HÀ NỘI — Football fans across Viet Nam shall turn on their home TV, or get together in a neighbourhood bar with a large screen, or in an open yard of a bia hơi joint to watch U-23 team play against Malaysia, scheduled to take place at Viet Trì Stadium in Phu Thọ Province.

Homeland to the ancient founding fathers of what we call Viet Nam today, Phu Thọ can boast other signature cultural traits, the Hung King Temple, the UNESCO intangible heritage of hat xoan, a ritual style of singing, or hat ghẹo, festival courting singing. 

For gardeners and orchid lovers, Phu Thọ was where the dendrobium-anosmum var, a variety of orchids was found. The fragrant five-white petal dendrobium was first found by a member of the Central Circus Troupe from Ha Noi, who evacuated to avoid bombing in 1972.

Upon seeing the fragrant beautiful blooms on the old banyan tree by the Cổ Tiết Village, the circus troupers brought them home to Ha Noi, then grew them and circulated around the country ever since. 

A conference on Developing flower cultivation and eco-friendly economy to build the New Country and Civilised city towns, hosted by Viet Nam Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Ha Noi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development was recently held in Ha Noi, attracting more than 200 experts, scientists and garden owners across the country. 

As a tropical country, gardeners in Viet Nam have long had a tradition of growing bonsai and orchids, not only for family decoration, but also for commercial purposes. Nguyễn Ba Toan, gardener of arguably one of the largest orchid nurseries in the country, was quoted as saying at the conference. "I believe that the flower and bonsai section shall be part of our economy as well as in our daily lives. I believe that in a few year's time, orchid growing shall grow very strong."

The conference also witness the establishment of the Association of Orchids of Viet Nam (AOV) to provide a network and professional guidance to garden owners and new-comers who wanted to start-up their orchid businesses.

Chính Trương, owner of Hoa Lan Resort, and a leader in the orchid cultivation and trading in the country, has been initiating meetings and workshops, bringing the orchids to trade promotion meeting organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a hope to be able to export this orchid to neighbouring countries.

Dendrobium anosum is a pendulous cane orchid, native to Malaysia, Laos, Viet Nam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, it blooms in the spring along the length of the leafless canes and the flowers are very fragrant. 

The new buds appear in late spring and can grow up to 1m long by October the same year, they can be formed into beautiful shapes for flowering the next spring. 

If international visitors come to Phu Thọ for the football games, they can just take a tour to visit the orchid gardens in the province, contemplating the flowers, which are soon to bloom, or take home a little pot to the neighbouring ASEAN countries, where similar climate can accommodate this orchid to grow in the future. — VNS

*Semi final match between Viet Nam and Malaysia takes place at Viet Trì Stadium at 19:00 tonight. Check out Viet Nam News website for the latest.