When Lunar New Year (Tet) comes, the rich and the poor alike all want to get a branch or a tree of mai, a type of apricot with yellow flowers, to decorate their houses during the festive holidays.

Thus the business of apricot trading has thrived and is becoming all the more popular these days when the living standard gets higher. Hoang Mai, literally meaning Yellow Apricot, is such a trading name established in the central coastal city of Nha Trang in Khanh Hoa Province.

Hoang Mai, owned by a group of 20 people of various ages, is also the name of a garden with ancient apricot trees and other bonsai behind the Nha Trang City House for Children.

The garden has 500 apricot trees, the oldest of them are 50 years old or more while younger trees are 10 years old. Each of these trees costs millions of VND, but the price is not point of Hoang Mai’s interest.

Besides old apricot pots, the garden also attracts visitors with its bonsai with many shapes located in an isolated section in the garden.

On the way into the garden, visitors can see mai chieu thuy trees (a kind of decorative tree with a big root, many lumpy branches, and white small flowers) grafted with roots of sapodilla. This creates a strange but beautiful look for the species as weak branches shoot out from the strong sapodilla tree.

Going further into the garden, there is a canvas tent set up and equipped with wood tables and chairs. The area is for visitors and owners to sit together for a talk about the surrounding view upon tea or coffee.

Valuable old apricot trees, some of which cannot be found elsewhere in the country, are key points in the garden. Most of them have been collected from many places and then crafted to give many different shapes. The value of a bonsai increases year by year thanks to its age and complexity in shaping. Besides, its value is high because shaping a bonsai is very meticulous.

To have a true old apricot, an artisan must find an old root, then cleverly put it into a pot and take care of it so that its root recovers. After that the artisan grafts buds one by one into the living work. The work of grafting is done in the beginning of a year and finished one year later when young buds begin yielding flowers.

Finally, making the shape for apricots can take an artisan many years. If there is no good care, the beauty of a root easily becomes ill.

In the 12th lunar month every year, when apricot leaves start to fall down and buds are going to bloom, Hoang Mai becomes a good destination for art lovers from many regions in the Central Highlands and even Ho Chi Minh City. Among them, some just come to see while others want to choose a favourite one to decorate their houses in the spring.

The buying and selling here are also something interesting. Buyers and sellers sit together to discuss and do not haggle hard and long. When yellow flowers fall down, buyers bring the trees back to the garden for the artist’s care.

Besides the ones for sale, there are some pots in Hoang Mai Garden that are never sold because this is the private world of these owners.

(Source: Saigon Times)