Mountain Girl and the Lily Dream

Customers visit directly at the flower garden of Ms. Dinh Thi Ngoc.

Customers visit the flower garden of Ms. Dinh Thi Ngoc.

Ms. Dinh Thi Ngoc's flower garden is nestled at the foot of a hill in the middle of a Tay village in Phu Thong commune. Each pot of lilies is carefully tended by her, the lilies of various colors are proudly stretching in the early morning sun, exuding a gentle fragrance, making anyone passing by stop to admire.

Having grown many kinds of flowers, Ms. Ngoc’s special destiny came through the lily bushes. At first, she only grew two traditional local lily varieties: red velvet and double red.

However, with a special passion for this flower and a desire to increase the economic value of the plant, since 2013, she began researching and collecting new lily varieties from many countries to bring back for experimental planting.

Unlike most flower growers who choose to sell branches and fresh flowers, she took a bold step of self-propagating, cross-breeding and supplying flower bulbs to the domestic and international markets.

According to Ms. Ngoc, lily plants are quite easy to grow, but to process the flowers as desired and to breed your own plants requires technique. The more unique and strange the plant, the higher its value. If you only grow available varieties, it will be difficult to compete with the market and not attract customers. Currently, in Ms. Ngoc's garden, there are over 10 thousand lily bulbs, most of which are bred by her and her husband.

“If the old orchid variety costs about 12-20 thousand VND/bulb, the hybrid variety costs 10 times more, some plants cost from 400-500 thousand VND, even some unique and strange plants cost several million VND” - Ms. Ngoc shared.

Ms. Ngoc checks the flower development process.

From a few original varieties, Ms. Dinh Thi Ngoc's lily garden now has thousands of different varieties, many of which have rare colors such as pinkish orange, red with white edges, or blue stripes... She has given some varieties their own names, becoming exclusive "brands" and "unique" so many traders come to buy them.

According to Ms. Ngoc, this type of flower is suitable for indoor display and can also be grown in parks, urban areas, restaurants, hotels, resorts, especially planted flowers are chosen by many customers.

Thanks to effective use of social networks, especially Facebook and TikTok, the videos Ms. Ngoc posts about the process of caring for and breeding flowers, or the moment when lilies bloom brilliantly, have attracted hundreds of thousands of views.

Since then, she has started receiving many orders at home and abroad, including from demanding but potential markets such as China, India and Thailand. Every month, she exports hundreds of lily bulbs, with revenue reaching hundreds of millions of VND at times. "I didn't think my flowers would be so popular with foreigners," Ngoc said excitedly.

The initial success of the model lies not only in its commercial value, but also in creating stable jobs for 3 workers, contributing to increasing income and developing the agricultural economy in a sustainable direction.

From the lily beds, Ms. Dinh Thi Ngoc not only stabilized her economy but also built a solid home through her own constant efforts.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/kinh-te/202507/co-gai-pho-nui-va-giac-mo-lan-hue-c752716/