24-hectare orchid garden in the middle of the 'steel land'

Ho Chi Minh City With a total area of ​​up to 24 hectares, this is considered one of the largest, most modern and well-invested orchid gardens in the country up to this point.

The orchid garden in Ba Song hamlet, An Nhon Tay commune, Ho Chi Minh City (before the merger of An Nhon Tay commune, Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City) is named Huyen Thoai - a name that recalls a heroic historical period of the "steel land" Cu Chi. The founder of Huyen Thoai orchid garden is Ms. Dang Le Thi Thanh Huyen, a petite woman but extremely brave and determined.

Ms. Dang Le Thi Thanh Huyen, Director of Huyen Thoai Orchid Cooperative. Photo: Phuc Lap.

Fate with orchids

Visiting the Huyen Thoai orchid garden, I was really overwhelmed by the scale of the garden. Not only is it vast, the orchid garden is also invested in a modern way with a net house, irrigation system, and concrete drainage ditches with a total length of up to thousands of meters. Hundreds of flower beds are built with bricks, 40cm above the ground, in neat rows. The garden where I went has a total area of ​​4 hectares, divided into lots, the paths between the lots are paved with hexagonal tiles, the paths between 2 beds are covered with tarpaulins. "I have been in tourism , serving visitors for many years now, so the garden must be clean. Even though it rains heavily and floods outside, the orchid garden is not flooded, wearing clean and beautiful clothes, walking around without worrying about getting dirty", Ms. Huyen said.

When asked about the reason why she loves orchids and not other flowers? Ms. Huyen smiled: “I love orchids or any other flower, but I have a special affection for orchids. Actually, I don’t understand why. Maybe it’s fate.”

Ms. Huyen said that her family owned a large building materials store in Cu Chi town, so her parents wanted her to study accounting to help with the business. She listened. After graduating, she worked at her family's store, and the next inevitable thing for her was to get married.

This 4-hectare orchid garden is where Ms. Huyen first started her orchid business. Photo: Phuc Lap.

“I thought that was enough, but then there were big changes that no one expected. My friend who lives near my house also planned to open a construction materials and interior decoration store, so she often came to my store to learn and ask for guidance. Her friend grows about 4,000 square meters of orchids, and seeing that I often display flowers on my desk, she brought orchids as gifts.

I usually buy flowers from the stall, single-color flowers, display for about 3 days then have to change, but the orchids my friend gave me last for 2 weeks before fading. Not to mention the vase of orchids has many colors, from red, yellow, pink to pure white, purple, violet…, each petal, each color has its own beauty. I have been fascinated with orchids since I didn’t know when.

Then I asked for seeds to try planting 60 orchids behind the house. After 1 year, the orchids bloomed, very beautifully. Looking at the flowers that I had grown and fertilized myself, my emotions surged. That was a strong motivation for me to continue. My family has 1 hectare of garden land, but because of selling construction materials and leveling, the ground is full of holes and uneven ponds. When I told them about my intention to level the garden to plant orchids, my parents objected a lot. But at that time, I was determined so I ignored them. Then every day I hired 5-7 trucks of dirt to dump, leveling the land and planting orchids there. After a few years, the 1 hectare garden was covered with orchids," Ms. Huyen recalled.

The drainage system in the orchid gardens of Huyen Thoai Orchid Cooperative has been invested in thoroughly. Photo: Phuc Lap.

Because she had no knowledge about agriculture , about plants, especially orchids - a relatively difficult flower to care for, Ms. Huyen had to explore and learn everything like a child learning to read. What was more difficult was that at that time there were only small orchid gardens of only a few acres, and no one had done it on a large scale, methodically like hers now. She learned from small gardens, read documents, books and newspapers and went to Thailand to learn. However, she still often had to face failures, orchids still suffered from root rot, bud rot, and leaf spots. Looking at the orchid beds dying en masse, she could not hold back her tears.

But she told herself, if others can do it, there is no reason why she can't. Thinking like that to encourage herself not to be discouraged, she continued to work and gain experience step by step. Then everything gradually got better. Up to now, she has enough knowledge and experience to do everything best, grow her own orchid seeds and provide hundreds of thousands of orchid seedlings each year to people.

