韓国　多肉めぐり旅　〜2日目・午前〜

Korea succulent tour ~ 2nd day morning ~

Hello!

This is the manager of tawawa.

Here's a look at the second day of my whirlwind succulent-hunting trip to Korea.

For more details, please see the blog post about Day 1 ^ ^

 

* ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ *

 

Monday, May 22, 2023

 

This day's schedule was also quite rushed! lol

 

First, I headed to what is said to be the largest flower market in Korea,

[Yangjae Flower Market]

・Korean: 양재꽃시장 (Yangjae Kkot Sijang)

・Address: 232 Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul (서울특별시 서초구 양재동 232)

・Nearest station: Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station, Shinbundang Line (신분당선)

　　　　4-minute walk from Exit 4

It's a little far from the center of Seoul, but it's about 30 minutes from Seoul Station, including transfers.

 

When you exit from Exit 4 of Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station, you might feel a little uneasy, wondering if there really is a market here. But if you keep walking straight,

you'll suddenly see a colorful building on your right.
This seems to be the building where cut flowers are auctioned.

And next to this colorful building, further past the station,

you'll see greenhouses lined up.

From the colorful building,

 

I crossed the cute flower crosswalk lol

 

Once inside the greenhouse, there are tons of shops lined up.
I briefly live-streamed the inside of this greenhouse, and it's still saved on Instagram Reels, so please take a look if you'd like ♪

There are two greenhouses, each about 50m x 120m. There are many aisles like the one in the photo above, and apparently about 400 stores!

It's a rushed trip, and I wanted to see everything at a leisurely pace, but I just quickly looked around. lol

The shops are not arranged by type; for example, two flower shops of the same kind are not necessarily next to each other.
↑ This shop only sells orchids.

This one has a variety of things.

And as for succulents...

Do you see them?
They were sometimes placed in front of shops like this,

There was one bonsai-style shop,

And about two shops that mainly sold succulents like these ↑↓.

These were all 1000 won (about 105 yen) each ♡︎

Echeveria, Crassula, Aeonium, Sempervivum, Cotyledon... and so on.

And outside the greenhouse,

There were also shops selling pots and gardening supplies.

They also had Korean pots with distinctive feet, though I don't think they were handmade.

Cool.

These are small but look handmade. They have a very handmade feel to them, lol.

Oh. I found soil that's often seen in Japan!

Also large-grained Kanuma soil and akadama. Is it okay to import this kind of soil??

There were many Hyponex products as well~ lol

We still have a long way to go, but here are some bonus photos ↓

Fishbone cactus.

I want this ♡︎

It looks like kombu seaweed, but its name is "fish bone" lol.
And I often saw this in Korean markets. Is it trendy?

After researching it now, I found that this is also a type of succulent, called "peacock cactus" or "centipede cactus," and it can be enjoyed as a hanging plant. ...Oh, now that I see a picture of a large plant, I feel like I've seen it often in Japan too ^^;

 

Plant #1 that might be able to be brought back to Japan as it is, since it's not planted in soil!

Air plants x 2

Plant #2 that might be able to be brought back to Japan as is, since it's not planted in soil!?

Is it some kind of orchid? Sorry, I'm not knowledgeable about it, but this one also has no soil as it's attached to a board or driftwood.

 

There were also some miscellaneous goods, but this market mainly sold potted foliage plants.

 

Next, we took the subway to the second flower market!

 

[Express Bus Terminal Flower Market]

Korean: 서울고속버스터미널 꽃도매상가 (Seoul Gosok Beoseu Teominol Kkot Domesan-ga)

Address: 19-4 Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, Gyeongbu Line Terminal 3F (서울특별시 서초구 반포동 19-4, 경부선터미널 3F)

Nearest station: Express Bus Terminal Station on Subway Lines 3, 7, and 9, Exit 1

 

Above the Express Bus Terminal Station, famous for Seoul's largest underground shopping mall "GotoMall", there is also a flower market.

Exit 1, and look to the right,

you'll see this building. This is the building that houses the Express Bus Terminal.

Enter this entrance,

go right, and then at the first passage, go straight left,

you'll see the information desk. Take the elevator behind it to the 3rd floor.

I asked many people for directions until I got here, lol.


I found the sign too.
The first floor was new and stylish, with a high-speed bus waiting area, ticket counters, cafes, and restaurants. I wondered, "Is there really a flower market here?" but then I took the elevator to the 3rd floor,

And there it was. The flower market!

 

It seems that even general customers can purchase here, but not by the single stem; you have to buy a bunch (7-10 stems).

The flowers are piled up lol.

A huge single floor is entirely a flower market.
Here, too, many small shops are gathered.

The cut flower zone is quite large, but this flower market also has,

Flower wrapping paper and ribbons

Cute ♡

Stickers and other goods

Vases and interior decorations

Lace products

Flower containers

Stylish plant pots

Many affordable pots ♡︎

However, if you wanted to take them back to Japan, the weight...

Unfortunately, the succulents were only ↑ these and

↑ these few ^^;

Also,

Oh my, what a huge pile lol

Cactus jungle~

This and the previous photo are all artificial flowers.

There were quite a lot of artificial flower shops.

"Fairytale~" I thought, walking around like a suspicious Japanese person, laughing to myself.
I felt like I would get lost quickly while walking around and around.

Dried flowers, and

Small goods,

Antique items, and what's that wooden thing in the foreground... a stand??

Summer? Ocean? themed goods.

If you were to look at each one, it would take hours; each small shop space was packed to the brim!!

There were so many shops where I could enjoy myself, muttering and talking to myself, lol.

By the way, some products had prices written on them, and some didn't.

However, since this place also serves as a wholesale market, when I tried asking "How much is this?" in English at several shops other than the cut flower shops, they weren't annoyed, immediately picked up a calculator, and kindly answered me!

 

As a side note, I also went to the flower market in Namdaemun the next day. This Express Bus Terminal Flower Market is much larger than Namdaemun's!
But both are enjoyable ♡︎

 

The morning ended here.

In the afternoon, we'll take a local bus, like the day before, and head to a succulent shop.

 

Half a day, and visits to two markets, have stretched out this long ^^;

I'll take a break here and write about the afternoon in the next blog post!

Please find the Korean Succulent Journey series below.

Back to Visit to South Korea

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