Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Farmers growing flowers and ornamental trees for Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday in many provinces are waiting for a bumper crop this year.

Some are happy with their gardens, promising a profitable income while the others are facing a poor season due to unusual weather.  

In the central province of Binh Dinh’s An Nhon town, many farmers have brought yellow apricot blossom trees, a symbol of Tet in the south, along the National Highway 1A and inter-communal roads for sale. Many traders have rushed into the town to purchase the trees.

Nguyen Ngoc Hai, farmer in Trung Dinh village in An Nhon town told Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper he expected to sell more than 1,000 out of 2,500 apricot blossom pots this Tet.

He has sold more than 700 pots to traders so far.

Hai said the weather this year did not bring much rainfall and was quite warm and sunny, creating favorable condition for the development of apricot trees and promising a bumper season.

Che Anh Huy, an officer in charge of agriculture in Nhon An commune said about 1,500 apricot growing households would supply two million pots to the market, earning profits of about 30 billion VND (1.29 million USD).

The busy trading of flowers has also occurred at the flower villages of Lung, Kieu Trung, Dang Cuong and Hong Thai in the northern city of Hai Phong.

Farmers said the good weather and skillful cultivation of ornamental plants would help them have a bumper harvest.

Bui Van Long, flower grower in Dang Hai ward, said the warm weather would help the flowers bloom beautifully. In case it turned to be colder in the lunar New Year, the flowers would be more expensive.
Meanwhile, the centre of ornamental kumquat trees – which are considered the auspicious tree of the new year in the north – such as Hop Tien and Hop Ly communes in the central province of Thanh Hoa are facing a poor season due to bad weather.

There are about 60 hectare of kumquat trees in Hop Ly commune, bringing about 30 billion VND for local people on average. However, this year was not a lucky one.

Cu Van Son, farmer in Dong Thanh village said his 2,000 sq.m garden of kumquat trees helped him earn about 120 million VND (5,160 USD), but this year the trees brought less fruits or even no fruits at all.

Nguyen Van Tuyen, Vice Chairman of the Hop Ly commune People’s Committee, said up to 60 percent of total cultivated area of kumquat trees did not grow.

Many gardens looked quite gloomy as the trees were left without caring, he said.
In the central province of Quang Nam, where the unseasonal heavy rainfall occurred last December, local farmers have fallen into crisis when hundreds of hectares of flowers were submerged and got disease that wilted the leaves and shrunk the roots.

Mai Van Hung, farmer in Thang Binh district’s Ngoc Son Dong village said he had planted 5,600 daisy pots.

When the trees were 20 days old, they were all submerged due to heavy rainfall.

Hung said the whole commune had about 20 flower growing households with an area of more than 10 hectares. All the area had flooded.
Nguyen Ba, Chairman of the Binh Trieu commune People’s Committee, said there were 70 hectares of vegetable and flowers in the commune damaged.

Heavy rain is also the reason of a poor harvest in the southern province of Ben Tre.

In Cho Lach district, the kingdom of ornamental flowers for Tet, farmers have tried their best to spray the chemicals, cut off rotten trees and yellow leaves to avoid the spreading of the disease to the trees.

Ngo Thanh Tac, farmer in Long Thoi commune, said 30 percent out of 3,000 pots of chrysanthemum morifolium daisies died due to the unusual weather.

Currently, there are now more than 250 households growing yellow apricot blossom with over 6,800 pots. However, due to unusually stormy weather, more than 10 percent of the apricot trees blossom early.

It was likely the price of yellow apricot trees would be higher this year, he said.-VNS/VNA