Farmers tend ornamental plants they are growing for Tết next month in Bến Tre Province’s Chợ Lách District. — VNA/VNS Photo Huỳnh Phúc Hậu

BẾN TRE — Farmers in Bến Tre Province’s Chợ Lách District are busy growing flowers and ornamental plants for the coming Tết (Lunar New Year) festival, which falls on January 22 next year.

The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta district is the country’s largest producer of flowers and ornamental plants, and has 11 villages with some 6,000 households that grow them.

Trần Minh Mẫn, chairman of the Chợ Lách Ornamental Creature Association, said farmers are planting seedlings of short-term flowers like cockscomb and yellow marigold in pots in preparation for Tết sales.

They are also treating Bougainvillea (known as "paper flowers" in Việt Nam) and chrysanthemum to make them bud, he said.

They are growing mostly traditional Tết flowers such as yellow ochna, paper flowers, chrysanthemum, yellow marigold, and kumquat.

They are also planting ornamental plants of various sizes.

Nguyễn Thị Phúc in Long Thới Commune is growing 3,000 chrysanthemum pots, twice the number as last year, and is treating them to make them bud.

The demand was high last year and supply was inadequate, and so her family grows more this year, she said.

Her large flower pots, measuring 60cm across or more, have been bought out in advance, she said.

Many farmers have increased the number of chrysanthemum pots compared to last Tết, but the output is forecast to be below expectations because of unseasonable rains, she said.

Phạm Văn Màu in Vĩnh Thành Commune said he is cutting the leaves off his 3,500 paper flower plants to stimulate them to bud before Tết.

Besides growing traditional varieties, he also grows five-colour, Indian and other new paper flower varieties, he said.

He is growing 50 plants whose flowers would be large and beautiful, and would sell them at VNĐ15-100 million (US$630-4,200) each, he said.

He is preparing to build a greenhouse to grow paper flowers year round and invest in infrastructure in his farm to offer tourism services, he said.

Last year, farmers earned profits of 40 per cent from flowers and ornamental plants despite COVID-19 and the high prices of inputs.

Chợ Lách is expected to supply a total of 12 million flowering and ornamental plants, four million more than last year, according to its Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Trần Hữu Nghị, deputy head of the bureau, said farmers have been taught new techniques to cope with the unseasonable weather.

Many use greenhouses and efficient irrigation facilities to grow their flowers, reducing costs and increasing incomes, he said.

Besides, they have increased sales of their products on social media and e-commerce platforms, he said.

Farmers in the district have already sold around 60 per cent of all flowers and ornamental plants they are growing to traders and consumers, he added. — VNS