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

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

In the central province of Binh Dinh’s An Nhon town, many farmers have broughtyellow apricot blossom trees, a symbol of Tet in the south, along the NationalHighway 1A and inter-communal roads for sale. Many traders have rushed into thetown 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 2,500apricot 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 warmand sunny, creating favorable condition for the development of apricot treesand promising a bumper season.

Che Anh Huy, an officer in charge of agriculture in Nhon An commune said about1,500 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 plantswould help them have a bumper harvest.

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

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

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

Nguyen Van Tuyen, Vice Chairman of the Hop Ly commune People’s Committee, saidup 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 rainfalloccurred last December, local farmers have fallen into crisis when hundreds ofhectares of flowers were submerged and got disease that wilted the leaves andshrunk the roots.

Mai Van Hung, farmer in Thang Binh district’s Ngoc Son Dong village said he hadplanted 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 areaof more than 10 hectares. All the area had flooded.
Nguyen Ba, Chairman of the Binh Trieu commune People’s Committee, saidthere 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 BenTre.

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

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

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

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