Nghe An gardeners 'overloaded' with year-end orders
(Baonghean.vn) - In the past five years, the demand for decorating landscapes and gardens to welcome Tet has increased. Therefore, at the end of the year, landscape decorators are always busy and overloaded with orders.
Landscape decorators overloaded with orders
Having been in the flower and ornamental plant business for decades, Ms. Vo Thi Thuy Hang (Kim Phuc hamlet, Nghi An commune, Vinh city) started taking on garden landscape design and decoration services about 5-6 years ago. Since the end of the 10th lunar month, Ms. Hang's team of 10 garden landscape workers has had to work overtime, even until midnight, to deliver to customers on time.
Ms. Hang said: "In addition to the 10 regular workers of the garden, this time, we have to hire 20-30 seasonal workers to keep up with the progress and hand over the project to customers before Tet."
To complete the construction progress, Ms. Hang's team of workers divided into 3 groups, working on 3 different projects. For the past 3 months, they have had to work from 7am to 10pm. In return, the wages these days are quite high, ranging from 400,000-600,000 VND/day.
Mr. Nguyen Van Ba, a contractor specializing in designing and constructing gardens and miniature landscapes in Nghi An commune (Vinh city) said: "Even though we work overtime and hire seasonal workers, we still cannot meet all of our customers' orders. Currently, many projects have to be refused or postponed until after Tet because designing and constructing gardens and miniature landscapes cannot be done carelessly or quickly. In addition to ensuring that the plants grow well and are healthy, they must be beautiful, reasonable, and have their own mark and style."
In addition, on this occasion, coffee shops, restaurants, and shopping centers also decorate with Tet-themed miniature landscapes. Therefore, the demand for hiring florists to arrange and decorate plants increases.
Mr. Pham Viet Duc, owner of a coffee shop on Duy Tan Street (Vinh City), said: "To bring the Tet atmosphere to the shop and create a check-in point for customers, I set up a corner to hire workers from the flower and ornamental plant craft village to decorate the Tet space with pots of chrysanthemums, gladiolus, dahlias, peaches, and kumquats. Although I contacted them at the beginning of the month, they have only just started to come to work now."
Bonsai care profession is busy at the end of the year
Work takes place all year round, but December is always the busiest time for those who take care of and maintain bonsai trees. Running from one commune to another, from one district to another, Mr. Duong Dang Bach, a bonsai caretaker in Nghi An commune (Vinh city) has to run like a shuttle from one commune to another to serve customers.
With a set of tools including knives, scissors, steel wire for bending trees, fertilizers, etc., he and other workers have to travel everywhere to work. “The last month of the year is full. Customers from far away districts go for 3-5 days, and only return after finishing the care. Working at night and through the afternoon is normal,” said Mr. Bach.
Near Tet, flower and ornamental plant craft villages such as Kim Phuc, Kim My (Nghi An commune), Trung Lien (Nghi Lien commune)... are not only busy with the Tet flower business but also very busy with the work of caring for, pruning, and decorating gardens for customers. In addition to households, agencies and offices also have the need to decorate their premises. Therefore, the craftsmen of the craft villages cannot keep up with the work.
“Offices prune trees, replace them with new ones, and plant new ones; households prune branches, take care of trees, adjust their shape, stimulate buds, and strip leaves so that the flowers bloom in time for Tet. There is a lot of demand from customers, so we work through lunch and even work at night to meet the demand.
Wages are calculated based on the number of trees and the difficulty of care. On average, workers are paid 500,000-700,000 VND in wages,” said Ms. Hoang Thi Binh, a long-time bonsai caretaker in Nghi Lien commune (Vinh city).
The profession of decorating miniature landscapes, taking care of flowers and ornamental plants is considered a “profitable” profession at the end of the year. There are skilled workers, up to the level of artisans, who can easily earn millions of dong every day from cutting and trimming ornamental plants; and skilled workers also have quite high incomes. However, to earn money from this profession is not an easy thing.
Accordingly, the worker must meet the customer's requirements: after care, the tree must be beautiful, have a unique shape, and must flower and sprout on Tet holiday... And especially, during the care process, the tree must not be broken, killed or have the wrong shape, at that time, the worker must compensate the customer.
