In the golden autumn season, villagers in Fuxing Village, Yuanbao Township, Lichuan City, are busy picking roxburgh roses in the fields, carrying buckets and wearing gloves as golden fruit drops into the buckets and quickly fills them more than half full.

Among the thorny branches, plump fruit bends the stems low.

This year, Lichuan Yinhe Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. planted 60 mu of roxburgh roses in Fuxing Village, starting purchases and picking in early September and staying busy until November.

Company head Huang Qiongfang said, "The fruit quality is very good this year, with most fruit over 4 centimeters, larger than last year. Although output fell somewhat due to weather, total production is still expected to be around 60,000 jin, with revenue of about 100,000 yuan."

Growing roxburgh roses makes management the main task. Workers at the base often prune the trees, keep strong branches, and control the number of fruit set. Too much fruit cannot be retained because nutrients cannot keep up, so the fruit will not grow large and the taste will be poor. Only by being willing to thin fruit and prune can good fruit be produced.

To ensure freshness, growers adopt order-based picking, harvesting only as much as customers want and shipping the same day it is picked. Fruit does not pile up, and customers feel reassured.

There is no worry about sales channels for fresh roxburgh rose fruit either. In addition to local sales in Lichuan and surrounding counties and cities such as Enshi, Laifeng, and Hefeng, the fruit is also sent to Wuhan, Chongqing, Zhejiang, and other places.

The wholesale price is 3.5 yuan per jin, and retail can reach 5 to 6 yuan per jin.

Roxburgh roses can be used to make wine and also to make roxburgh rose fruit tea. They have a wide range of uses, and market demand is stable.

Huang Qiongfang said sales channels mainly rely on introductions from acquaintances and repeat customers, and customers have a high level of trust in them.

During the busiest part of the picking period, the base hires about ten workers. Wu Chengyong, a villager from Group 1 of Fuxing Village, is one of them.

He said, "Now that I am older, it is not easy to find work outside. Doing odd jobs at the roxburgh rose base at my doorstep, I can earn one to two thousand yuan in two or three months. While earning money, I can also care for the elderly at home, and life feels very comfortable."

From a wild fruit in the mountains to a "golden fruit" that increases villagers' income, the roxburgh rose industry in Fuxing Village is growing step by step. Quality has improved, sales channels have opened up, and villagers' wallets have also grown fuller.

This tiny roxburgh rose not only gives growers something to look forward to, but also helps more villagers find work at their doorstep.

Now, golden roxburgh roses hang all over the branches, and the picking period still has more than two months to go. The busyness of this season is brewing another bumper harvest year.