Finding seeds to plant, in Beijing?

[XuanWu]

Does anyone know where can i buy seeds from Beijing?

I doubt if i will be able to  find any in my country.

I will return home for winter vacations and i would like to plant some chinese fruits and vegetables.

Red dates,lotus fruit, small melons etc.

[Shelley]

I don't know where "home" is but you need to be very careful about what you take from one country to another. Most countries have some very strict rules about bring seeds, foodstuffs and meat in to the country.

 

Check the laws and rules for your country before you go.

[anonymoose]

Red dates can be purchased anywhere. Just buy ones that still contain the stone.

 

Red dates grow on trees, so it may be several years before you can harvest any, even if your tree grows successfully.

[grawrt]

Totally illegal if you're from the US. If you decide to bring them do it with caution and class and be prepared to be put on blacklist for a while if you're caught lol. It's a total pain, my mom was on it for a while when she got stuck bringing something from Turkey (I forgot what it was, maybe a type of smoked sausage?).

 

However, I'll just add, we managed to bring seeds from Turkey one time. Although after my mom got black listed for a while she swore to never take such chances, so consider that as well. When you're blacklisted they will check your bags thoroughly every time and add extra trouble and hassle to your flights.

[XuanWu]

I am from the cosmopolitan european union

I will check. I dont intent to smuggle anything.

 

Its ok if it takes years to grow. When i will return they will be grown up!

[anonymoose]

Well you'll probably find that your lotuses and melons have long since disappeared then.

[roddy]

Yum, smoked sausage. 

 

If you can read the Chinese, this might be useful. If you can't, say so and someone'll help.

[hedwards]

Even if it is legal, you really shouldn't be taking plants across borders. Going like from the US to Canada would probably not cause too many problems, but going from China to a completely foreign country could lead to a normally docile plant running amok.

 

Exotic species can be a minor nuisance like the flock of parrots in one of our local parks, or they can destroy entire ecosystems like Japanese Knotweed or Purple Lustrife.

 

Anyways, just be mindful of what you plant, keep it in a pot and try to stick to things that don't send out a lot of uncontrolled seeds. These things are extremely difficult to put back into their box when they get released. Just look at the American squirrels that have pretty much taken North America.

[Zeppa]

I don't know where your country is, but you may find more seeds to buy there than you think. I doubt you can grow red dates quickly, but apparently the tree can be found in the south of Switzerland and Austria, according to Wikipedia. I am in the UK and I tried to grow some bitter melons this year, but did not start soon enough or get enough sun. But I can easily buy them in shops here because they are eaten in the Caribbean too. When I lived in Germany I saw Vietnamese people growing some kind of melon or squash, but don't know where they got the seeds.

I also failed to grow stem lettuce (celtuce), which should be easy, but the slugs liked it too much.

 

Just do a web search. Here's something about growing lotus root in the UK, for example:

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_7848216_grow-lotus-plants-seed.html

[XuanWu]

 

Yum, smoked sausage. 

 

If you can read the Chinese, this might be useful. If you can't, say so and someone'll help.

 

I can't. Who can help me translate? I just need the address.

 

In the photo with the blue sign of the shop, does it says the address? Maybe i can take a photo of the image and show it to a taxi driver.

[gerri]

Getting seeds into the EU tends not to be a problem; several kinds of live plants (such as grasses, e.g. bamboo), however, are restricted.

 

For many vegetables, as mentioned before for red dates, it's easiest to just take a few out of (ripe, naturally) fruits. Many vegetables are not much of a problem when it comes to potential invasiveness, either, as they are annuals. (The various pumpkins and cucumbers and all that, for example, will be killed by the frost and aren't all that likely to overtake landscapes even if they spring up from seeds in the next year. They can overtake quite a bit of a garden in their one season, if well-enough tended, though. ;) )

 

Many kinds of trees and shrubs are rather more problematic, with germination rates not being the best, and them taking years until they bear fruit. And hardiness can be a bit of a question, too...

