Outside of the New Year season, peasant women placed fragrant flowers in their homes to purify the air, or wore them on their heads and hats for decoration. Most of these flowers bloom in summer, such as white champaca, banana shrub and jasmine. The business of picking wild flowers or growing them for sale has been around since ancient times.

19th Century to Japanese Occupation: Formation of the Flower Market

The origins of flower farming in Hong Kong cannot be traced. The 2022 book “Roots, Stems, Leaves and Flowers”is a detailed compendium of the history of the flower market. It describes how there were flower farmers selling flowers on the then Sino-British border (the current Boundary Street area) before the British lease of the New Territories (1898), meaning that local flower farmers have been around for more than 130 years.

In the past, there was not much local demand for flowers. However, after the Qing ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain in 1842 with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking with Britain in 1842, the British introduced a culture of flower appreciation to Hong Kong. It is said that the Chinese name of Lyndhurst Terrace (擺花街), meaning “Flower Display Street”in Sheung Wan comes from the story that men cruising for sex in Central and Sheung Wan would buy flowers for sex workers, so the streets near the brothels were crowded with flower hawkers. 

In 1860, the Qing government ceded Kowloon to the British and the new boundary was set north of Mong Kok. At that time, most of the land in Kowloon consisted of rice, vegetable and livestock farms. As the market demand for flowers increased, many farmers began to use marginal land to grow flowers. They transported the flowers to the border for sale at sunset, gradually forming a market.

During the Japanese occupation, Hong Kong’s industry and commerce came to a complete standstill. There was a severe shortage of food, nevermind flowers. The population of Hong Kong declined drastically as flower farmers along with everyone else fled back to their hometowns. 

Post-war to the 1960s: the Recovery of Flower Market and the Rise of Trade Unions

It was not until after the war that flower farmers returned and started to appear at the Flower Market in early 1946 where the first bunch of gladioli grown in peacetime was sold. 

To protect the interests of the industry, flower farmers established the Hong Kong and Kowloon Flower Industry and Commerce Association to lobby the government for a fixed wholesale market site. In 1947, the government granted them a vacant site at the foot of a hill on Boundary Street (where Fa Hui Park is now located). The Association was responsible for site management and rent collection.

During this period, the Mainland plunged into a civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists, resulting in an influx of refugees, many of whom turned to farming for a living. A large number of farmers settled in the New Territories. The wholesale market site was less than 7,000 square feet, not enough to accommodate all the farmers. The government did not set up a system for the distribution and sale of flowers as it did for vegetables, so flower farmers continued to crowd into the market. The refugees also built many wooden shacks in the area, and in 1955 when a fire broke out in Flower Market Village, the government cleared the squatter area. 

Shortly afterwards, the Association split in two, between the leftist pro-China Hong Kong and Kowloon Flowers and Plants Workers General Union and the rightist pro-Taiwan Hong Kong Flower Shops General Union. The two unions were in constant dispute, while many flower sellers joined neither and continued to hawk their goods in the streets. In 1957, the government closed the wholesale market and redeveloped it, together with the neighbouring Flower Market Village, into the Fa Hui Park. The wholesale flower market was relocated to the area near the Boundary Street railway bridge.

According to farmers, the flower market’s opening hours shifted over the years. It was theoretically managed by the trade unions, though there were also plenty of independent sellers. Their method of wholesale was similar to the present day: market stall owners and florists from all over the city came to the market to bargain directly with the farmers. Sales occurred until 7 a.m., when the farmers would follow their lorries back to the New Territories. Sometimes they would stop on the way for morning tea. In those days, the flowers sold at the market were mainly locally grown, with only a few expensive roses and carnations coming from Singapore and Malaysia. 

In theory, the two labour unions did not allow farmers to unload their goods until 3:00 a.m., posting staff with whistles at the scene to warn them. Lorries parked all the way down Boundary Street for hundreds of metres. However, as relations between the two unions frayed due to opposing politics, this order gradually broke down. Farmers unloaded their goods earlier and earlier, beginning as early as 7:00 or 8:00 p.m., then 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. This resulted in increased raids by law-enforcement.

