The flowers that define March in Vietnam

Blue jacaranda are most common in the Central Highlands resort town of Da Lat, where the first trees were planted in the 1960s. They can be found around the Xuan Huong Lake, the Love Valley, Da Lat Flower Park and Truc Lam Zen Monastery, as well as Hai Ba Trung and Tran Phu streets. Coffee shops on Nguyen Chi Thanh give perfect vintage points to admire the flowers on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai across the street.

White sua tree flowers (Dalbergia tonkinensis), a species of legume, are a familiar scene these days in Hanoi, especially on Tran Hung Dao and Thanh Nien streets, Giang Vo Lake and Thong Nhat Park. The elegant tree is threatened by habitat loss and overexploitation for timber.

There is a huge shiny sunflower field in Nghe An Province in north central Vietnam, which stands along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Nghia Dan District, two hours drive to the north of the provincial capital Vinh.

Tourists to Lam Dong Province, home to Da Lat, can also find themselves overwhelmed in the same golden field. Just go along the Prenn Pass to Duc Trong District, turn left at Fi Nom T-junction into Bong Lai Village and the flowers are around seven kilometers ahead.

These mountain-ebony trees grow on many streets around Hanoi, and are smaller than others of the same family found in northern mountainous areas. Roads along the northern highland provinces of Son La and Dien Bien are also dotted by the white and purple flowers at this time of year.

Cotton trees are a familiar scene in Vietnam’s northern delta villages as they are often planted to line rice fields or at the village entrance. Their beautiful flowers are one good reason to visit Hanoi’s Perfume Pagoda this month.

Coffee flowers only blossom for a couple days, so not everyone gets the chance to see them before they turn into coffee cherries, and in turn, one or two coffee beans. Pleiku and Buon Ma Thuot are the two coffee capitals of the Central Highlands where one can run into jungles of white coffee flowers during March.

The peak mustard season is at the end of the year, but if you miss that, visit Son La Province in March. It is past the harvest season, but many farmers in Moc Chau District in the northern province still save several fields along the mountainsides for tourists, who will have to pay VND15,000 (66 cents) to step in and pose for photos.

You know it’s March when vendors are carrying grapefruit flowers on their bicycles around Hanoi. The flowers, which can be made into an elegantly fragranced oil or squeezed into mixed juice drinks, sell for around VND300,000 ($13) a kilo.

Chinaberry trees are also common in northern Vietnam and plentiful in Hanoi’s Tay Ho District. They also blossom and wither fast, so pick up your camera and go!

Buckwheat flowers are a fall specialty in the northern province of Ha Giang, but in mid-spring, these tiny pink blossoms make a beautiful scene in Moc Chau and Da Lat. The fields in Da Lat, near the city’s main market, are open for free, while those in Moc Chau charge around half a dollar for entrance.