Hav Paj Garden, the ‘valley flower’ in Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — To most people, time is marked by the four seasons. To David Vang at Hav Paj Garden, time is marked by tulips, irises, daffodils and peonies.

The Molalla-based flower farm blooms year-round with flowers and dried flowers. Vang brings his colorful flowers and bold bouquets to the PSU Farmers Market and the Shemanski Park Farmers Market weekly.

Hav Paj Garden — pronounced Hah Pah — is a Hmong term that means “valley flower,” he told KOIN 6 News. Being at the farmers markets allows him to introduce customers “to know more about our culture and even the patterns that we have, the fabrics and stuff.”

Agriculture is strong among the Hmong community, something passed down from his parents.

“Mom and dad started the business back in 2000 as flower farming, and then they did produce along the side with that, but mainly focusing on floral,” he said. “And then in 2002, we became vendors here at this market and we’ve just been with the Portland State Farmers Market since then.”

In the spring, he said, “we have tulips, irises and daffodils. This is usually our main volume of flowers during this time of the year. We slowly transition into our peony phase. Then after our peony phase, we start trickling into the dahlias, which would pretty much ride through the rest of the year into fall or the first few frosts that we get. But we don’t only end there.”

That’s when the dry flowers come into play.

“We dry them out and then we bring them back in the winter and do these beautiful dried arrangements, which has been a pretty popular thing here in Portland,” he said.

Hav Paj Garden has a booth at the PSU Farmers Market each Saturday and each Wednesday at Shemanski Park Farmers Market.