QiuXia Chen

Dümmen Orange

Product manager potted plants and trial manager

What 3-4 professional and/or personal accomplishments are you most proud of?

• Established the trial department that streamlined the trial process within the company by creating protocols for different team members, improving communications between departments and centralizing trial data and photos
• Launched IT solutions for internal variety data management and trial management
• Introduced Intrinsa breeding in garden mum varieties that provides disease resistance for growers and consumers

What led you to work in the horticulture industry?

• When I was in high school, I led the efforts to renovate an out-of-service greenhouse located on the rooftop of my school. After the renovations, we grew tomatoes and succulents among other early season crops. That experience led me to explore an interest in the horticulture industry.

What’s the best thing about your job? 

• Problem solving

Describe to a 6-year-old what you do in life?

• I pick pretty looking flowers that will grow well and last a long time so that everyone can enjoy them.

What are your favorite hobbies? 

• Spending time with my dogs and cats
• Cooking and baking for my family and friends
• Learning a new skill like ASL
• Woodworking
• Playing the ukulele

When you’re not working, what are two to three things we could find you doing?

• Snuggling with my dogs and cats on the couch or soaking in the sun on the deck
• Hiking with my dogs at different state parks
• Crocheting amigurumi creatures or blankets as gifts to family and friends

Do you have any unusual talents, or can you tell us something interesting about yourself that other people may be surprised to find out?

• I can converse in three languages. Besides English, Cantonese is my other native tongue. I speak this frequently with my family and friends back in New York City, although I cannot read or write in Chinese. Additionally, my second undergraduate major was in Spanish.
• I studied abroad in Costa Rica for six months where I was immersed in the language and culture. It’s a running joke that I am more literate in Spanish than I am in Chinese.

One thing you can’t live without? 

• A good hair tie!

What are you (un)secretly good at?

• Folding origami animals and models

What are your top three bucket list items?

• Travel the world
• Run a marathon
• Dip my feet in all five oceans and 50 seas around the world

What’s your favorite plant variety and why?

• Snow crocus ‘Orange Monarch’ is one of my favorite landscape bulbs because I love seeing the flowers bloom in late winter/early spring that signifies the landscape coming back to life.

You’re buying a vacation package to anywhere in the world without a budget, where are you going?

• Around the world tour, or a tour-the-world cruise so that I can visit new places to learn the culture and taste different foods.