Stephen F. Austin State University

Dr. Dave Creech, director of the Stephen F. Austin State University Mast Arboretum, is no stranger to China. After all, he's been traveling from Houston to Shanghai once or twice per year since 2001. He's quick to say, he's not about to stop now.

Creech's work in China includes myriad activities, but hes most enthusiastic when talking about his collaboration with Professor Yin Yunlong at the Nanjing Botanical Garden and Zhang Xi He, businessman and owner of Yong Feng Nurseries, near Ninghai. Yong Feng is at the forefront in introducing new and improved landscape plants in southeastern China. One of the plants that has made a big impact in China is baldcypress.

The fact that China has been breeding, selecting, and backcrossing superior baldcypress parents since the 1960s is more than just a bit ironic, Creech said. After all, this is a native American tree, and weve never really exploited the potential here in the United States for genetic improvement through breeding. Instead, the Chinese are doing it and doing it well.

On his most recent trip, June 9 through 23, Creech invited two American nurserymen to travel with him. Their goal was to tour the nursery industry in two regions of southeast China, present seminars to grower groups, and study opportunities for exchanging germ plasm and technology through formal relationships. Mike Richards of Live Oak Gardens, a nursery near New Iberia, La., and Kevin Van Dyke, president of Skinners Nursery based in Florida, were each given a rare look into the dynamics of a horticulture world much different from the United States, Creech said.

Mike and Kevin came away impressed and excited about the size, growth, and spirit of the Chinese nursery world, Creech said.

China's nursery industry is huge. In northern Jiangsu province alone, there is a nursery zone that takes in more than 40,000 acres. Hangzhou has the same. Nursery products - mostly trees and shrubs - find a ready market ... But its different than our own.

Instead of selling to retailers, landscapers, and agencies, Creech said Chinese nurserymen bid on numerous government planting projects.

China's central and provincial governments are intent on the greening of the country, and that effort is obvious to the eye, he said. Remember, this is a country with a trillion dollar surplus and a steamy growth rate, and, to their credit, theyre spending billions to build forests along every highway, road, canal, railroad track, and coastal dike, and new and refurbished parks are common everywhere.