The 1970s and 1980s: The Departure and Return of Flower Farmers

According to the farmers, when some farmers voluntarily vacated their stalls on what is now Flower Market Road, flower shops started to move in. These merchants were not farmers themselves, but speculatively traded in both local and imported flowers. Some farmers remained at Fa Hui Park near the rail bridge. In the 1970s, the government began to organize the annual Lunar New Year Fair at Fa Hui Park. At first, the fair featured some farmers’ stalls, but as imported flowers became more popular due to their lower cost, local flower farmers faded from the scene. 

By the 1980s, the wholesale street market near the railway bridge had vanished completely. Some flower farmers went into other lines of work, or moved to the mainland to establish their own flower farms. Some stayed in the area with their unions, but became unauthorised street hawkers. Others established a new market far away, near the Tai Po Market Government Offices. However, they often wound up with unsold merchandise that they would then bring to Luen Wo Hui in Fanling to sell. Finally, they gave up and went straight to Luen Wo Hui, which was still thriving at the time, at three o’clock in the morning.  This state of affairs lasted for six to eight years.

In the late 1980s, the introduction of flower refrigeration to Hong Kong attracted a group of speculators to Luen Wo Hui, among them New Year’s fair stall owners and hawkers. Refrigeration allowed them to collect flowers well in advance and bring them out as needed. Some speculators even bought flowers at Luen Wo Hui and resold them at Fa Hui Flower Market at a mark-up. When the farmers realized this, they simply returned to Fa Hui. Fa Hui was Hong Kong’s biggest horticultural trading hub, attracting the largest number of retail and wholesale customers. Its central location made it convenient for buyers from different districts. Therefore, some farmers started gathering once again nearby on Nullah Road.   

However, compared to local farmers who can only sell one or two crops a year, florists at the Flower Market remain open all year round. Locally-grown flowers are not as varied or cheap as imports, and were gradually displaced. In the days leading up to Lunar New Year, florists and farmers compete with each other for unloading space around Flower Market Road, Nullah Road and Prince Edward Road, giving rise to numerous conflicts and clashes. For this brief window of time during which they must earn the bulk of their annual income, farmers have to roam around searching for a space to unload the flowers they worked so hard to grow.  

1990s to Present: On the Verge of Extinction

To prevent conflicts between farmers and florists, in the 1990s the government designated 34 lorry loading and unloading spaces along Nullah Road for farmers’ use. However, as traffic congestion in Mong Kok grew worse and District Councillors’ complaints mounted, the number of parking spaces was first reduced to 18, then cancelled altogether. In 2002, the Plants Workers’ Union managed to persuade the government to let them lease the car park of the Mong Kok Stadium for a “Local Flower Wholesale Market” over the week before Lunar New Year. Participating farmers could drop off their products for sale. This was supposed to be a transitional arrangement with the hope that the government might re-establish a permanent wholesale flower market. 

In recent years, Hong Kong people’s flats have become smaller and smaller. Many families do not have the space to display New Year’s flowers. Besides, as imported flowers became more mainstream, the local flower farming industry declined. Most farmers still engaged in the business are aging, while the younger generation is reluctant to take over. In 2025, there were fewer than 20 farmer stalls left at Mong Kok Stadium market. Some farmers are not union members, and are therefore only able to hawk their goods by the side of the road. So even though the Fa Hui Flower Market grew out of farmers gathering more than 100 years ago, local farmers have been pushed to the margins of this space due to changes in society’s lifestyle and consumption habits. In a few years’ time, they might disappear from the Flower Market altogether. 

(This article is written by contract researcher Ng Cheuk Hang.)

Reference:

Ng H.T.  et al, (Eds.), <根莖葉花──花墟的記憶與想像> (“Root, stem, leave, flower: Memories and Imagination of the Flower Market”), Hong Kong Bookera, 2022.