• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.30-36
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• 2014

This study was conducted to determine the causes of unreasonable prices and small numbers of azalea cultivars by analyzing the price trends and the number of azalea cultivars announced over the last 25 years based on data from the Public Procurement Service(PPS), Korea Price Research Center and the Landscaping Tree Association(LTA)(hereinafter, officially announcing agencies and organizations) which are major references used when landscape planting is decided. The prices of azalea cultivars announced by the official announcing agencies and organizations have moved in similar patterns over the past 25 years because the prices of azalea cultivars announced by the LTA were referred to by other official announcing agencies and organizations when they officially announced the prices of azalea cultivars. The PPS set lower officially fixed prices of azalea cultivars compared to other official announcing agencies and organizations, and the reason for this is considered to be the intention of the PPS to suppress landscape tree price increases because of the government's policies to suppress price increases. The prices of azalea cultivars seem to change rapidly due to the imbalance between the demand and supply of azalea cultivars rather than the effects of consumer price fluctuation rates because the production periods of azalea cultivars are shorter when compared to other landscape trees. The prices of azalea cultivars from the official announcing agencies and organizations have been set higher than the prices in actual transactions. The reason for this is considered to be the intention of the official announcing agencies and organizations to allow landscaping companies to cover defect costs resulting from the practice of subcontracting planting work and secure profits of subcontractors for planting work. The official announcing agencies and organizations have simply announced prices of 5~8 main azalea cultivars that have been used in the past. The names of azalea cultivars being cultivated and criteria for classification have not been clear; thus, landscape designers have not written clear names of azalea cultivars to be cultivated on planting drawings as practice and landscapers planted those azalea cultivars which could be easily obtained. Therefore, it is assumed that there has been no demand for new azalea cultivars. Thus, the vicious circle in which the prices of only those azalea cultivars that were produced in the past have been announced is repeated.