HÀ NỘI – Farmers growing flowers and ornamental trees for Tết holidays 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 central Bình Định Province’s An Nhơn Town, many farmers have brought yellow apricot blossom trees, a symbol of Tết 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.

Nguyễn Ngọc Hải, farmer in Trung Định Village in An Nhơn Town told Thanh Niên (Young People) newspaper he expected to sell more than 1,000 out of 2,500 apricot blossom pots this Tết.

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

Hải 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.

Chế Anh Huy, an officer in charge of agriculture in Nhơn An Commune said about 1,500 apricot growing households would supply two million pots to the market, earning profits of about VNĐ30 billion (US$1.29 million).

The busy trading of flowers has also occurred at the flower villages of Lũng, Kiều Trung, Đặng Cương and Hồng Thái in northern Hải Phòng City.

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

Bùi Văn Long, flower grower in Đằng Hải 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.

Lost season

Meanwhile, the centre of ornamental kumquat trees – which are considered the auspicious tree of the new year in the north – such as Hợp Tiến and Hợp Lý communes in central Thanh Hoá Province are facing a poor season due to bad weather.

There are about 60 hectare of kumquat trees in Hợp Lý Commune, bringing about VNĐ30 billion for local people on average. However, this year was not a lucky one.

Cù Văn Sơn, farmer in Đông Thành Village said his garden of 2,000 square-metre kumquat trees helped him earn about VNĐ120 million ($5,160), but this year the trees brought less fruits or even no fruits at all.

Nguyễn Văn Tuyến, vice chairman of Hợp Lý Commune’s People’s Committee said up to 60 per cent 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 central Quảng Nam Province 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 Văn Hùng, farmer in Thăng Bình District’s Ngọc Sơn Đông Village said he had planted 5,600 daisy pots.

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

Hùng said the whole commune had about 20 flower growing households with an area of more than 10 hectares. All the area had flooded.

Nguyễn Ba, chairman of Bình Triều Commune’s 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 southern Bến Tre Province.

In Chợ Lách District, the kingdom of ornamental flowers for Tết, 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.

Ngô Thành Tạc, farmer in Long Thới Commune said 30 per cent 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 per cent of the apricot trees blossom early.

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