An Loc Xuan apricot village in Ho Chi Minh City: Wishing for warm sunshine to please everyone

Although farmers take care of the trees all year round, whether or not their Tet apricot crop is bountiful depends on the weather after picking the leaves. Everyone hopes for warm sunshine so that the flower buds can bloom beautifully in time for spring.

Apricot blossoms are considered a symbol of spring. Around mid-December, gardeners begin to pick the leaves so that the flower buds can concentrate on blooming to welcome Tet. Although they are resilient, whether or not the apricot blossoms are successful during Tet depends largely on the weather. Taking care of the trees all year round, apricot growers in An Loc Xuan apricot village (District 12) only hope for warm, favorable weather so that the flowers will bloom beautifully, bringing Tet At Ty 2025 to every home.

An Loc Xuan apricot village is located in 3 wards Thanh Loc, Thanh Xuan, An Phu Dong (District 12). With nearly 300 gardeners who have been involved in growing apricot for decades, the "An Loc Xuan yellow apricot brand" was officially established 2 years ago.

Mr. Le Chi Hung (on TL 15 Street, Thanh Loc Ward), owner of Phat Minh Thang garden, has been growing apricot trees for more than 20 years, specializing in grafted apricot trees of the Saigon super flower variety.

These days, many regular customers have come to the garden to choose and pre-order their favorite plants. "The quality of the plants and flower buds is quite good so far, I am very satisfied. However, whether the flowers bloom abundantly, beautifully and in time for Tet or not still depends on the weather in Ho Chi Minh City in the coming days," said Mr. Hung.

This year, Mr. Hung picked the apricot leaves two days earlier than usual. On January 11, he hired six people to pick the apricot leaves in his garden of more than 3,000 square meters, with about 700 large and small trees.

Apricot trees are up to 3 meters high, and people who pick apricot leaves have to use ladders.

The weather greatly affects the flowering of the tree after the leaves are removed. Therefore, despite spending a whole year taking care of it, apricot growers are still worried as Tet approaches.

Ms. Tran Thi Tai (60 years old) in Thuan An City, Binh Duong has been working for nearly 10 years picking mai leaves for Tet in Mr. Hung's garden. "Usually I clean rented houses, and when Tet is near, I pick mai leaves to earn extra money," she said.

Apricot leaf pickers are paid around 350,000 VND/day. This job requires meticulousness and carefulness to avoid breaking buds. In addition, being exposed to the sun for many hours is also a challenge.

Gardeners often need a large number of people to gather to pick the leaves of the mai tree for about 3-4 days. After picking the leaves, the tree focuses on nurturing the buds to develop.

Mr. Hung's apricot garden has not increased prices this year. Customers mainly pre-order large apricot trees to display in the lobby. Prices range from 2 million to about 100 million VND/tree, depending on size.

On TL 18 road, Mr. Pham Thanh Hoa, owner of Thanh Hoa apricot garden, is also picking leaves from his apricot garden of about 1,500 square meters.

Mr. Hoa has been growing apricot trees for about 30 years. He said: "From October to December of the lunar calendar, there is often unseasonal rain, which causes the flowers to bloom early. To overcome this, I built a roofing system. The hardest part of the Tet holiday is having to watch the weather to choose the day to pick the leaves."

Because he loves bonsai apricot trees, he spends time and money to buy and collect them, and at the same time shapes the young apricot trees in his garden. To date, he owns more than 300 bonsai trees.

On the left, the apricot tree trunk is plump and round, Mr. Hoa has a smiling face painted on and wears glasses, looking funny. On the right, the rough apricot tree trunk has the shape of a toad holding a coin, which is a feng shui symbol of bringing fortune.

From the collected apricot embryos, Mr. Hoa grafted smaller apricot branches of the "Thanh Hoa island" variety - a new apricot variety he discovered when a sapling grew from seeds in his garden with large, deep yellow flowers.

Bonsai tree shaping requires a long process so the price is quite expensive, so Mr. Hoa often consults customers to rent. The quality of trees and flower buds this year in the garden is very good, reaching over 90%, but still waiting for the weather to stabilize after leaf removal, hot, humid, southeast wind blowing, everyone is excited about the Tet At Ty 2025 crop.

Thanhnien.vn

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/lang-mai-tet-an-loc-xuan-o-tphcm-mong-nang-am-chieu-long-nguoi-185250114085653741.htm