Newly introduced to Vietnam, but the leaf ornamental community has attracted thousands of people, with a collection of trees worth billions of VND or hundreds of million VND for a leaf.

One afternoon in early March, for the first time in Da Nang, the meeting of nearly 50 players took place. In the green campus, everyone showed off and admired many beautiful and rare trees with difficult to remember scientific names such as Anthurium Veitchii King, Philodendron Billietiae Croats, Alocasia Silver Dragon …

Players decorated the leaves in Da Nang during an offline event in early March. Photo: Ngoc Quy.

Nguyen Ngoc Quy – admin of a forum of more than 5,500 players said that this is a hobby for plants with beautiful colors, strange shapes or trees with leaves that change shape and size according to each stage of birth. chief. This hobby appeared in the 16th century in the European aristocracy, then spread to many countries. In Vietnam, the ornamental leaves community appeared in the last 5 years and thrived in 2020 “due to the influence of Covid-19, many people could not leave their homes, so they began to pay much attention to healthy hobbies. another strong “.

As a new player, Thu Hang, 32 years old, excitedly asked questions about how to care for each plant species, how to mix the substrate. Hang also wanted to buy some mutant Monstera plants, so she asked about how to distinguish natural mutants or chemical interference. Thu Hang said, before seeing people playing leaves, she thought “it’s just a leaf, there’s nothing to love”. But the more she learns about this hobby, the more drunk the girl becomes. After a year, Hang owns 20 types, mainly in the popular line.

The criteria for expensive or cheap leaf decoration depend on their popularity. There are lines of trees with beautiful color leaves but the price is only a few hundred thousand dong. Some hybrid lines not in the wild cost a few tens of millions to billions of dong. Some lines only have a few dozen trees in the wild so players need to spend hundreds of millions. The most expensive at present is some mutant species belonging to the family Araceae (Araceae) because the number of trees in the world is only “counted on the fingers”.

Although newly imported, the Vietnamese leaf decoration community also owns many rare trees. Mr. Dinh Han in Phan Rang (Ninh Thuan province) has the most expensive tree collection in the world. For example, the Philodendron piritus sancti with 23 leaves, is valued at about 120,000 USD (2.7 billion VND) by international exchanges. In addition to this tree, Mr. Han also has many other high-value mutants such as Monstera White monster that costs 150 million VND per leaf.

In Da Nang, there is Chau Ngoc Thach Vi with a secret garden collection on the terrace. In Hanoi, Mr. Tran Loi planted a leafy ornamental garden in a semi-dry lake in an apartment in the city center …

Dinh Han with a mutant Monstera White monster, costing 150 million VND per leaf. Photo: Character provided.

However, according to many players, whether the tree is expensive or cheap, mutated or not, the value of the leaf decoration is not the price, but the actual vibration of the player. Da Nang girl Nguyen Quoc Hoa My said she would not sell Platycerium Foong Siqi because she fell in love from the very beginning to learn about the “dragon nest” ornamental type. “It looks like a fake tree, unbelievably beautiful. I have to be in the collection,” she said. To buy this she contacted many gardeners around the world and waited in line for a gardener in Thailand for three years. Currently, My Platycerium Foong Siqi tree is the largest in Vietnam. This species can be planted as an ornamental plant indoors or in the garden.

This female ceramic artist played trees from a young age and collected orchids for many years before “addicted” to more kinds of decorative leaves and dragon nest. When she started 2018, the ornamental community was very small and uninformed. Several players hunt trees together at foreign gardeners, share the same, as well as material from the foreign bonsai blog.

“At that time we grew by feeling and learning from each other’s experiences. But since last year, the community has been really active with the spike in players and transactions,” the 35-year-old girl is now. owns 12 of the 18 original types of dragon nests recorded in the world, shared.

Platycerium Foog Siqi is a fern consisting of two parts that are reproductive leaves (beard) that contains spores when the plant matures and the shield where the leaves are hugged to protect the roots and stick to the object attached to the plant. brown in color as it ages and becomes a nutrient that nourishes the plant. My tree (left) is 5 years old, she hopes that it will have a “beard” like a model (right) in 2 more years. Photo: Character provided.

As one of the first leaf decoration players in Vietnam, architect Hoang Duy in Ho Chi Minh City has a collection of more than 100 species of ornamental leaves from fancy to mutant. Among these are Unique and unique of the Monstera type, characterized by leaf-shaped leaves. In the ornamental leaf world, Monstera is rare, mutating with unique half-green, half-white or yellow leaves that cost very high prices.

Players said that these plants have a common price. Many expensive trees are publicly traded by their owners on world exchanges. Players can go to these floors to consult the price or bid to buy. The price of a tree is often sold according to the ” cash register ” criterion , because the number of leaves is a testament to the time to raise a tree, as well as the effort of the grower.

Mr. Hoang Duy said, under ideal conditions, Monstera Deliciosa plants need a month and a half to produce a leaf. In this process, players need to take very strict care to get a perfect leaf, for example, do not wet the young leaves, do not let the plants lack light, do not let the sun burn the leaves …

“The selling price of the leaf ornamental species in the world is quite similar and difficult to inflate beyond its real value”, admin Ngoc Quy said. However, in recent months, the domestic market has had turbulence, because some people are trying to “make prices” from the sudden lines. In fact, the mutant plant is “diseased”, the pigmentation of the plant is lost so it is usually weaker than the normal plant. Many players are unaware that mutants are few but easy to propagate. “Not every mutant is expensive. In fact, there are many lines of green trees that cost hundreds of millions”, Quy emphasized.

Architect Hoang Duy advises beginners to learn the names of trees (especially using scientific names to avoid confusion with different plants although they look quite similar). Should start playing from easy to grow families like Philodendron, Syngonium, Pothos … to create excitement.

“Many newcomers often do not understand carefully the tree that looks like the picture and is cheap, so it is mistakenly bought. Recently, due to the high demand for trees, there has been a fraudulent nick so it is necessary to carefully research and choose the house. prestigious garden, “Duy warned.

Leaf decoration players are looking forward to the large scale offline event in Saigon early next May, bringing together about 200 players. This will be a rare opportunity to gather the most “top” trees in the green ornamental world in Vietnam.

See more of the Vietnamese leaf ornamental player’s collection of precious trees:

Follow vnexpress