Cold numbs peach, flowers, kumquat live well

The prolonged cold spell has worries the owners of peach and flower gardens in Hanoi. If within the next few days the temperature does not rise so flowers can blossom, they will lose the crop.

Along the Lac Long Quan, Au Co and An Duong Vuong streets, one can see a lot of peach trees in flowerpots. However, most do not have flower-buds. Meanwhile, the Phu Thuong peach village in Tay Ho these days seems desolate and cold.

Mai Thi Tham, the owner of a peach garden in Phu Thuong, said that she has 200 peach trees for sale. Her family’s income relies on them. “If the cold spell does not end soon, we will lose the crop,” she says. Showing the peach trees in the garden, she says that all the trees here have been sold or leased and buyers have paid the money already. “If the peach trees do not blossom, I will have to compensate them. How can I arrange the money?”.

The peach trees in Tham’s garden have been sold or leased at 5-10 million dong per tree. However, only three of them have shown flower-buds. Tham said she wishes that the temperature will go up to over 20 degree Celsius in the next days.

Artisan Chu Van Chinh, whose garden is just some meters away from Tham’s garden, says that he has never seen such a prolonged cold spell on pre-Tet days before. “Tet will come in three weeks, I don’t know if I can save any peach tree,” he complains.

According to Chinh, in order to help peach trees struggle with cold, farmers should use more fertilizer and keep high-capacity lamps in the gardens in order to warm them up. However, at night, the temperature may drop to below five degrees Celsius which can make peach trees “freeze to death”.

“Half of the 500 peach trees are in big danger. Only the other half can survive and blossom exactly on Tet days,” Chinh says, complaining that he may incur the loss of 100 million dong this year.

At Nhat Tan peach garden, Tran Hong Yen and her family members were seen turning on lamps to warm up the 500 square meter garden. Yen had anticipated that it would be very cold this winter, but she could not imagine that the cold spell would last this long. “The cold spell will last 10 days more. If we do not take care of the peach garden well, the trees will not blossom to welcome the New Year,” she says. Only 1/3 of the peach trees in Yen’s garden have shown flower-buds.

Meanwhile, the owners of floral shops on Hoang Hoa Tham street are worried that they may not have flowers to sell. They said that the main suppliers to the shops are Me Linh and Tay Tuu villages.

To date, roses, gerbera and daisies, the flowers always seen on Tet days, have not been available on the market. Le Xuan Thom, the owner of a floral shop on Hoang Hoa Tham street explains: “It is too cold and trees do not blossom”.

Even orchids, the flowers that blossom all year round, are rarely seen on the market these days. Than The Nam, the owner of Nam Hoan orchid garden in Hanoi, says that orchids need sunshine to blossom.

“Most kinds of natural orchids will not blossom on Tet days if they meet prolonged cold spell. Meanwhile, the orchids grown in glasshouses need to be taken care of carefully,” he said. “If it is too cold, orchids will not be beautiful and fresh-looking”.

While peach and flower growers are affected the cold weather, kumquat growers do not have reasons to worry. The Quang Ba kumquat village is bustling these days as people come to purchase trees. Unlike peach trees, kumquat trees can bear the cold weather. The trees are selling at 1-15 million dong each, an increase of 50 percent over the last Tet.- Tien phong