For over 100 years, Sa Dec Flower Village located near the Tien River has been well known as the land of thousands of varieties of exotic flowers and strange plants.

Coming to the flower village of Sa Dec at anytime of the year, tourists seem to be lost in a fairyland, full of colours and aromas of diverse flowers and plants, namely dahlia, hydrangeas, orchids, areca, wrightia religiosa, Hibiskus rosa-sinensis and African marigold. The village also boasts several varieties of roses with different colours of red, violet, pink, white and orange.

One of the most typical features of Sa Dec, which is different from other flower growing villages, is that Sa Dec villagers grow flowers all year round on shelves.

According to Tran Van Tam, an owner of a flower garden, in the past during flood season the villagers had to move flower pots to higher positions or shelves to avoid being destroyed by water then they changed to growing flowers on shelves . It is rather interesting and impressive when seeing farmers rowing boats on canals to tend or harvest flowers grown on trellises above their head that is only seen in this area.

Thanks to a favourable climate and fertile soil together with the great passion of locals for flowers, the trade of growing flowers has strongly developed and turned the village into the largest flower growing area in the south, bringing a great economic benefit to the locals. Each household can earn hundreds of millions of dong from each hecta of flowers.

According to Nguyen Duc Tho, Chairman of the Farmers’ Association in Tan Quy Dong Ward, there were only about 100 households growing flowers in 1975. However, after 40 years the number increases over 1,200 with a total area of 212.4ha.

Flowers in Sa Dec are divided into two kinds, including flowers for Tet (traditional lunar New Year) Holiday and seasonal flowers.

Nguyen Duc Tho said that the villagers often grow chrysanthemum morifolium, Taiwan chrysanthemums, Tiger chrysanthemums, roses and dahlias to provide for the markets on Tet Holiday and after Tet, they grow other short-day varieties of flowers, such as catharanthus roseus, portulaca gradiflora hook, lantana camara and ixora cocconea.

The village’s flowers are often transported by boats on the Tien River to other provinces in Cuu Long River delta, Ho Chi Minh City, the central region, the central highlands, the north and even are exported to the neighbouring countries of Laos, Cambodia and China.

Taking a stroll around the village, we all felt the air of spring on every shelve of flowers which not only help improve the living standards of the locals, but also turn the area into an ideal tourist destination.

Source: VGP