Introducing to me the orchids blooming in front of her, Ms. Huyen said: “This garden only has Mokara orchids, but you see, on one flower bed there are sometimes 4-5 colors, and each color has a different way of taking care of them. For example, red orchids like Renred red, Redsun red, Red leaf curl, Red Mo Dang red... are “easy-going, gluttonous”, can withstand harsh temperatures so I take care of them less, more simply. But with yellow orchids like Le Na yellow, Lemon yellow, Mai yellow, Chao Sunset yellow, Candle yellow, Copper yellow... they are weak and fragile so taking care of them is no different from taking care of a baby, you have to know how much they need to eat each week, what kind of fertilizer they are suitable for…”.

The flower beds are built 40cm high. The ground between the beds is covered with clean tarps. Photo: Phuc Lap.

Huyen Thoai Orchid Garden also has dozens of other types of orchids such as purple kenyku, yellow scorpion, red scorpion, royal poinciana scorpion, purple denro, white denro, sunny denro..., each type has different growth characteristics and requires different care.

Since starting to cultivate orchids, Ms. Huyen has won the title of Outstanding Vietnamese Farmer three times, voted by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers’ Union . This coming December, she will continue to go to Hanoi to attend the Patriotic Emulation Congress.

Recover after the pandemic and be more "magnificent"

After completing 1 hectare of orchids, overcoming many difficulties, Ms. Huyen began to reap the rewards. The orchid garden grew better. She wanted to expand the area, so she persuaded her parents to let her liquidate the old 30-hectare rubber garden so that she could invest in large-scale orchid planting. “At that time, my mother strongly objected, but I was not discouraged. The advantage was that the rubber garden was ready to be liquidated, the productivity was low, while my mother was old and needed to retire, so after a period of persistent persuasion, she agreed,” Ms. Huyen said.

However, things were not easy, because the rubber trees had to be uprooted and the land had to be improved. Since her husband was a civil servant and could not support her, she had to take care of everything herself. This was not an easy journey for a weak woman.

Preliminary processing, preservation and packaging of orchids ready for export to Cambodia. Photo: Van Bau.

After cleaning the land, Ms. Huyen invested billions of dong in infrastructure. “At that time, there was no high-tech agricultural model in Saigon, especially for orchids. The water-saving irrigation system and greenhouses had to be imported from abroad at much higher prices than now. I invested billions of dong in these things. Then I had to buy orchid seeds from Thailand, also at a price one and a half times higher than now,” Ms. Huyen said.

Everything is done, the seedlings have been planted, the orchid garden owner faces a big difficulty in operation. “With a large area, taking care of it is not simple, requiring you to apply a scientific and methodical process. Otherwise, failure is inevitable,” Ms. Huyen said.

The following years were the golden age of Huyen Thoai orchid garden. Because at that time, a branch of Mokara orchid cost from 7 to 10 thousand VND. Every day, hundreds of thousands of orchid flowers of all kinds from Huyen Thoai orchid garden spread to all provinces and cities. After being sure about the Mokara orchid cutting model, Ms. Huyen established Huyen Thoai Orchid Cooperative with 10 members, all of whom were "female generals" from Cu Chi. The total orchid area of ​​the Cooperative was up to 24 hectares, of which the Director of the Cooperative, Dang Le Thi Thanh Huyen, had 12 hectares, and Ms. Huyen's younger sister had 6 hectares.

Ms. Huyen said that each type of orchid with different colors requires different care, even on the same bed. Photo: Phuc Lap.

However, when the path of Huyen Thoai Orchid Cooperative was going smoothly, the Covid-19 epidemic struck. Everything returned to zero when people could not move, no one bought flowers, the orchid garden was not cared for, leading to withering. “At that time, looking at the withered orchid garden, I completely collapsed, thinking I could not recover. Not only did I regret tens of billions of dong, but looking at the flowers, my heart ached beyond description,” Ms. Huyen pensively recalled.

In 2022, when the pandemic subsided, Ms. Huyen started investing again, restoring the orchid garden from scratch. Although it did not cost as much money as before because the infrastructure was already available, it still cost billions of dong.

