'Picking' wild plants in the forest to 'train body shape, color coordination' to earn 700 million/year

Come to Dong Ghe village, Quan Son commune, Chi Lang district (Lang Son) to visit Mr. Mao's house with the most beautiful house in the region with a series of diverse bonsai trees, many unique and strange shapes and a garden of five-color flowers and roses blooming brilliantly.

Mr. Mao's five-color garden is blooming brilliantly.

Taking us to visit the garden, he said: In the past, I often went to the forest and saw many strange and beautiful trees, so I kept picking them up to plant at home to beautify the door and house. In 2016, many people passing by kept praising their beauty, and my children often took pictures and posted them on Facebook, so many people knew about them and came to buy them.

Realizing its economic value, I then switched to caring for and selling this type of ornamental plant. First, I planted five-color plants brought from the forest. After a period of care, I bought Thai five-color flower varieties with many colors such as purple, white, red, etc. and grafted them onto wild five-color flower plants.

The flowers are very beautiful when blooming, bright with many colors on the same tree. "The reason for grafting the Thai five-color tree is because the Thai five-color flower has many colors, many flowers but few fruits, so the flowers often bloom for a long time and bloom all year round. Therefore, grafted five-color flower trees are very popular," Mr. Mao explained.

Mr. Ly Van Mao next to the garden of five-color flowers grafted from Thai varieties on wild five-color trees he picked from the forest.

"At the end of 2017, while going to the forest, I accidentally saw a climbing plant with thorns that looked a bit like a domestic rose, which looked very beautiful, so I dug up the roots and brought them home to plant. Realizing that this flower variety was very similar to wild roses, I researched and bought many varieties of old Da Lat roses, old Sa Pa roses... and foreign roses grafted on that wild rose tree. After a while, the tree bloomed and looked very beautiful, many people knew about it and bought this type of flower to plant. In particular, this type of grafted rose is very healthy and suitable for the climate...".

Mr. Mao said: For the average five-color flower, he sells it for 500,000-700,000 VND/tree, the most expensive tree he sells for 7 million/tree. As for grafted wild rose trees, ruoi trees... many trees he sells for 10-15 million/tree. "For this ornamental plant item, there is no fixed price, it is infinite. People who see the beauty in that tree will pay a high price. Each tree has a different shape, each beauty, so the price is different, depending on each eye..." Mr. Mao analyzed.

In nature, the five-color flower has only one color, but when he brought it home, he grafted a Thai five-color flower plant onto it to create a five-color plant with multi-colored flowers.

According to many years of experience in making flowers and bonsai, Mr. Mao said: "To have a beautiful bonsai, the most important thing is the eye of the person who made the tree. Because right from the forest, the tree must have a shape, a beauty that the person who found it can see its beauty. When bringing it home, you must know how to take care of it, have knowledge about bonsai and grafting, from there create the shape and graft so that the tree not only has a beautiful shape but also beautiful flowers, in general, it must be beautiful overall, the more unique and beautiful the shape of the tree, the more valuable it is...".

Most of the flowers and ornamental plants in Mr. Mao's house are taken from the forest, exploited in the wild, sometimes bought from local people, so it doesn't cost much capital, just takes time and effort... Once brought home, he has to spend time taking care of them and researching how to shape them to have the most beautiful tree. On average, his house earns about 800 million VND a year, after deducting expenses, he pockets about 700 million VND/year. "That said, to have a beautiful, valuable ornamental plant, it takes 5-7 years of care, shaping, having an eye, passion and understanding of ornamental plants..." Mr. Mao said.

Mr. Mao next to a special mulberry tree that he grafted, shaped and bore lots of fruit.

Mr. Mao confided: "You have to be truly passionate to do this bonsai profession. The person doing it can be likened to an artist, who must see the beauty and shape of the tree right from when it is still in the forest. At the same time, he must have a good understanding of bonsai and grafting techniques. When he brings it home, the person doing it will shape, bend or graft the branches to get a beautiful, unique and strange tree.

Currently, in Mr. Ly Van Mao's garden, there are a variety of trees such as five-color trees, fig trees, guava trees, custard apple trees, grapefruit trees, strawberries... All of these bonsai trees have beautiful and unique shapes that many customers inside and outside the province often visit to admire and contemplate as well as to establish buying and selling relationships...