2 1 year-old won the world double champion, and the young man was known as the "Yaochi Fairy".
2 1 year-old won the world double champion, and the young man was known as "Yaochi Fairy". 202 1 World Expo was recently held in Haining, Zhejiang Province, and Jonathan Li, a post-90s youth from Guangdong, became a judge. This horticultural activity has been held for four consecutive years, and Jonathan Li is the youngest judge.
2 1 year-old won the world double champion, and the teenager was praised as "Yaochi Fairy" 1 "My mother said that I might be a Yaochi Fairy and was demoted to the mortal world." Jonathan Li, a Guangdong boy born in 1995, likes water lilies since childhood. /kloc-started to study water lily breeding at the age of 0/0. In recent years, he won two championships, one runner-up and one third runner-up in the World Water Lily Competition. 202 1 World Garden Congress recently opened in Haining, Zhejiang Province, and Jonathan Li, 26, became the youngest judge. Youth is like this, the future can be expected.
Recently, in an interview with Niu Zi, a journalist of Yangzi Evening News, Jonathan Li said, "It is a wonderful thing to do what you like to the extreme. I hope that more people will find what they are interested in and do it according to their own goals. "
2 1 year-old, becoming the first double champion of the World Water Lily Competition in China.
202 1 World Garden Congress was held recently in Haining, Zhejiang, and Jonathan Li, a Guangdong boy born in 1995, became a judge. This horticultural activity has been held for four consecutive years, and Jonathan Li is the youngest judge. Why can he take on such a heavy responsibility at such a young age? Things have to start from 20 16.
In 20 16, the 17th World Water Lily Competition was held by the International Water Lily Waterscape Horticultural Association. Jonathan Li's "Detective Erica" won two medals, the first prize and a new variety of water lily across subgenus. This is the first time that China people have won the prize in this competition.
That year, Jonathan Li was only 2 1 year old. But he has 1 1 year experience in water lily breeding.
Water lilies grow in various lakes and slow-flowing rivers, and their distribution area covers almost the whole world. From the ecological type, water lilies can be divided into two categories: cold-resistant water lilies and tropical water lilies, and divided into five subgenera.
Its heart-shaped green leaves float on the water, its solid roots are buried deep in the ground, and its leaves and stems penetrate the water and bloom charming flowers. The flowers of water lilies are rich in colors and are known as "sleeping beauty among flowers". Water lily has a strong adsorption capacity for nutrients and harmful substances in water, and is an excellent water purification material, so it is widely used in waterscape gardens.
In western civilization, water lilies are regarded as the embodiment of "holiness and pure beauty", which is similar to the status of lotus in China culture. It used to be the source of inspiration for many artists. French impressionist painter Monet created more than 200 water lilies in his later years.
The breeding of water lily started early in western developed countries, and it began to be studied in the middle of19th century.
From 65438 to 0999, Huang Guozhen, a researcher at Wuhan Institute of Botany, China Academy of Sciences, brought back a batch of hybrid water lily seeds from the United States, and selected a batch of excellent strains in early 2000, which filled the gap in this field in China.
Learn water lilies from primary school and save money for lunch to buy seeds.
About four or five years old, Jonathan Li became interested in water lilies. "At that time, there were no water lilies at home, so I don't remember why I liked them. I am interested in all kinds of creatures, including all kinds of plants in the school biological park and fish raised in the pool. I think the child is a blank sheet of paper. What I accidentally came into contact with when I was a child may develop into a lifelong interest. "
My mother's explanation is more poetic: "My mother said that I might be a fairy in Yaochi and was demoted to the mortal world." Many netizens also praised: "Just like the fairy boy in Yaochi, he cultivated immortal varieties." "People plant lotus flowers step by step, and you plant the most beautiful water lily yourself."
When I was in primary school, Jonathan Li began to consider crossing different varieties of water lilies to cultivate new varieties.
It takes a lot of time to study the cultivation of water lilies, and the family was not very supportive at that time. Jonathan Li started a dark war. He likes to go to the library to read flowers, secretly save lunch money, look up information on the internet, order seeds by phone, and transform the rooftop into a small garden. He went to school at 8 o'clock in the morning, and at 6 or 7 o'clock, he quietly climbed onto the rooftop to do farming.
When I was in middle school, a young English teacher came to the school. She is not a water lily lover, but seeing that Jonathan Li is obsessed with cultivating water lilies, she bought him a book about lotus flowers, which is priced near 300 yuan.
