VietNamNet Bridge – Renting mai (ochna) plants has become a flourishing business in HCM City as many city residents choose to forsake the task of caring for the plants until they bloom during the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival.

Signs of spring: Yellow mai flowers are among the traditional blooms of the Lunar New Year festival.

Prices to rent a potted mai plant range from VND1 million to VND20 million (US$1,100) for six to eight days, depending on the size of the plant.

“This year, the rentals are about 10 per cent higher than last year,” says Ba Son, a flower farmer in Thu Duc. “Despite the higher prices, the number of customers coming to my garden has not decreased.”

Son has been cultivating the ochna plants for decades. He started renting the plants, besides selling them, a few years ago when demands from customers increased. Last week, he received down payments to rent over a half of his 1,000 plants.

Eight-to-12 petal ochna that flowers originating from Thu Duc District are much sought after this year. Customer must pay at least VND4.5 million to rent a two-metre high plant for five or six days.

Plants that are many decades old, and those with beautiful shapes and forms, are rented for over VND20 million with free transportation service. Farmers have to bring the plants to customers’ homes by themselves, taking a lot of care to avoid damage to the plants.

According to Ba Son, lovers of the flowers looked for Thu Duc ochna plants which had been grafted with those from the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces of Ben Tre or An Giang.

“These grafted trees give beautiful and lasting flowers,” Son said. “I’ve some grafted plants in my garden. All of them have been rented for VND50 million each,” he said.

Hong Ngoc for District 8, said that since early this month, she has got orders to rent all ochna plants in her garden. Her customers are owners of many city hotels, restaurants, banks and companies.

“These businesses are my regular customers. They came to my garden to select beautiful plants to display at their offices during Tet,” Ngoc says.

“My customers do not bargain. They trust me because my plants give beautiful flowers.

“Usually customers will return to a garden again when the plant they rented there are in full bloom several days after Tet. Their business prospered during the past year,” she adds.

Bay Hoa, owner of an ochna garden in District 12, said this year most customers visiting his garden had asked to rent, rather than buy the plants.

“We bought an ochna plant five years ago. It only flowered on two following New Years although we took good care of them, giving it fertiliser several times a year and pruning their leaves two weeks before Tet,” says young engineer Nguyen Phu Cuong.

“The best way for those who don’t have time to care for the plants is to rent them for Tet holidays,” Cuong feels. “Like other southern people, we believe that if the plant does not blossom on Tet, we’ll be unlucky in the New Year.”

“Southern Vietnamese pronounce the name of the flower as may which means lucky. Everybody likes to see lucky symbols in the house right on the first day of the year,” says Cuong.

(Source: Viet Nam News)