About Ve River, hear about flower planting

If Hoi An of Quang Nam province has the profession of growing kumquat, the area along the Ve River of Quang Ngai has the profession of growing flowers.

From a purely agricultural land, this place quickly became a flower supplier for many localities.

The last month of the year, after days of rain, the weather cleared up. The road from the Ve River junction to Nghia Hiep commune (Song Ve town, Tu Nghia district, Quang Ngai province) had a muddy river on one side and gardens of chrysanthemums and roses on the other.

Live with the profession

Mr. Le Van Lam (residing in Hai Mon village, Nghia Hiep commune) has a house on the inter-village road. He is rearranging flower pots from the base to the top of the green leaves, with many buds starting to appear on top.

Seeing me, he smiled and said: "I was worried when I heard the storm warning on the radio. But then it just rained and winded for a long time. Up to this point, there has been no major flooding, so gardeners don't have to worry about placing pots high. Thanks to the lack of major flooding, the flowers this year are quite good. During the day, we take care of fertilizing and pruning the branches. At night, we hang lights so the whole village and commune are as bright as shooting stars to hold back the flowers and prevent them from blooming early. If the weather stays like this, the flowers will be very beautiful this Tet."

A corner of Nghia My flower village along the Ve River, Tu Nghia district

Not only Mr. Lam, but also the owners of gardens along the Ve River are hoping that the Tet flowers in the year of the Snake will be much more beautiful.

The flower growing area along the Ve River includes Nghia Hiep and Nghia My communes of Song Ve town. It has become a tradition that every year in the second lunar month, every household buys molds to make flower pots and then puts them out to dry in their yards and along the paths. In the middle of the eighth lunar month, they "jointly draw a line, one before the other" to the foggy land of Da Lat to buy seedlings to plant.

In the beginning, only a few households came to Da Lat to visit. Seeing people growing chrysanthemums, they bought some to plant in their gardens. Unexpectedly, the flowers, which were grown from the misty land and planted on the alluvial soil along the Ve River, under the care of the people, grew branches and bloomed with brilliant yellow flowers.

Every time a few people were successful, others would ask about it and start growing. And so on and so forth, chrysanthemum growing spread throughout the village. Nghia Hiep became a flower village without realizing it.

Use plastic paint buckets to prop flower pots up high to prevent flooding.

Then no one remembered, from Nghia Hiep - the end of Ve River, chrysanthemums gradually spread to Song Ve town and then to Nghia My, creating a flower village stretching along the northern bank of Ve River. It even spread to the southern bank of Duc Nhuan commune, Mo Duc district. Seeing that their hometowns had limited land, some young gardeners along Ve River went to Duc Pho town or Binh Son district to rent land to grow flowers.

People who grow flowers, before Tet, brought them to Song Ve market, Nghia My market to sell. Then, gaining momentum, they expanded to the whole province and then to the Central provinces. Usually, at the end of December, traders from districts in the province and other provinces come to deposit to buy flowers. Around December 20, they come to pay the gardeners, then hire a truck to transport the flowers back to sell.

Flower growers are just waiting for that day to end their busy work, having little money to shop for the coming Tet holiday. In Nghia Hiep alone, there are currently more than 600 households growing flowers, mainly chrysanthemums. Last Tet, the revenue was 43 billion VND.

Seeing that flower growing brings a good income to the people, the locality has made a record. Then in January 2023, the Intellectual Property Office (Ministry of Science and Technology ) recognized the Nghia Hiep flower brand. Then in May 2023, Vo Van Van garden with chrysanthemum, rose and primrose set was recognized as an OCOP product.

This information is a great encouragement for flower growers in the Ve River area. Because having a brand and trademark will create more conditions for flower plants to grow in other provinces so that people can make a living from flower growing.

feat

For chrysanthemums to be beautiful, they must be large, bright yellow, and especially the leaves must be green from the base to the tip. Therefore, gardeners must try to keep the leaves at the base of the pot.

