With only less than three weeks to go to the Tet holiday, gardeners inHanoi's Nhat Tan and Phu Thuong flower villages are doing the finalpruning on their peach blossom trees as this year's favourable weatherconditions have ensured blossoms at just the right time.
"Theweather so far this year has been much better than last year, morehumid, slightly more rain and less sunshine," said 55-year-old Do ThiMai, who has been growing peach blossom trees in Phu Thuong Village, TayHo District for the past 15 years.
Phu Thuong is just one of thecapital's flower villages that has been affected by urbanisation andthe construction of new villas and urban areas. Years ago, there werethousands of households growing peach blossom trees, according to manyelders. Now, that number has dwindled significantly.
Despite thechanges, there are still households that depend on growing peach blossomtrees for their entire year's income, such as Mai whose garden coversmore than 2,000 square meters.
At this time last year, herflowers did not fully blossom even as Tet was approaching due to thecolder weather, she says, but this year's weather is facilitating "theright amount" of blossoms.
In November, the gardeners startedpruning their trees to encourage more buds. From now until tree salesbegin, which is usually after December 15 on the lunar calendar, theyalso cut out withered early blossoms to spur fresh growth.
Mostbelieve prices can be higher than last year due to rising input costsand the higher salaries for temporary labourers. However, while mostgardeners are forecasting a booming season, they also said that it canbe much harder to sell and rent out trees that fall in the higher pricerange.
Nguyen Van Duong, another grower in Phu Thuong Village,expects prices to increase by about 5-10 percent over last year. "Theflowers this year are definitely better looking," he says. "Since theprices for everything is increasing, we think the price for peachblossom trees will also increase but not by too much."
In NhatTan Village, Nguyen Van Chien's garden boasts thousands of peach blossomtrees, some of which have been growing for nearly a dozen years.
"Thiskind of cold weather, 14-18 degrees Celsius, is perfect. The flowerswill maintain their deep pink colour. Without the cold weather, thecolour of the flowers could turn insipid due to greater exposure to thesunshine," Chien says.
He says even with higher input costs, theprices of most trees in his garden will be in the 7-9 million VND(330-430 USD) range, with the highest coming in at around 14 millionVNA(670 USD).
Nguyen Quoc Hoa, another Nhat Tan tree farmer, alsopredicts an increase in prices. His clientele is primarily made up oflong-time customers. Hoa notes that for farmers in the business, it isnot necessary to sell their entire crop since they will keep some rootsto grow new trees which will be ready to sell or rent out in another twoor three years.
"Two years ago, the period leading up to Tet wasas hot as summer and last year it was quite cold, which prevented theflowers from blooming," he says. "With this weather and the longer Tetholiday, we're expecting a great season."/.
"Theweather so far this year has been much better than last year, morehumid, slightly more rain and less sunshine," said 55-year-old Do ThiMai, who has been growing peach blossom trees in Phu Thuong Village, TayHo District for the past 15 years.
Phu Thuong is just one of thecapital's flower villages that has been affected by urbanisation andthe construction of new villas and urban areas. Years ago, there werethousands of households growing peach blossom trees, according to manyelders. Now, that number has dwindled significantly.
Despite thechanges, there are still households that depend on growing peach blossomtrees for their entire year's income, such as Mai whose garden coversmore than 2,000 square meters.
At this time last year, herflowers did not fully blossom even as Tet was approaching due to thecolder weather, she says, but this year's weather is facilitating "theright amount" of blossoms.
In November, the gardeners startedpruning their trees to encourage more buds. From now until tree salesbegin, which is usually after December 15 on the lunar calendar, theyalso cut out withered early blossoms to spur fresh growth.
Mostbelieve prices can be higher than last year due to rising input costsand the higher salaries for temporary labourers. However, while mostgardeners are forecasting a booming season, they also said that it canbe much harder to sell and rent out trees that fall in the higher pricerange.
Nguyen Van Duong, another grower in Phu Thuong Village,expects prices to increase by about 5-10 percent over last year. "Theflowers this year are definitely better looking," he says. "Since theprices for everything is increasing, we think the price for peachblossom trees will also increase but not by too much."
In NhatTan Village, Nguyen Van Chien's garden boasts thousands of peach blossomtrees, some of which have been growing for nearly a dozen years.
"Thiskind of cold weather, 14-18 degrees Celsius, is perfect. The flowerswill maintain their deep pink colour. Without the cold weather, thecolour of the flowers could turn insipid due to greater exposure to thesunshine," Chien says.
He says even with higher input costs, theprices of most trees in his garden will be in the 7-9 million VND(330-430 USD) range, with the highest coming in at around 14 millionVNA(670 USD).
Nguyen Quoc Hoa, another Nhat Tan tree farmer, alsopredicts an increase in prices. His clientele is primarily made up oflong-time customers. Hoa notes that for farmers in the business, it isnot necessary to sell their entire crop since they will keep some rootsto grow new trees which will be ready to sell or rent out in another twoor three years.
"Two years ago, the period leading up to Tet wasas hot as summer and last year it was quite cold, which prevented theflowers from blooming," he says. "With this weather and the longer Tetholiday, we're expecting a great season."/.
