Ho Thi Ky Flower Market at Vietnamese Tet Festival

Established in 1990, Ho Thi Ky Flower Market is the biggest wholesale and retail flower market in Ho Chi Minh City. During the year, the market in Ho Thi Ky Street and its alleys is always crowded and busy thanks to the cheap prices and diverse choices. At Tet festival – the biggest Vietnamese festival, all people buy flowers and plants to decorate their houses and working places. The market is more crowded a few weeks before the lunar New Year’s Eve. It is the busiest on 28th, 29th, 30th days of the lunar January when most of the labors are on Tet holiday, decorate and arrange their houses. After 1st January of the lunar calendar, the stores close and no one buys flowers for Tet. Let’s see what makes Ho Thi Ky Flower Market at Vietnamese Tet Festival different from itself on normal days.

Dried rosa canina buds

Dried rosa canina buds (Nụ tầm xuân) in red, yellow, pink, green colors are one of the most popular flowers at Tet festival thanks to its great looking, good prices and the good meaning. The flower is called tầm xuân which literally means “find the spring”. In fact, the dried buds are grey, they dyed the buds in order to make them beautiful. The branches with countless dyed buds are usually arranged in elegant ceramic vases. The colorful ribbons are used to decorate around the mouth of the vases. The branches are decorated with decorative strings with Happy New Year, Ten Thousands of Desirable Things phrases, lantern, carp strings.

Vases of dried rosa canina buds.

Besides fresh flowers, the store sell vases of dried rosa canina buds which are the favorite at Tet festival.

Artificial flowers

Artificial golden/peach apricot flowers are not sold during the year, except for Tet festival. These trees blossom once a year, fresh golden/peach apricot flowers can be found at Tet festival so that they are considered the symbol of the spring and the Vietnamese New Year. Fresh blossoms last less than a half of month and the tree must be taken care properly in order to blossom on time in the next year. So that artificial golden/peach apricot flowers are choices of many Vietnamese people. Similar to artificial Chrismas trees, artificial golden/peach apricot flowers can be used for many times. Customers can buy branches with flowers and arrange them in vases or decorate them around the houses. Some prefer to buy the whole trees of golden/peach apricot flowers. The stores sell more artificial orchids at Tet festival because orchids are favorite flowers at Tet.

Branches of pink peach apricot are usually arranged in high ceramic vases.

Artificial branches of pink peach apricot and golden apricot, pomegranates.

Artificial orchids in different colors.

Artificial trees of pink peach apricot and golden apricot, lilies, roses.

On this Ho Chi Minh City Sightseeing Tour by Motorbike, Tracy’s team will show you Ho Thi Ky flower market and lots of brilliant gems in back alleys.

Dried flowers, fruits and plants

Other dried plants, wheat, fruits and flowers in various colors are very popular on Tet days. Dried wheat stalks are used to arranged with rosa canina buds.

Other dried plants, wheat, fruits for Tet festival.

Decorations at Ho Thi Ky Flower Market at Vietnamese Tet Festival

Although Ho Thi Ky Flower Market does not specialize in decoration items, the stores sell some decorations for flowers and trees. As mentioned above, decorative strings are popular during the Tet of Vietnamese people. They are usually red and have meaningful phrases. Ribbons and wraps are abundant at the market.

Ribbons and wraps, decorative strings.

Decorative strings in different shapes and colors used to decorate trees and branches of flowers.

Besides Ho Thi Ky Flower Market at Vietnamese Tet Festival, Saigon (common name of Ho Chi Minh City) has other Tet flower markets such as Dam Sen, Hau Giang, Phu My Hung, Binh Dong Pier.