Pursuing passion, building a career from cactus

Mr. Nguyen Chi Cuong and his cactus garden with more than 100 types. Photo: MY HANH

The first time we visited Cuong's cactus garden was 4 years ago, when it was only a mini cactus garden of about 56 square meters, taking advantage of the entire space in front of the stilt house with typical Western characteristics. The flower garden is small but impressive with all kinds of cacti, every day hundreds of flowers bloom, showing off all kinds of brilliant colors. After the summer, Cuong set up an additional "closed house" to incubate and graft his favorite cacti.

After 7 years of hard work, Mr. Cuong now owns a cactus garden with a total area of about 2,000m2, with more than 100 types of cacti, attracting the eyes. In the garden, there are all kinds of cacti from common to rare, originating from Europe such as Gymnocalycium EU, Thelocactus hexaedropus. These types need a long time of care and domestication to adapt to the climate of Vietnam.

Currently, the garden grows about 80 - 90% of the cacti because some types are affected by dust and smoke, so they cannot grow. Beautiful cacti are evaluated according to many criteria, some are beautiful because of the color of the flowers, the color of the petals; some are outstanding in their thorns, stems, and branches; some have rare flowers, only bloom at night and give off a unique fragrance. Many cacti are grafted by Mr. Cuong, creating mutant varieties with very strange colors.

From the buyer’s perspective, cacti are classified by value, from plants costing several million VND to small, pretty plants costing only a few tens of thousands of VND, meeting the diverse needs of students, hobbyists, and professional growers. Coming here, anyone can freely visit, get advice, and choose to buy cacti. This plant species, which is drought-tolerant and lives in barren places, has a strange beauty that is attracting visitors from both inside and outside the province.

Mr. Cuong said that when he first started planting, he mainly collected seeds and learned from other gardens in the province, and also exchanged and learned from fellow professionals in the southern provinces. During this time, he encountered many difficulties and obstacles in propagating and treating diseases on cactus. During the 7 years of pursuing his passion, he spent the first 5 years focusing on planting and propagating, not paying attention to business. In the past 2 years, the "Cho Moi Cactus" garden has started to produce products that the garden propagated itself.

The output faces many challenges because there are many sellers and few buyers. Mr. Cuong has to constantly change products to suit consumer tastes, while expanding customer access through online sales channels such as Shopee, TikTok, and Facebook under the name "Xuong Cactus Cho Moi". On average, after deducting expenses, the cactus business brings in a profit of 5-6 million VND per month. Annual revenue continues to be reinvested in varieties and production expansion.

After office hours, Mr. Cuong spends all his time taking care of plants. He is assisted by relatives and friends with the same passion. He participated in the exhibition competition organized by the Cactus Association in Can Tho City , interacted with many garden owners in the provinces in 2020, 2021, 2022 and won a number of high awards. From these connections, his cactus garden has become one of the meeting places for cactus lovers to learn and exchange care experiences.

Not satisfied with the current scale, Mr. Cuong said that the garden location is affected by surrounding dust and smoke, so it is not possible to domesticate some difficult cactus species; the garden space is also limited. He is continuing to import new varieties, grafting from basic items available in the garden. The output products are increasingly diverse, targeting many customers with the purpose of collecting, decorating desks, living rooms, coffee shops, homestays, etc.

With many new ideas in mind, Mr. Cuong hopes that the professional sector will support him to invest in expanding his garden in the direction of a farm. Not only stopping at crossbreeding and breeding, he also plans to combine research to create dishes and drinks from the main ingredient of cactus.

“I want to take cactus to a new level, not only as an ornamental plant but also as a product with nutritional value, good for health, contributing to the locality in solving employment for idle workers,” Mr. Cuong shared.

MY HANH

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/theo-duoi-dam-me-dung-nghiep-tu-xuong-rong-a426359.html