Ltd, in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, said to be the largest succulents company in China.

Zhou began to import succulents from South Korea and set up his company in 2014, when the Ministry of Agriculture authorized Chinese companies to import seeds.

"Thanks to the spread of the internet, the succulents market in China grew rapidly between 2011 and 2014," he says, adding that as more and more people began to learn about them they became "incredibly expensive" because they were in short supply.

"Since 2015 the market has become more stable and most prices have fallen to what you could call reasonable levels."