Ochna blooms spell Tet gloom

Flower growers may have a difficult holiday season this Tet (Lunar New Year festival) as many ochna gardens in the city have already blossomed while the holiday is still three months away.
According to the growers, flooding caused by frequent high tides, especially over the past two months, had submerged hundreds of hectares of ochna in Thu Duc District, and other flower gardens in District 12, Cu Chi District and Binh Duong Province, in water for up to a fortnight.
Warm and sunny weather after the flooding had made the flowers either blossom early or rot, they said.
Truong Van Du, who owns a 3,000sq.m ochna garden in Hiep Binh Phuoc Ward, Thu Duc District in HCM City, said more than 1,000 ochna plants became rotten and died after being submerged for a couple of weeks, while half of the rest were unexpectedly flourishing.
"I will lose at least VND300 million (US$15,700) this season. I’m trying to prune the rest and sell them as soon as possible," Du said.
Du said he could have sold the apricot plants at a price of at least VND1 million ($52) each, but now some VND50,000 was the best he was going to get.
"Traders should have been here, assessing my garden right now," Chin Dang, another grower in An Phu Dong Ward, District 12 moaned.
"We growers had suffered big losses due to a prolonged cold spell last year, and this year’s high tides may wipe out our profits again. I have no choice but to give up my job," Dang said.
Those who borrowed money from banks for their business are the most badly-hit. Farmer Tran Thi Cam Van was very worried as she couldn’t pay her loan of VND150 million ($7,800). Her family will not have a happy and relaxing holiday.
Ngo Minh Dat, representative from Thuan An District’s People’s Committee in Binh Duong Province said the same situation occurred in more than 100,000sq.m of ochna growing areas in the district.
"The cost of ochna will surely go up this holiday as the quantity of the trees fails to meet the demand now. However, the price will not go that high due to the supply from south-western provinces’ farmers," Dat said.
Last year, ochna cost between VND1-15 million each plant, VND80-150,000 per pot and VND30-50,000 per branch, he said.
A representative from the National Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Centre, Nguyen Minh Giam, said the water levels this year were higher than in previous years. Irrigation and dike systems should be upgraded and strengthened to avoid big losses for residents.
In Ha Noi, peach-tree growers in Tay Ho, Ha Dong, Thuong Tin and Me Linh districts are preparing for their trees to blossom in time.
Growers were pleased with the weather in the north, and predicted the price of trees would be stable this year.