Bustling Tet flower market

(Baonghean) - The Lunar New Year is only a matter of days away, and the spring atmosphere is everywhere. Flower and ornamental plant shops serving the Lunar New Year have appeared with a variety of flowers and ornamental plants, rich in variety and brilliant in color.

Taking advantage of the day off, Mr. Ngo Huu Quan, Xuan Hung hamlet (Hung Loc commune) happily visited the tree market and said: "Usually my family buys flowers and ornamental plants right before Tet, but this year I bought them earlier to have time to take care of them and prune them, first to enjoy my old age, and then to decorate the house. This year, I have welcomed 72 springs, now it's different from before, not only to celebrate Tet but also to take a break from Tet, to play Tet; spring must have flowers, fruits, and green buds to feel the youthfulness and vitality of spring".

The flower and ornamental plant market has begun to bustle.

One of the busiest places to buy and sell flowers and ornamental plants today is along Lenin Avenue (Vinh City). For a long time, this route has become a meeting place for gardeners inside and outside the province to display and serve the hobby of city residents. According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh - owner of Vinh Thanh flower shop, the market is not yet bustling, customers mainly go to the market to look, choose, and explore the prices, to buy closer to the day to celebrate Tet. However, 2 months ago, she displayed all kinds of plants to create relationships and introduce products with the hope that during Tet, many customers will know about her shop.

Besides selling, she also hangs her phone number on the tree stumps to make it convenient for customers to contact her to buy or rent trees. "In the past, ornamental plants were rare and expensive, and plant enthusiasts often went to the garden to buy beautiful, satisfactory plants at high prices. In recent years, the ornamental plant market has been quiet, and plant prices have been low, so my family has switched to growing mini plants that are suitable for small areas and the budgets of most buyers. For flowers, prices range from 50,000 to 300,000 VND/plant; mini ornamental plants cost 500,000 to 700,000 VND/plant. This year in particular, the market has seen the appearance of a type of chrysanthemum that is very popular with customers. This type of flower has many meanings because it only blooms right on Tet, lasts a long time, and has a strange name, so many people, especially young people, really like it. Chrysanthemum has many different colors and is grown in clumps in small pots, suitable for tables and decorating windows in rooms," - Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh shared.

At this time, traditional flower and ornamental plant shops and streets are filled with colors, diverse in designs and unique in style. Some shops also display unique and rare plants that even the owners only know a little about their origin and exact name. However, according to many shop owners, it is because of their strangeness that many customers are interested. Visiting the Linh Lan flower and ornamental plant garden of Mr. Nguyen Van Dung (on Le Nin Avenue), although there are no peach or apricot trees yet, the spring here is still bright with hundreds of orchid baskets hanging on steel trellises, lush green leaves full of vitality and pots of mai dia thao, mai chi thien, coconut flowers... lined up in straight rows. From the "common" orchids such as orchids with incubator lids, lipsticks, wine gourds, black ash to grafted orchids with strange shapes and colors such as ground orchids, general orchids, phalaenopsis, van da, Spanish golden eyes, and lantern orchids...

However, this year, the source of orchids supplied to the market is mainly from abroad, domestic orchids from Da Lat and Sa Pa are quite absent. Mr. Dung, owner of Linh Lan shop, said: "According to habit, when buying flower pots to display on Tet holiday, customers often choose the whole pair, to place on the balcony, in front of the porch or on both sides of the entrance, usually gerbera daisies, marigolds, raspberry chrysanthemums, pink chrysanthemums... Although the flower varieties originating from abroad are diverse in types and rich in colors, the durability and lifespan of the plants are short. When buying this type of flower, customers need to choose carefully to avoid buying "fake" plants and learn how to care for them so they can play for a long time". According to Mr. Dung, the Vinh market this year will not have many Southern yellow apricots because of inflation, prices are much higher than last year, many wholesalers do not dare to "spend a lot" to bring apricots to the North; businesses also have to wait and see the weather situation as well as consumer demand before deciding to buy goods...

The service of renting ornamental plants for Tet has appeared for nearly ten years now, and has been enthusiastically received by customers as the demand for ornamental plants is growing. While the form of buying "outright" plants makes customers have to spend a large amount of money to own them, and can only be kept in the house for a few weeks before being discarded, the service of renting ornamental plants was born, meeting the demand for ornamental plants in a short time with a reasonable amount of money. If in previous years, the main tenants were agencies, businesses, and restaurants, in the past 2 years, many family customers have also sought out this convenient service.

According to the business community, this year's rental price is not higher than last year's despite the increase in labor and seedling prices. However, at this time, there are not many tenants because customers are still wary of the weather. It is not until after December 20 that customers come to choose trees and "pay" money. For many bonsai players, renting bonsai during Tet has many reasons, mainly because the rental price will be much cheaper than the price of buying trees, especially in the context of economic difficulties. With reasonable prices, full range of species, along with many services such as transportation support, care or decoration... In particular, tenants will be consulted on the art of playing with trees, feng shui and if the tree has problems not as committed, the tenant will be warranted, the tree will be replaced without any additional fees, so it is attracting many customers.

Article and photos:Ngoc Anh