 

I've found a few vegetable and flower seeds, surprise, in small stores inside the Beijing Botanical Garden; quite a bit can be found on Taobao. Otherwise, it's difficult. I've also grown quite a bit, my focus being the chile peppers (I'm www.chilicult.com) and other hot spices.

 

Ah yes, I also would second that you can probably find a lot in Europe itself. Not cheap, oftentimes, but if from reputable nurseries, you will know better what you get and that it's okay. All depends on what you want, though.

[Kobo-Daishi]

Does anyone know where can i buy seeds from Beijing?

I doubt if i will be able to  find any in my country.

I will return home for winter vacations and i would like to plant some chinese fruits and vegetables.

Red dates,lotus fruit, small melons etc.

 

Don't you guys have seed catalogs or nurseries in the EU?

 

I can't believe that the EU is so behind the US.

 

We have Asian seed catalogs and nurseries here in the US.

 

Some stuff are really easy to grow. You just stick the leaves in the ground and eventually they take root.

 

Nowadays almost everybody has a 紅棗, red date, tree growing in their yard. They buy them from the nursery rather than grow them from pits. The fruit is the size of a rather large golf ball and they're greenish like a pear. After they mature do they turn the familiar red, dry and shrivel up found for use in soups. People at work are always giving me some. Didn't have fresh ones when I was growing up. I might try growing from seed just for the fun of it.

 

I was able to start a guava tree from seeds obtained from fruit that friends gave me. The fruit were the size of a smallish fist.

 

I remember once reading an article about how Asian (most likely ethnic Chinese) picking gingko nuts from trees in New York's Central Park.

 

I don't see anyone growing lotus unless they've a really large estate with a huge pond or small lake. It's the root (tuber) that is used for cooking 蓮耦. Ok, the seeds in soups and the leaves for wrapping as in "no mai gai" or "beggar's chicken" (haven't had a good beggar's chicken in years since I made it back in my younger days, yum). I remember once getting a catalog for growing water lilies in ponds. Lotus are water lilies. We've an annual Lotus Festival out at Echo Park in Los Angeles yearly where they celebrate pan-Asian culture. There's a huge lotus bed growing in the lake there, supposedly the largest in the US.

 

http://www.theeastsiderla.com/2014/05/lotus-festival-returns-to-echo-park-lake-this-summer/

 

The event was closed while they did renovation to the late, but, was re-started earlier in the year.

 

So much to write, but, no time.

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=%E7%99%BD%E6%9E%9C gingko nuts. I usually shell them with a nut cracker. Nowadays they've got frozen ones in addition to canned ones already shelled.

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=%E7%B4%85%E6%A3%97 red dates

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=water+lily water lilies

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=no+mai+gai no mai gai

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=lo+mai+gai or cringe lo mai gai

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=beggars+chicken Beggar's chicken. You can buy potter's clay from a crafts or hobby shop. Or in a pinch you could encase it in a flour dough to get the same effect.

 

https://www.google.com/search?&site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=%E8%93%AE%E8%80%A6 lotus root.

 

I remember Ang Lee's Eat, Drink, Man, Woman where they used a hammer to break open the casing to get at the lotus leaf wrapped chicken. Had me salivating, that movie did.

 

Kobo.

[gerri]

Don't you guys have seed catalogs or nurseries in the EU?

 

I can't believe that the EU is so behind the US.

 

Nor should you (believe that), because it isn't. But, there's (usually) less of an Asian population and more of bureaucracy and language diversity. Which is to say, you can find pretty much anything you could find in the US also in the EU, but where the US is one big English-language market, the EU is several markets.

 

I know a few British nurseries that have nice things, for example, but they won't be that much help if you need the plants in Germany. I know German and Austrian nurseries which are great (and of some Italian ones), but again, if you don't know the respective languages, you won't even find them. And often, shipping isn't really worth it, because it's too expensive - or they just don't do it.

Don't even get me started on the nice plants I saw on sale and at a nursery in Latvia. Try finding out anything about them if you don't know Latvian or Russian and they don't have a website in English...

[Kobo-Daishi]

@Gerri,

 

I always thought that union did away with all that and that things and people could move freely across the borders.

