Taichung resident Ho Yang-hsiu (何陽修) owns a collection of more than 3,000 succulent plants at his 2,500-ping (8,260m2) garden in Sinshe District (新社).
The 58-year-old, who graduated with a degree in horticulture and landscape architecture from National Taiwan University and worked at the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Seed Improvement and Propagation Station in Sinshe until his retirement in 2005, said that he has been collecting succulents since he worked for the council.
“Succulent plants are attractive to botanical collectors because they are hardy, small and diverse with a wide variety of forms,” Ho said, adding that he is among the first group of collectors of succulents in Taiwan and that he is responsible for the creation of several new breeds.
Photo: Ou Su-mei, Taipei Times
His garden is named “The Dreamer” and in addition to its large cacti and smaller succulents, it also contains many specimens of woody plants and once boasted a complete collection of all 18 species of staghorn ferns, Ho said.
However, his post-retirement activities — such as starting a hostel and a coffee plantation — did not leave him with a lot of time to care for the ferns and many withered in Taichung’s hot climate, with the unfortunate result that gaps now exist in his fern collection, he said.
He chose Sinshe to live in after retiring because he had become used to living in mountainous areas working at the station, Ho said, adding he and his wife never used hired help for the plants in his greenhouses and gardens, planting and caring for them by themselves.
“The plants at the seed improvement station are exclusively economic crops, while my own succulents are purely for my own enjoyment,” Ho said.
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