From a simple silversmith, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Cong suddenly became a devotee of ornamental plant art. His passion is so profound that friends and artisans alike admire him, considering him one of the most generous and “heavyweight” players in the Western ornamental plant village.

“In this hobby, if you aren’t passionate and don’t truly love it, you wouldn’t spend hundreds of millions to buy a plant. Conversely, if you play without considering the economic aspect, where would the money come from to keep playing?” Mr. Cong shared.

His ornamental garden in An Nhon Commune, Chau Thanh District – Dong Thap, houses many unique and precious plants. “At first, I only kept a few plants in the front yard for beauty and to relax my mind after tiring working hours. Unexpectedly, ornamental plants have a strange attraction; the more I discovered, the more passionate I became,” said Mr. Cong.

As a result, wherever he went, he sought out beautiful plants, especially large ones with curious shapes, to buy for his collection. Gradually, the number of plants in his garden grew… until one day, someone asked to buy a few plants for hundreds of millions of VND, yielding a profit two or three times the original cost. From that point, he came up with the idea of both enjoying the hobby and using it as an economic venture.

For the past 10 years, whenever friends informed him of a good or beautiful plant—especially those with the marks of time—he would seek them out to domesticate and shape them, turning a wild forest tree into a living work of art.

When asked whether he prioritizes the hobby or the business, he unhesitatingly replied: “Both. Because without passion, no one would dare spend hundreds of millions on a plant just for fun. On the other hand, if there is no income coming in, there’s no money to sustain the hobby,” Mr. Cong explained.

Mr. Sau Luu, an experienced artisan in the flower and ornamental plant industry, shared that Mr. Cong once paid to rent a truck to transport an ancient weeping fig (cay sanh) to Hanoi for an exhibition during the 1,000th Anniversary of Thang Long. Additionally, he actively participates in contests for flowers, orchids, and ornamental plants organized locally and elsewhere to exchange knowledge and share experiences with artisans nationwide. At the Dong Thap Ornamental Creature Festival in 2010, he won a gold medal for a miniature landscape (tieu canh) of his own creation.

Currently, Mr. Cong’s garden has nearly 400 bonsai, ancient trees, flowering plants, fruit-bearing ornamentals, and miniature landscapes. It features many exquisite and precious species such as yellow apricot (mai vang), orange jasmine (nguyet que), pine (tung), weeping fig (sanh), and many wild forest trees like star apple, freshwater mangrove (loc vung), and mulberry… each pruned and shaped with its own style. Specifically with bonsai, he pays great attention to the overall look, ensuring the pot and the tree are always proportionate, balanced, and harmonious.

He said that among the current types of plants, he is most fond of orange jasmine and fruit-bearing ornamentals. Besides collecting, he is also a hardworking learner, diligently studying advanced techniques by inviting reputable artisans as technical consultants. Thanks to this, any raw forest tree, no matter how rugged or tangled its branches, can be transformed into an artistic ornamental plant once it enters his garden.

He noted that each tree has its own unique beauty and charm, thus their values differ. The average price of a plant in his garden ranges from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of VND. Some ancient plants, such as the weeping fig exhibited in Hanoi, are valued at 1.5 billion VND, or an ancient orange jasmine priced at 1 billion VND…

“For many years, whatever money I earned, I prioritized for the garden. By last year, I had earned 10 billion VND from selling plants,” Mr. Cong boasted.

According to Mr. Cong, for those who play with ornamental plants and earn billions, the hobby offers more than just economic profit; it brings people closer to nature, opens the soul, and makes one love life more. Furthermore, it has helped him make many friends from Hanoi to Central Vietnam—people with the same interests who share this special passion with him.

According to News Zing