8X earns billions of dong by growing... clean flowers.

While fulfilling her passion for roses, Ms. Hang Karose is also able to earn a decent income by selling products made from roses grown in her garden.

Roses are blooming profusely in Ms. Hang Karose's rose garden.

People grow organic vegetables, we grow organic flowers.

After giving us a tour of her vast rose garden on the hillside, Ms. Hang Karose (Bui Thi Thanh Hang - born in 1980) from Xuan Mai (Chuong My, Hanoi) stopped, picked a few deep red velvet roses, and offered them to us, saying: "Velvet roses are a native rose variety with the most fragrant scent. Especially, these are 100% natural and clean roses, so you can smell them freely without worrying about harmful substances. You can even pick the petals and eat them right here in the garden if you like."

Ms. Hang shared that most people think of clean agriculture as growing clean vegetables, raising clean pigs, raising clean chickens, etc., but for her, the first thing that comes to mind is growing clean roses, because she has loved roses since she was a child.

She confided that she has a passion for natural farming and enjoys collecting and preserving native plant and animal species. She explained that using chemical fertilizers and pesticides would cause harmful substances to seep into the groundwater, polluting the soil, compacting it, and destroying the freshness and purity of the garden. The owner and workers in the garden would be the first to be affected, followed by her customers.

“Thinking that, I decided to grow roses using natural methods, resolutely saying no to chemical fertilizers and pesticides.” The flowers are fertilized with well-rotted manure combined with straw mulch to create humus in the soil. Indeed, the layers of loose, dark, fertile soil could be clearly felt under our feet.

She explained that she controls pests and diseases by diversifying the types of plants in her garden, avoiding monoculture to create a balance in the natural environment, and using natural remedies such as soapberry fruit and garlic wine to repel them. The water used for irrigation is also from a drilled well, not surface water from ponds or lakes.

Every day she harvests about 10kg of rose petals, sometimes up to 20kg if the flowers are in full bloom.

Specifically, around each garden, she built fences and created buffer zones (empty land) to prevent cross-contamination from neighboring gardens (this is a mandatory requirement of organic farming methods).

Thanks to being grown and cared for using natural methods, her flower garden is always in full bloom, filling the air with fragrance, and attracting bees and butterflies.

Earning billions from rose gardens.

Ms. Hang shared that since she was a child, her family had planted a rose garden with hundreds of rose bushes. However, as the garden expanded and she wanted to start a flower business, she hesitated, wondering if growing them solely for selling the flowers would be economically viable.

"I wanted to do something to create added value in agriculture, specifically added value for the roses I grow," she said. While still hesitating about how to do it, a friend suggested she try distilling rose water for skincare.

Every day, Ms. Hang harvests about 10 kg of roses.

"After doing some research, I found that foreign rose water products are quite expensive, whereas the local roses I grow in my garden can absolutely be used to make similar products," she said.

She said that reading foreign literature, she found that red roses are the most suitable type of rose for skincare, even surpassing the famous Damask rose from Bulgaria (which only yields a high amount of essential oil). This made her even more confident in the native rose variety she chose.

Based on that idea, for the past two years, she has focused on developing her rose garden, dedicating all her free time and passion to creating products from the natural roses grown in her garden.

During the trial distillation phase, she had to experiment repeatedly. For example, different rose varieties will produce different scents when distilled, different cooking methods will produce different scents, and different harvesting times will also result in different scents, etc.

After much trial and error, she finally found the perfect recipe that satisfied her customers, making them "addicted" to it.

When she had samples of her rose water tested at various places, she received the same results: her rose water was completely free of heavy metals and pesticide residues, and was not contaminated with fungi or harmful microorganisms. The product was 100% pure, containing no alcohol or any additives or preservatives.

Her production facility has also been certified by the Hanoi Department of Health as meeting the requirements for cosmetic production.

Having achieved success with her rose water product, she continued by making dried rose petals (which can be drunk as tea). This product can help users alleviate concerns about using unregulated rose petal tea products on the market.

On average, she harvests about 10 kg of fresh roses (with stems removed, only the petals) per day. During peak flowering season, she harvests about 20 kg per day. Because the flowers are grown naturally, the quality of the product depends entirely on the quantity of flowers, whether they are in full bloom or dormant. Each month, she sells approximately 2,000 bottles of rose water, generating a revenue of 250 million VND.

According to Vietnamnet