Demand for renting decorative apricots during the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival has risen in Vietnam this year due to the ongoing economic slowdown.
Businesses are not the only to choose this option since individuals now prefer hiring flowers over buying them, as was customary in previous years. Thanks to this emerging market, different kinds of flowers have recently been on display for this year’s Tet, which falls at the end of this month. In southern Vietnam the apricot is the traditional symbol of Tet, while in the north the peach blossom represents the holiday.
Increasing demand for rented flowers
Apricot and peach trees are often hired because they are expensive and live for several years. On average an apricot tree costs tens of millions of dong to buy, while a particularly beautiful tree may cost over VND100 million (VND100 million equals US$4,800).
But customers only have to pay VND5-7 million ($240 – 337) to hire such trees.
Dang Minh Hong Phong, director of the flower company Hai Tuan in Ho Chi Minh City, said his garden has 500 apricot trees, and it is expected that 80 percent of them will be hired, up 30 percent from the previous year.
The number of customers hiring an apricot this year has reached the highest level in several years, according to Phong.
The owner of an apricot tree for hire will also earn more after renting it out for four to five Tet festivals before selling it off.
Loc Xanh, another flower company manager, in the city’s Thu Duc District said he can only meet 30 percent of the demand for hiring apricots this year. Last year, only 60 percent of his trees were contracted for hire a month before Tet, but this year the figure is 90 percent.
Big apricot trees are mostly hired for decoration during Tet (Photo: Tuoi Tre)
More apricot varieties
Besides the normal species of Thu Duc apricot, garden owners in Ho Chi Minh City offer several other varieties, including the 36-petal apricot and the Tan Chau apricot, as well as other transplanted trees.
Le Ngoc Hung, owner of Hung Phat garden in the southern hub’s Binh Chanh District, said he has 1,000 potted apricot trees of all the three aforementioned varieties, including 400 Thu Duc apricot trees, 40 36-petal apricot trees, and almost 500 Tan Chau apricot trees.
The Tan Chau apricot, which is native to the Mekong Delta, has been a favorite Tet decoration for the last two years thanks to its big flowers and fragrant aroma.
Meanwhile, the 36-petal apricot grows strong and is easily transplanted. As a result it is also cheaper than other varieties.
Ho Chi Minh City gardeners have recently created numerous species of apricot by transplanting the main aboriginal varieties of the tree from the southern province of An Giang and the central city of Hue, as well as those from Indonesia, Taiwan, and Thailand.
Besides apricot and peach blossoms, gardeners in the Mekong Delta have been busy producing pots of daisies and marigolds, which are also traditional flowers for Tet.
A couple of daisies are sold at gardens for VND80,000 – 100,000 (US$4-5), ten percent more expensive than last Tet.
Gardeners in the Mekong Delta provinces of Dong Thap, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, and Vinh Long have long been the main flower suppliers for Tet markets across the nation.
Recently they have provided more potted flowers intended to be hung from balconies and walls or used as decorations for tables.
This particularly beautiful tree costs over VND100 million (US$4,800)