VietNamNet Bridge – Le Dinh Hong, of An Duong District in the northern Hai Phong City, is taking care of peach trees in his garden in Dang Cuong Village. There are about three weeks left before Tet (Lunar New Year).

Peach blossoms and kumquat trees are common in the north while southern people prefer apricot blossoms for Tet. — Photo laodong.com.vn

The village is one of the country’s best-known peach growers. At present, the village has thousands of old peach trees to meet the demand of people who want to purchase a peach tree with blooming blossoms during Tet, the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper reported.

Traditionally, the Tet holidays are the days of relaxation, family reunion, happiness and joy. Just as many people in the West buy pine trees for the Christmas holiday, Vietnamese often buy many types of flowers and plants to decorate their house in the special period.

The three plants that cannot be missing during the Tet holidays are peach blossoms, apricot (ochna itegerrima) blossoms and kumquat.

Peach blossoms and kumquat trees are common in the north while southern people prefer apricot blossoms for Tet.

Hong said growing peach trees could be risky. “It’s like a gamble”.

Taking care of peach trees was not too hard, but ensuring peach trees’ blossoms bloomed at the right time, right at Tet, was hard because it depended much on climate, he said. Climate conditions were the key factor to determine when the peach trees’ blossoms bloom and whether they are beautiful or ugly, he added.

According to Hong and other peach tree growers in the village, the climate this year was favourable and they hoped the peach trees would bloom at the right time.

Nguyen Van Hai, a peach tree grower in Hanoi’s Nhat Tan Village, had already plucked leaves for his peach trees to ensure that the trees’ blossoms would bloom during Tet.

He said at the beginning of this year, he planted about 300 peach trees, but only about 200 trees are left due to the extreme weather.

If the weather was remains warm like this week, the blossoms would bloom at the right time as expected, he said.

Nguyen Thi Toan, another peach tree grower in the village, said growers were giving more fertiliser to the trees so that their blossoms could flower during Tet.

Toan said this summer’s weather was bad, with a lot of storms and rains. Prolonged cold weather occurred in early January. Therefore, it was hard to say whether the peach trees’ blossoms would be beautiful or not, she added.

Some experienced growers said the weather during the two weeks before Tet was very important. If the climate was warm enough, the blossoms would be beautiful.

Same price

Tran Tuan Viet, owner of Nhat Tan Garden, said about 30 customers had booked peach trees for Tet.

It costs about VND3-4 million (US$132-176) for a medium-sized peach tree, often purchased for a family home, and VND10 million ($440) for a big-sized tree suitable for a company. A small tree costs about VND1 million ($44), he said.

The price might fluctuate between VND100,000 ($4) and VND2-3 million ($88-132) for a branch of peach tree, he said. But this year prices have held steady from last year.

Wild peach trees could cost from tens of millions of dong to hundreds of millions of dong per tree, depending on the age and shape of the tree. 

Source: VNS