Viet Nam News
HCM CITY — Gardeners in HCM City’s Thu Duc, Go Vap and 12 districts and southern provinces are hoping their hard work will pay off during the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.
"This year, I expect to sell 200 ochna trees and several hundred Vietnamese flowers and plants of different kinds, such as daisies, carnations and roses,” said Nam Can, owner of a 1,100 sq metre-farm in District 12.
“Traditional flowers seem to be increasingly favoured over foreign hybrids. I hope to sell a pot for VND100,000 (US$4.4) to VND150,000 ($7.7), about 10 per cent higher than last year’s price,” he said.
Can’s ochna trees are over a metre high and cost VND2 million ($95) each, while larger ones are VND5 million ($220) to VND10 million ($440).
For Tet, Can and his colleagues invested several hundred million dong in new seeds and other items.
Florist Nam Thanh of Lach Market in Ben Tre Province said: “My farm offers 500 ochna blossom trees at prices ranging from VND1.2 million ($53) to VND2 million per tree. Some old bonsai trees sell for VND30 million ($1,500) and are sold to customers from HCM City and Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces.”
"Because of bad weather, many ochna tree flowers opened before Tet. I hope God will bless our farmers and the remaining blossoms will open on time," he said.
Thanh delivered his flowers and trees on boats to sell at Binh Dong Wharf in District 8 last weekend.
Farmers in Cho Lach District in Ben Tre Province are offering eight million flower pots of different kinds, including foreign hybrids like tulips and lilies, a drop of about 10 per cent compared to last year.
Nguyen Hoang Khuong, who owns a farm in Dong Thap Province’s Sa Dec City, said he had cultivated more than 700 pots of daisies but lost half of them because of bad weather.
He expects to sell the flowers at about VND50,000-80,000 per pot.
"We hope to attract people in HCM City who prefer quality flowers, even if they are expensive," he said.
In HCM City’s September 23 Park in District 1, farmers are offering hundreds of thousands of traditional daisies and sunflowers, and quat (kumquat) and peach blossom trees from Ha Noi and Thai Binh, Hai Phong and Ninh Binh provinces.
“I am selling 200 quat trees at VND1 million for a quality tree and 300 daisy pots at VND80,000 per pot. I will not be sure about my profit until the last day,” said Tran Thi Nga, a farmer in Go Vap Province.
Many flower fairs around HCM City are expected to attract hundreds of local and provincial florists and thousands of residents until the final day of the new year holiday. —VNS