The most famous flower and ornamental plant craft village in the Port City is located in An Hai Ward, An Duong District (formerly Dang Cuong Commune, An Duong District) and is one of the few craft villages in Hai Phong that still maintains the flower growing profession. This place is also known as the largest ancient peach blossom capital in the country, with an area of over 100 hectares and nearly 600 peach growing households.
On the occasion of the Lunar New Year 2025, many households were heartbroken when witnessing the scene of peach gardens that were lucky enough to save a few trees, or lost everything. This year's Tet peach crop suffered damage due to the severe consequences left by super typhoon Yagi in 2024.
In previous years, as the days leading up to Tet approached, peach gardens in An Hai ward were bustling with people and traders coming to admire and buy peach blossoms. This year, the atmosphere was completely different, with fewer visitors, and only a few peach trees in the gardens had yet to take shape and begin to bloom. The rest were all newly imported trees that were in the process of being grafted.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang - one of the garden owners in An Hai ward - shared that at this time, people's economy is difficult after the storm, farmers have to face the situation of their peach gardens being destroyed after the storm and cannot be restored. Garden owners who were already in difficulty now have even more difficulty.
Since the beginning of 2025, Ms. Hang has had to import new roots from Lao Cai, Son La, and Phu Tho. It takes 1-2 years for each tree to grow beautifully and be sold. Not all trees survive and can be sold immediately, only about 30-40% survive. The probability of damaged trees is inevitable. The recent storm Yagi has taken away more than half of Ms. Hang's old peach trees, many of which were uprooted and had broken branches.
"My family only planted small trees so it was fine, but other families lost big trees worth tens or hundreds of millions of dong. My place is higher so it's less prone to flooding, but other places were completely covered in ice and died.
This year, my garden has sold about ten trees, but most of them are from regular customers who come to support me. There are few beautiful trees but many ugly trees. When customers come, they get bored and leave," she shared.
Meanwhile, Ms. Khanh Xuan's garden - a peach grower in An Hai ward (An Duong district) - suffered more severe damage because it is located in a lower area. This year, her garden only has 2-3%, an estimated ten peach trees to sell for Tet.
Some trees have lost many branches and tops, so they are only for wholesale sale, and not many customers come to buy them. This year, Ms. Khanh's family has to replant almost the entire peach garden, while in previous years, after selling, she only had to replant the garden after January.
Ms. Xuan shared: "Almost everyone lost their crops this year. The lucky ones were able to salvage a few trees, but eight or nine out of ten households suffered heavy losses."
Mr. Thanh Son (Le Chan district, Hai Phong) shared that every year during Tet he goes to the garden to choose a peach tree to display in his house.
"The garden is quite deserted this year, there are few beautiful trees and the prices are quite expensive. In previous years, it would have been easier for me to choose, but this year it's difficult to buy a satisfactory branch," he said.
