Florists and New Perspectives

It can be affirmed that after Vinh City, many localities such as Thai Hoa and Do Luong are now not far behind in the hobby of bonsai. Mr. Pham Dinh Thanh in block 8, Do Luong town, a retired soldier, has also confided his burning passion for bonsai for decades. His house, located deep in a small alley, is even more splendid because of nearly 100 bonsai trees in the garden. His bonsai collection includes Loc Mung, Sanh, Da Lieu, Can Thang... Many Loc Mung trees are quite beautiful, with balanced shapes and according to him, they are not less than 30 million VND, the smallest trees are also a few million VND.

Mr. Tran Sy Ngoc's chrysanthemum garden. Photo: Nguyen Minh Thao

The Ornamental Plant Association of Do Luong town has a garden area of ​​over 2,000 m2 and owns over 200 ornamental plants and thousands of seedlings. The garden is assigned by the Association to 4 member households. Mr. Tran Duc Quang - Chairman of the Ornamental Plant Association of Do Luong town said that many trees in the garden are worth hundreds of millions of VND. Members not only satisfy their passion for ornamental plants but also have a significant income of 20 to 40 million VND/year. The chairman himself has a collection of 5 Sanh trees, worth hundreds of millions of VND.

At An Luong farm production and service enterprise, this spring, the rubber nursery has nearly 10,000 trees that are 1 year old, now grafted and ready to plant rubber for the spring season to supply the markets of Nghia Dan, Anh Son, Quy Hop. Nearly 1,000 pepper nursery pots, nearly 6,000 neem trees, seasonal flowers, and ornamental plants are also at the age of sale. The enterprise has just contributed a large number of ornamental plants such as king areca, white areca, and purple bauhinia flowers to beautify the green garden urban area in the South of Do Luong town with a total value of hundreds of millions of VND.

Bonsai hobby is an elegant and literary hobby. It is a hobby of those who love beauty, contributing to beautifying family and social life, protecting the ecological environment, protecting cultural works. Unlike before, the passion for bonsai has come to both rich and poor people, people of working age and even people past working age.

When the majority of people's lives are full, food and clothing are no longer a concern, and especially when Thai Hoa has entered the second year of celebrating Tet since becoming a town, playing with flowers has become a cultural feature of the people of the mountain town, so some people think that "no business, no wealth" is the fastest way to provide Tet flower services.

However, in recent years, besides flower service providers, many gardeners have realized that opening a flower growing and ornamental plant growing business is a sure and sustainable way to welcome urbanization. If at one time people only thought of imported flowers from other provinces such as Nhat Tan peach blossoms, Ha Tay kumquats, Nam Dinh or even yellow apricot blossoms from the South, now mountain peach blossoms, gerberas, chrysanthemums... grown in villages near Thai Hoa town are increasingly popular, for the majority of consumers, it may be because the price is more affordable than service flowers and they can be bought in the garden, customers can choose freely. For producers, there are always fresh flowers not only for Tet but also for full moon days, first days of every month, birthdays, opening ceremonies of restaurants, hotels, companies... where there is demand, there is supply. According to the gardening association, Thai Hoa now has a few dozen people working with flowers, but in terms of seniority, there are very few, one of them is Mr. Tran Si Ngoc in Nghia Thuan, a place considered to be the first to introduce vegetables and flowers into the winter crop structure with high economic value. Mr. Ngoc has spent 10 years growing flowers by exploring and learning, to find a suitable and sustainable way for himself. A few years ago, he only specialized in bringing out Da Lat chrysanthemums, the seedlings bought were planted at the end of September, investing in care and calculating every day, there was joy and anticipation but also anxiety because there could be a big harvest but also a big loss. 2006 was a successful year compared to previous years, he earned nearly 100 million VND but in 2008, with 150,000 chrysanthemums, only 60,000 were sold, earning only 28 million VND because the flowers did not bloom as he wanted, the reason is that the climate of Da Lat is different from Thai Hoa in winter, on the contrary, the weather in the North is closer to the conditions here and flower growers today mainly rely on natural conditions, unable to apply scientific advances to flower growing like in Da Lat. From that idea, he changed direction to bring flowers from the West to Hanoi, in 100,000 chrysanthemum seedlings, more than 20,000 are large chrysanthemums, this type is popular in the market, in addition there are 7-color chrysanthemums.

Flower growers also realize a very basic thing, that is, to grow flowers for economic purposes, experience is not enough, but must have scientific knowledge from choosing varieties, determining planting season, fertilizer type, using growth stimulants and making flowers bloom when desired... A new thing for Mr. Ngoc is to research the market, to always monitor information about flower types, prices at each time, especially to link production with relationships with agents such as Quynh Luu, Dien Chau... He said "then the flower growing profession must also link 3, 4 houses like other agricultural products.

Luong Mai - Le Dinh