In the days before Tet, more than 10 workers in the workshop producing phalaenopsis orchids combined with driftwood of Botanic Garden in Tu Lien ward (Hanoi) are working non-stop. The two owners of the 8x generation, Nguyen Quang Vinh and Tran Ngoc Hung, are also highly focused on completing orders.

“100% of our products are made to order. Customers only need to state their requirements and preferences for their favorite colors, and we will advise on ideas for driftwood pots and orchid filters. Our garden has colors that many other gardens do not have. Last year's favorite color trend was light purple, but this year it is dark purple or cherry. In particular, this year many customers ordered green colors such as apple green, avocado green... Our avocado green color has "sold out" even though it is still nearly half a month before Tet,” Vinh shared with a reporter from VietNamNet Newspaper.

Each orchid and driftwood work is unique, because the Botanic Garden's team of craftsmen spontaneously created it based on each driftwood shape, then assigned quite attractive names such as: fireworks, smooth sailing, crescent moon; smooth moonlight; forever a love; hold my hand tightly...

Botanic Garden specializes in designing orchid pots according to customers' orders. Customers can choose the flower color, pot shape and price that suits their budget. The workshop will design and make pots with "unique" designs. The lowest price can range from a few hundred thousand VND to more than 1 million VND for small pots, the most common is about 3-5 million VND for medium-sized pots, and large works range from a few tens of millions, the highest up to hundreds of millions of VND.

“This year the economy is difficult, but there are still many people playing with orchids. Most of our customers are regular customers. Some customers regularly rotate pots, and when the flowers wither, they change to new pots. The product of grafted orchids is highly creative, so luckily it is still quite popular,” Vinh added.

Fireworks.jpg
Driftwood grafted orchid products are highly creative and hard to find. Photo: Binh Minh

Nguyen Quang Vinh started out as a florist, working for a shop on Hai Ba Trung Street (Hanoi) for nearly 20 years, before switching to orchids. Vinh himself is also a person who loves wood, often buying driftwood to collect and make many products such as Buddha statues.

In 2019, while returning to Dong Giao craft village (Hai Duong) to buy art statues for display, Vinh saw a lot of thin driftwood being thrown away, so he decided to buy some to pair with Phalaenopsis orchids.

Making driftwood combined with Phalaenopsis orchids is very difficult. To make a driftwood orchid pot, it takes several days of preparation (cutting driftwood, making pots/trays to hold driftwood...), using many accessories to shape the orchids such as screws, clamps, tape, drill, foam... The time to put the plant in a driftwood pot is 3 times longer than making a ceramic pot.

“Flower mounding is the riskiest step. No matter how familiar I am, even with expensive plants, I still tremble while working. Even artisans find it difficult to avoid risks. Yesterday, I broke two black pearl plants, each worth 500,000 VND,” Vinh said, laughing.

“Expensive Phalaenopsis orchids cost 1 million VND/branch, A+ orchids cost about 500 thousand VND/branch. I once broke a branch worth millions. Here, we just convert the value into ducks. Inexperienced workers can easily lose ducks. But it’s not too much pressure,” Tran Ngoc Hung happily joined in the story.

Having worked in many jobs, it has been over a year since Hung has "fallen in love" with the profession of grafting orchids on driftwood, "sharing the joys and sorrows" with Vinh to build Botanic Garden.

With high carpentry skills, Hung is mainly responsible for shaping driftwood pots/trays combined with many other plants such as succulents, cacti, etc.

“I honestly don’t remember the exact number of tray/pot designs we made because they were all improvised. Every year we try to create a unique highlight. And this year’s highlight is the moss background. Each pot, when combined with driftwood, is different from the other.

You have to try to match the colors and the orchids to the shape of the driftwood. This depends on each person's aesthetic taste. Most of the products I make are very spontaneous, but there are also times when I'm not satisfied with my emotions and have to edit them a few times," Hung confided.

Anh Hung Botanic Garden.jpg
According to Mr. Hung, if you have at least a billion in money, you should think about starting a garden and production workshop like Botanic Garden. Photo: Binh Minh

Sharing his experience in starting a business, Mr. Hung noted: Pursuing the profession of grafting driftwood orchids, in addition to a passion for art and a high aesthetic ability, a fair amount of capital is also required. Because driftwood is quite expensive, and transportation costs are high because it is bulky and heavy.

"If we build both a garden and a factory like Botanic Garden, 500 million VND is not enough, it would cost at least a billion VND," Mr. Hung emphasized.

Because they do it for passion, Vinh and Hung both admit that they are not rich yet. The little profit they make is invested in decorating the orchid garden. In return, they are happier than many others when they can see beautiful flowers every day.

“We are cherishing the desire to build a space for enjoying tea and admiring the art works of orchid grafted on driftwood, not just stopping at the garden house and production workshop like now. That space will not only have phalaenopsis orchids and driftwood, but also many other types of plants and many other art styles. Hopefully next year we will be able to welcome you to visit and check-in at that place,” Nguyen Quang Vinh excitedly shared his future plans.