With nearly a month to go before Tet (Lunar New Year), online peach blossom vendors are already enjoying brisk business, especially with the popular “dao huyen” branches. Some sellers have confirmed selling over a thousand branches, weeks before the Lunar New Year.

Dao huyen - also known as weeping peach blossom - is a distinctive Vietnamese style of shaping peach trees so that the trunk and branches cascade over the pot's edge, curving downward in a flowing arc. The silhouette resembles a waterfall, with the branch tips extending lower than the base. Its soft, elegant lines are particularly favored during Tet, symbolizing grace and natural harmony.

Premium branches in this style can fetch anywhere from $40 to $160, depending on size and form.

Recently, online markets have seen a surge in demand for mini dao huyen versions, priced more affordably between $5 and $10 per branch. These smaller branches are ideal for apartment dwellers and compact indoor spaces.

“This year’s peach crop in Nhat Tan is flourishing. The branches are covered in buds and the prices are very reasonable,” said Vu Huyen, a seller based in Tu Liem District, Hanoi.

She shared that her peach branches, carefully selected from gardens in the Nhat Tan area, are priced from $7.60 to $10. “These aren’t pre-cut. Once customers place their orders, I pick and deliver them the next day,” she explained.

For over a week, Huyen has been actively selling via her personal Facebook and in online flower groups. Some customers buy a single branch to showcase the signature “dao huyen” curve. Others buy two and combine them into a “dragon-phoenix” arrangement - a popular floral display for Tet.

On average, she sells 60 to 80 branches per day. On days when she livestreams her visits to the gardens, showing the cutting process in real time, the volume of orders spikes.

“Yesterday morning I went live while cutting peach branches. In just two hours, over 300 customers placed orders for medium-sized and mini ‘dao huyen’ branches,” she said. At some gardens, the harvest is nearly sold out after only a few days of cutting.

In Hanoi’s Tan Mai area, Hoang Thi Dung has also been selling dao huyen both in person and online for about two weeks. According to her, many households in Hanoi prefer to buy their Tet flowers early. Some even replace their branches once the previous ones fade.

Though Tet is still weeks away, Dung has already sold over a thousand peach blossom branches. Her prices range from $4.80 for the most affordable varieties to $14 for more carefully shaped ones. Most of her stock, however, falls in the $8–$10 range.

“I don’t deal in oversized or high-end branches. They require significant capital and have limited appeal,” she noted. “I focus mainly on smaller branches, either in ‘chum’ or ‘huyen’ style.” The latter, she added, tends to be more popular due to its elegant, cascading form.

On the first day of the 12th lunar month, for instance, Dung sold nearly 200 ‘dao huyen’ branches - while her other styles moved much slower.

Last year, she also sold ‘dao huyen’ branches close to Tet but the demand was modest. This year, however, there's a clear trend for mini versions, and sales are multiplying rapidly.

Some customers have even tried to pre-order for delivery on the day of the Kitchen Gods (23rd of the lunar month), but Dung said she had to decline.

“I only accept orders for next-day delivery. The Tet flower market is volatile. A mini branch might be $5 today, but tomorrow it could jump 50% depending on supply,” she explained.

Tam An