Mr. Phuc, one of the workers who has been attached to Huyen Thoai orchid garden for more than 10 years. Photo: Phuc Lap.

Thanks to her strong will and love for flowers, Ms. Huyen has gradually regained what was taken away by the Covid-19 pandemic. Although some types of flowers are now one and a half times more expensive than before, and the price of flowers is cheaper, only 2/3 of what it was before, everything is going very well. The flower garden is increasingly beautiful, with high productivity and stable output. Every day, the cooperative cuts hundreds of thousands of branches, selling for 4-7 thousand VND/branch depending on the form. The cooperative also exports orchids to Cambodia at a price of 8-10 thousand VND/branch.

Aspirations of Vietnamese orchid industry

Currently, the Huyen Thoai Orchid Cooperative has increased to 15 members with an area of ​​28 hectares. On average, each month the Huyen Thoai orchid garden welcomes about 10 groups of about 200 visitors, including foreign visitors. For a long time, the farm has become an experimental site for farmers to visit and learn about the experience of growing and caring for orchids.

Here, Ms. Huyen and the members of the cooperative are willing to spend time supporting people with techniques, varieties and experience in growing and caring for orchids. The cooperative also buys finished orchid cuttings from gardeners for processing, preservation and consumption. For groups of students who come to visit and learn about orchid growing, she will organize career guidance classes to improve their agricultural knowledge.

This is another orchid garden of Ms. Huyen, the orchid variety here is called American Lightning. This orchid garden will bloom about 2.5 months before Tet to sell for Tet. Photo: Phuc Lap.

Regarding the process of caring for and using preparations for orchids, Ms. Huyen said that from the beginning, she applied a clean, sustainable care process, without using toxic chemical preparations. She confided: “Flowers are like food, even though we don’t eat them, they are always close to us, often placed in a solemn position, in the living room, bedroom, on the banquet table. I am a flower lover, when I was young, there was always a vase of fresh flowers in my house and room, and when they wilted, I replaced them. Therefore, I cannot feel the beauty of flowers if I know they have been sprayed with chemicals for preservation or the care process has been fertilized and sprayed with chemicals.

Here I only use organic products, vermicompost, bat droppings mixed with fermented microorganisms and some other biological products. Flowers are cared for organically, you can tell by the color. Just like organic vegetables, they can be eaten after a week, while chemically grown vegetables look shiny but spoil after a day. The important thing is that organic farming ensures a clean environment, good for you and everyone, and the soil becomes increasingly rich in nutrients."

For a long time, Huyen Thoai Orchid Garden has been a destination for sightseeing and study for many agencies, groups, tourists, including many foreign visitors. Photo: HTX Legendary.

Despite the systematic and modern investment, the orchid gardens of the Huyen Thoai Orchid Cooperative do not have an automatic, remote-controlled irrigation system like modern agricultural models do today. In response to my question, Ms. Huyen explained: "Experience shows that manually watering orchids helps control growth better."

Not only having courage, perseverance and iron will - important factors that create the success of women in the land of steel, Ms. Huyen also has greater aspirations, which is the desire to elevate the Vietnamese orchid industry.

“Vietnamese orchids cannot yet compete with Taiwanese or Thai orchids because the domestic orchid industry still depends on imported varieties. Therefore, to avoid the situation where we buy whatever they sell, while domestic orchid research institutes and schools cannot meet the requirements, large-scale orchid growers like Huyen Thoai must invest in tissue culture rooms, research to find good, disease-resistant orchid varieties, and create strange, beautiful, and durable orchid varieties to have a chance to compete with them,” she said.

Ms. Dang Le Thi Thanh Huyen (left) at the 1st Ho Chi Minh City Patriotic Emulation Congress in 2025. Photo: Provided by the character.

For the past few years, Ms. Huyen has been growing her own orchid seeds, no longer importing them from Thailand, so the investment costs are lower and the profits are higher. Not only is she able to supply enough seeds for the cooperative, she also supplies seeds to people in other places when needed.

Source: https://nongnghiepmoitruong.vn/vuon-lan-24-ha-giua-vung-dat-thep-d781490.html