Yangjae Flower Market & Citizen’s Forest
Yangjae flower Market is located at 232 Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Please see the end of this blog post for detailed directions.
The sun is shining, the weather is warm and spring is definitely in full bloom here in Seoul. I love to garden and for my first trip without my navigationally gifted husband I decided to check out Yangjae Flower Market.
Yangjae Flower market is the biggest flower market in Korea. So big, it is separated into zones. (Are you noticing a common theme here)? There are wholesale stores, retail stores, and even an auction house. Flowers range from fresh cut, potted to artificial. There are also houseplants, water plants, trees, vegetables, and herbs.
The first zone I went into was the cut flower section. Mother’s day was just around the corner in Korea so streets all around Seoul were lined with little baskets of flower arrangements for sale. Almost every person walking the streets was carrying one of these little arrangements to be brought home for mom.
The fresh cut zone did have some little baskets of flowers but the majority of the arrangements were small to large masterpieces.
The fresh flower section is underground. As you walk in the building you walk down a few flights of stairs before coming to the very cool basement market. The smell of fresh flowers, however, can be smelt from the top of the stairs.
After browsing the beautiful fresh cut flowers I made my way back upstairs to the potted plants. These plants are set up in green houses with a huge variety of stalls selling many different kinds of plants. There were hundreds of species of plants. As I walked through the market, the many sweet smells of flowers and sights of hundreds of unique and beautiful plants almost overwhelmed me.
Something that struck me in particular, was how many beautiful orchids of all sizes, shapes and colors were for sale. They were all extremely beautiful! I had never seen that many orchids in my life.
After walking around for a few hours I finally decided to make my purchases. For the most part, there are no prices listed in the market. Thus came the fun part since I speak almost no Korean at all. I would point to a particular flower and ask how much. The men and women working the particular stand would show me how much on their hands. The money in Korea is called won. Roughly $1.00= 1,000 won. Some people pulled out calculators and showed me the prices on this. The point got across and I was able to figure out how much things cost and successfully by some plants.
I ended up with three daisy plants of different colors, a hanging ivy plant, two small house plants (sorry but I have no idea on names for these ones), two cherry tomato plants, basil, parsley and lemon thyme. We have great big windows, three balconies and a roof deck at our apartment. There is lots of room for plants, so I am very excited to start my small potted garden and have a feeling this wont be my last trip to Yangjae Flower Market. There is only so much one girl can carry on public transportation home, though!
Close to Yangjae Flower market is Yangjae Citizens’ Forest. Prior to going to the market I stopped by the forest. The park was designed for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and has over 70 species of trees. Right outside the entrance to the park there is a bike vending station where you can rent a bike to see the park in its entirety. I only made a small dent in the park during my time here.
I did check out the acupuncture path. It is a small path made of different stones and surfaces that you walk down. The stones are suppose to hit different acupuncture spots in your feet for health benefits. At the end of the path there is a small man made stream where you can soak or wash your feet.
Throughout the park there is also a large variety of sports equipment. This includes basketball and tennis courts, exercise equipment, a roller skating rink and variety of walking paths. If you are in the neighborhood I highly recommend checking out this beautiful park!
hi i like contac you, i have orchid flowers, i can give cheefly ,