In the winter, when it rains a lot, gardeners are busy checking and spraying fungicide. When the weather is sunny and the rain comes pouring down, gardeners rush to water the flowers. People from far away find it strange, because it is raining but they are still pumping and watering. But this method releases the high acid content in the rainwater that has stuck to the plants. If it is done late, the plants will rot, the tops will wither, and even if they bloom, they will not be beautiful.

But to have pots of chrysanthemums that satisfy buyers, that is not all. The flower growing area is located in the lower reaches of the Ve River, so during the rainy season, water from upstream flows down and rises, sweeping into the village, sometimes causing deep flooding.

Caring for flowers before they leave the garden

After the floods, the gardeners thought of a way to use the old flower pots, cover them, and then place new flower pots on top. But the water level of the Ve River seemed to tease the gardeners, rising a little higher each year. The gardeners then cast another small pot, making it two levels, and then placed the flower pots on top.

Some people grow thousands of pots, so the couple couldn't keep up with the effort, so they thought of a way to go to the market on the river Ve to buy plastic chairs and plastic barrels (the kind used to hold paint), and when the water level rises, they can use them to support the flower pots. "Growing flowers to sell on the market is already difficult. But the flower market has also faced fierce competition over time," said Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga in Dong My village, Nghia Hiep commune.

From 50cm diameter pots, people have switched to making pots with diameters of up to 70cm or 1m for customers to buy and place in the courtyards of villas or in the gardens of public offices. The more abundant the flower market is, the more beautiful the chrysanthemum pots must be and the price must be softer.

Mr. Tran Quang Trung in Dong Vien village, Nghia Hiep commune, after going to Da Lat to buy chrysanthemum seedlings from a tissue culture facility, took cuttings and planted them to sell to the surrounding people as well as some chrysanthemum growing facilities in other provinces. Mr. Truong May in Hai Mon village, seeing that chrysanthemums were facing a lot of competition, planted both chrysanthemums and roses to sell all year round, especially during Tet and spring.

Old and young busy taking care of flowers

Not only do people grow roses, they also grow celosia and marigolds. These simple flowers are also welcomed by many customers to decorate their gardens. It is also a way to find traces of the past.

Also from the flower growing profession, some households in The Binh village, Nghia Hiep commune switched to making flower pots and ornamental plants. In addition to pre-made models, people also accept to make pots according to consumers' wishes, contributing to the diversity of the flower village.

Green tourism development

Also from growing chrysanthemums, Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Ha in Dong Vien village, Nghia Hiep commune went to Bac Giang province to learn the technique of making tea from small chrysanthemums and then returned to grow flowers on an area of ​​300 m2 near the commune People's Committee headquarters.

From the initial results, she expanded the chrysanthemum growing area to 3,000 m2. Unlike growing flowers for sale, growing flowers for tea requires choosing clean soil, no pesticides, and the process of processing flowers for tea must be heat-dried or cold-dried to preserve the nutrients and color of the flowers. Chrysanthemum tea products have begun to reach the market and Tu Nghia district also hopes to become a local OCOP product.

Traders buy chrysanthemums and then sell them in the northern provinces.

Mr. Tran Thien Thanh, Vice Chairman of Tu Nghia District People's Committee, said that in recent years, with the efforts of gardeners, the locality has also identified this as a strength to develop the economy and improve people's lives.

According to Mr. Thanh, Tu Nghia is located between the Ve and Tra Khuc rivers. The area along the Ve river has now shaped the flower growing profession, so the district has a policy of developing a flower village along the Tra Khuc river, starting in 2024, growing flowers according to the model in Nghia Thuan commune, with 1,000 flower pots in development. The district is also welcoming businesses to invest in developing, processing flowers, and building flower villages to meet the needs of tourism development in the district.

In Quang Ngai, when Tet comes, spring comes, just go to Pham Van Dong street of Quang Ngai city and you will see Binh Dinh apricot, lily, gladiolus or tissue-cultured orchids from gardeners in the province, transferred from communes along the Ve river. So if you want to survive in this profession, you have to adapt quickly.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/ve-song-ve-nghe-chuyen-trong-hoa-196241207204317675.htm