In senior high school, a geography teacher organized students to participate in the Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition, found Jonathan Li's interest, and suggested that he take part in the competition. Jonathan Li took part in the competition, and his research paper "Dutch Bowl Hybridization" won the first prize and the second prize of Guangdong in 20 10, which made his interest more intense.
Try to cross nearly a hundred times and cultivate "Detective Erica"
20 13, Jonathan Li trains "Detective Erica". For it, it took six or seven years of hard work.
Erica the Detective belongs to a distant hybrid species, which is a hybrid of tropical water lilies and cold-resistant water lilies. Although they all belong to Nymphaeaceae, they are far apart, similar to the hybridization between lions and tigers.
Distant hybridization faces the obstacle of reproductive isolation, so hybrid varieties are generally not easy to bear fruit, even if they bear fruit, the germination rate or seedling rate is very low. In order to successfully cultivate distant hybrid varieties, it is necessary to repeat hybridization many times, and careful operation is needed in the process of hybridization. After the seeds are successfully obtained, artificial germination is needed, and careful seedling management is needed after germination. After the seeds grow into seedlings and bloom, it is necessary to observe their characters and compare them with other varieties, so as to screen out truly excellent varieties.
Jonathan Li chose different paternal and maternal varieties, tried nearly 100 crosses of various combinations, experienced numerous failures, and finally cultivated "Detective Erica".
"Detective Erica" has the blue-purple color of tropical water lilies, and its plants are cold-resistant and not afraid of cold. The "hybrid" obtained by distant hybridization usually has deformed leaves and petals, but "Detective Erica" has a regular flower shape and a large amount of flowers, which can bloom more than a dozen flowers at the same time, which is five or six times higher than that of conventional water lily varieties.
In 20 16, Erica won the double champion in the World Water Lily Competition.
Richard Sahe, a member of the International Water Lily Waterscape Horticultural Council, said: "Detective Erica spent a lot of money. In the summer of 38 degrees Celsius in Louisiana, the petals will not dry up. Even in the cold Thanksgiving and Christmas, this variety still shines and blooms as always. "
In 20 19, "Jinping Tang" and "Cherry Stick" cultivated in Jonathan Li participated in the World Water Lily Competition, and won the second and third place in the subgenus hybrid water lily group respectively. I participated in the World Water Lily Competition twice, presented three varieties and won four prizes. "I am quite satisfied myself."
International registered new variety 2 1 piece.
Besides cultivating water lilies, cultivating lotus and Zhu Dinghong is also his long-term breeding goal.
Up to this year, Jonathan Li has obtained the international registration of water lily 18 varieties, lotus 1 0 varieties and two new varieties in Zhu Dinghong.
He is still actively trying to promote the commercialization of new varieties. 20 16 Detective Erica has been commercialized. The seeds are sold to Europe, America, Japan, Thailand and China. This beautiful water lily can already be seen in many places at home and abroad. 20 19 award-winning varieties are in the process of commercialization.
From April 27th to May 3rd, World Garden Congress 202 1 was held in Haining, Zhejiang. Jonathan Li was invited to be the judge of new improved varieties. He is also the youngest judge since the establishment of the World Garden Congress. "Because of the lack of land per capita, aquatic plants that need large areas of water are one of the flower varieties rarely used in China. I was invited as a judge this time, indicating that the public and some well-known flower companies began to notice the application prospects of aquatic flowers in China, which I am very happy about. "
Before going to college, Jonathan Li was lonely and basically never met anyone with the same hobbies. But after entering the university, he will meet many "flower friends" through the internet and social media. Four years ago, he and a group of friends set up a garden called "Flower Cube" in Guangzhou.
Today, Jonathan Li works in a garden scenic spot in Foshan, responsible for the conservation and management of aquatic plants, taking into account the cultivation and appreciation of aquatic flowers. On weekends, he will go back to Guangzhou to rest and take care of the plants at home and in the flower cube.
2 1 year-old won the world double champion, and the young man was known as "Yaochi Fairy". He is a college student, but he is the first person to participate in the International Water Lily Variety Competition in China, and won two championships in one fell swoop in the 20 16 International Water Lily Variety Competition, becoming the only double champion of the year, and also the most eye-catching "cow" in the water lily field in China in 20 16.
Jonathan Li, a talented young man.
When interviewed by reporters, Jonathan Li obviously felt that when he was in kindergarten, his grandmother often took him to the pond to play. He saw the pink lotus and colorful water lilies all over the pond, so he especially liked them. When he was in the third grade of primary school, he began to buy some nameless lotus flowers in the local flower market to raise and play. The following year, he first ordered more than a dozen famous lotus and water lily varieties by mail from Nanjing Attachment Garden. In junior high school, he used the living expenses saved and thousands of dollars earned by selling surplus lotus and water lily seedlings on his blog to buy new varieties and discard some old varieties. So far, he has planted more than 90 kinds of water lilies and more than 30 kinds of lotus. "My family lives on the ninth floor. Because there is no elevator, I planted the soil on the roof." Recalling the difficulty of cultivating lotus and water lily, Jonathan Li still remembers it vividly.