 

I guess there still is the language barrier.

 

And shipping costs. Usually we see a lot of free shipping if it's a large enough order.

 

Any rate most melons will go to seed fairly quickly.

 

I've bought hairy melon or fuzzy melon from the market that have developed already quite hard seeds. I made the mistake of thinking that larger would be better. Now I know to buy several smaller ones rather than one large one if I don't want the fully formed seeds. The immature fruit before the seeds have set.

 

https://www.google.com/search?&site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=節瓜

 

https://www.google.com/search?&site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=冬瓜

 

I've even bought supermarket generic brand pickled cucumbers where the seeds were starting to form their harder shell.

 

If I had kept the hairy melon until the seeds fully matured, I could have dried them and later planted them.

 

https://www.google.com/search?&site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=節瓜

 

https://www.google.com/search?&site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=冬瓜

 

Supposedly 節瓜, hairy or fuzzy melon eventually grows up to become 冬瓜 winter melon. Don't know if that's true or not since they taste so differently, but, I've read it in quite a few places.

 

Not to be confused with 西葫芦 which is also called fuzzy melon.

 

https://www.google.com/search?&site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=西葫芦

 

A lot of vegetables that the Chinese use are common to western cooking. Carrots, eggplants (or aubergine as it's called in Britain), peanuts (or groundnuts as they're called in the UK), celery (the Chinese celery is actually thinner and more fragrant), bell peppers, etc.

 

佛掌瓜 (Buddha's palm melon) or 佛手瓜 (Buddha's hand melon) is called chayote out here.

 

https://www.google.com/search?&site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=佛掌瓜

 

https://www.google.com/search?&site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=佛手瓜

 

Growing up, I used to live next to a Mexican neighbor who grew some and the vines would overhang onto my side of the property line. And we'd gather them to cook for our supper.

 

American law is that you can do that if it's on your property. Same with an avocado tree. The fruit would fall onto the roof of his garage (or car port as they call it in Britain), which was an inverted 'v' shape and fall into our yard. Nice avocado salad.

 

They also raised chickens and they'd come onto our property. You wouldn't know how many Mexican families raise chicken in a big city like New York and Los Angeles. Delicious baked chicken. Corn, bananas, etc.

 

I always wished his hot barely legal teenage daughter would wander into our yard.  

 

Kobo.

[Lu]

I always wished his hot barely legal teenage daughter would wander into our yard.

Ehm, what?? There are plenty of websites for perving on young women, is there really a need to do it here?

[liuzhou]

 

or car port as they call it in Britain

 

I have been British for a very long time and have never heard anyone refer to a "car port".

 

 

peanuts (or groundnuts as they're called in the UK

 

No. We call them peanuts.

[hedwards]

Slightly OT, but I thought carports were an American innovation for those times when you want the car to be covered so that you don't get wet on the way from the car to the house, but don't need the sides of a garage.

[Angelina]

Kobo was joking because of the word aubergine. Interesting sense of humor. 

[roddy]

I can't. Who can help me translate? I just need the address.

In the photo with the blue sign of the shop, does it says the address? Maybe i can take a photo of the image and show it to a taxi driver.

 

Ok, apparently I was wrong, if you ask for help you don't get help, you get a string of irrelevant and off-topic posts. Gerri? Kobo? Liuzhou? Hedwards? Lu? Angelina? No interest in helping Xuanwu?

 

Maybe too late, but...

 

There's no address on that sign, but the picture of the big market is the 中蔬大森林花卉市场, then the shop with the blue sign is the 作物所科技开发部 - hope the Google Map links work and are useful. Looks like they're walking distance from Weigongcun subway station on line 4. Both of those are on the same street and I'd wager there are similar shops nearby. Should be an adventure anyway. 

[Angelina]

I don't know, I have heard about GMOs in China and I didn't want to know more about it because I thought I might panic and leave China. Unless I know something has not been genetically modified, I won't be importing it. It's probably only rice that has been genetically modified, but who knows. 

 

Maybe OP can share her/his experience with us.