Flower Market Road

This guide to Flower Market Road in Hong Kong walks through the predawn wholesale trade that runs long before the shops open: farmers from the New Territories driving in from midnight, unloading gladioli and lilies onto the pavement, and a counting custom left over from foreign buyers who once set the terms. It traces how the dwindling number of working flower farms compete against cheaper mainland imports, and why old customers still return before Lunar New Year. Look at the buckets crowding the doorways as you walk the street the farmers left hours before you arrived.