Jonathan Li planted water lilies on the roof.
In the interview, the reporter learned that Jonathan Li's biggest hobby is reading books related to plants. Although he had heavy homework in middle school, he always spent most of his weekends reading about plant breeding in the library or bookstore because of his love for lotus and water lilies. In 2007, on his humble balcony, he applied what he had learned and tried to hybrid lotus. In 2007, new lotus varieties such as' Kapok Red' and' Moonlight Song' were successfully selected from dozens of hybrid combinations 10, among which' Moonlight Song' was successfully registered in international authoritative organizations in the same year.
In Jonathan Li's view, the lotus has a large transpiration and needs watering every day, so he gradually shifted his focus to the hybrid breeding of water lilies from 20 1 1, but one or two new varieties of water lilies cultivated in the early days were not satisfactory to him, so he began to hybridize among water lilies. Because subgenus hybridization refers to the hybridization between species belonging to different subgenus, it belongs to distant hybridization, but the success rate is very low for subgenus hybridization of water lilies, so his first batch of distant hybridization of water lilies ended in failure. "Then I searched online for articles about hybrid breeding of water lilies, hoping to find a solution, but in the end I failed." Jonathan Li said.
Detective Erica, who won two prizes in the International Water Lily Variety Competition.
Where there is a will, there is a way. Through unremitting efforts and continuous exploration, Jonathan Li summed up a set of unique hybridization techniques, which made the distant hybridization of water lilies successful. In 20 12, he successfully bred the first batch of subgenus hybrids between subgenus Nymphaea and subgenus brevipetalum in China, which combined the advantages of subgenus Nymphaea with hard petals, cold-resistant tubers and subgenus brevipetalum with rich colors and large flowers. In 20 14 years, he successfully bred the first batch of hybrids between the subgenus Dark Lip and Short Lip in China, which combined the advantages of the subgenus Dark Lip and Short Lip, with rich colors and large flowers. What excites him most is that in the 20 16 international water lily new variety competition, his new water lily variety' Detective Erica' won the subgenus hybrid new variety champion and the annual water lily new variety champion.
Detective Erica, she won two prizes in the International Water Lily Variety Competition.
It is reported that' Detective Erica' bred by Jonathan Li on 20 13 can blossom all year round in Guangzhou. The diameter of potted flowers is about 13 cm, the diameter of pond plants is 25 cm, and there are 27 to 33 petals. It has the characteristics of strong cold resistance, huge flowers, excellent flowering performance, neat and elegant flower shape and no hook petals. He said: "The first time I participated in the International Water Lily New Variety Competition, I won two awards in one fell swoop, which will inspire the breeding enthusiasm and confidence of other water lily breeders in China. In the future, I will register these cultivated varieties with international authorities and participate in the international water lily new variety competition. "
In May this year, Jonathan Li will graduate and leave school soon. At present, research institutions in Beijing and several foreign nurseries have extended olive branches to him, but he still intends to find an internship unit in Guangzhou to accumulate experience while waiting for research institutions or enterprises to cooperate with him or develop new varieties in partnership. At present, Jonathan Li has set up a distributor in the United States, aiming to let water lily lovers all over the world enjoy their new varieties. He said: "No matter whether I engage in plant-related jobs in the future, he will stick to his hobby and continue to cultivate more excellent new varieties."
It is understood that the International Water Lily New Variety Competition is organized by the International Water Lily and Waterscape Garden Association (IWGS) and is the authoritative organization for the international registration of water lily plants. Jonathan Li is the first person in China to participate in the International Water Lily Variety Competition. He became the only annual biathlon champion in the competition and was highly praised by the industry. Ding, vice president of China Lotus Association, lotus breeding expert and chairman of Nanjing Yilianyuan Flower Co., Ltd., said that he prefers young and promising people and keeps in touch with him frequently. He said: "As a young man, it is worth encouraging to achieve so much."
Chen Yuchu, president of Zhejiang Humanities Garden Co., Ltd., commented in an interview: "Our country has cultivated some new varieties of water lilies, but none of them participated in the international competition for new varieties of water lilies. Jonathan Li can become the only annual biathlon champion in this competition, winning glory for the country and making our water lily take a key step towards the world. "