What are the issues concerning the flow and distribution of premium hybrid orchids?

Mr. Li has been involved with wild-collected orchid resources for decades and is also one of my longtime friends; he is upright and unyielding in character, and we get along very well. Ever since hybrid orchids and cymbidiums appeared on the scene, when their "premium" lines were quietly shifted to Hubei for positioning, he watched coldly from the sidelines and warned the friends around him never to touch those hybrid orchids passed off as new wild-collected flowers. Though one person's strength cannot stop the expansion of the tech profit chain, he can still teach by word and example and keep his friends from being played for suckers.

Thanks to their rich cymbidium resources, Hubei and Henan have produced many outstanding fine-petaled flowers from the 1990s to the present, influencing the entire orchid world and earning renown at home and abroad. Around 2005, South Korea, Japan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Taiwan, China all went there to stake out locations and buy flowers while the market was hot. When Cymbidium goeringii was left unrecognizable by tech orchids, orchid enthusiasts once again turned their eyes in unison to cymbidium, and so around 2006 cymbidium also climbed higher; against this larger backdrop, the Qinling Mountains became a new resource development area.

While research institutions with cymbidium projects were working day and night to conquer cymbidium tissue-culture seedlings, Taiwanese businessmen pulled off a great shift, using the technique of four ounces to deflect a thousand catties, and with countless cymbidium interspecific and intraspecific hybrid seed-grown seedlings seized the high ground of the future cymbidium market. These seed-grown seedlings were selected for premium individuals through methods such as in-flask flowering and related breeding selection, then propagated through cell re-division culture to obtain many plantlets. In order for these artificial premium plants to get a good market return, they chose the original source production areas of cymbidium as one of the steps to implement.

Each premium plant has many backups. After being tempered and transformed through field cultivation, small quantities are released to the outside in batches, and some people are colluded with to fabricate stories. This is one of the commonly used money-siphoning tactics at present.

After nearly a decade of frenzied digging, cymbidium resources are rapidly shrinking, and the probability of good flowers appearing is getting lower and lower. Many people who deal in new wild-collected flowers already have no resources left to collect. In order to make money, they have become the loyal supporters of hybrid cymbidiums. This is a very sad thing. Yet looking back now, new wild-collected flowers are appearing like a blowout, making it impossible to guard against.

Looking at why the controversy has been so great since hybrid orchids appeared? Why have they met with unprecedented resistance from traditional orchid lovers? Below, let us sort through several related issues.

I. Success and failure both come from the same source

After reform and opening up, orchids welcomed a spring breeze overnight. The label of "poisonous weed" was finally removed, and people who had always loved orchids but dared not openly grow them could finally cultivate them without worry. That long-suppressed energy, once released, produced powerful momentum. Before even having solved food and clothing needs, people traveled everywhere to collect orchid seed sources.

As people's lives gradually improved and spiritual needs rose day by day, orchid consumption gradually became the leader among flowers.  Thus, small-scale local ornamental shows in major orchid provinces became the best opportunity for ordinary enthusiasts to encounter the real thing. The rapid rise of orchids' influence should be credited to the timely establishment of the "Chinese Orchid Society" under the botanical garden system and the "Orchid Branch of the China Flower Association" led by the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and to their effective guidance.

Through the efforts of these two organizations, orchids got their own **journal, and the first national-level orchid event grandly opened in Guangzhou on September 27, 1988. At first it was held once every two years; the second was held in Xiamen on February 15, 1990. Under its guidance, orchids underwent earth-shaking changes. In just 26 years, 24 national-level orchid expos were held, naturally becoming the weather vane of the orchid market. Yet against this larger backdrop, the development of orchid affairs hid worries within joy and joy within worries. Led by Cymbidium sinense, myths such as Damo and Crystal were staged, followed by triumphant songs for Cymbidium ensifolium, Cymbidium tortisepalum, Cymbidium goeringii, and cymbidium, with active interaction from Taiwanese orchid traders and active cooperation from mainland people.

When an invisible giant hand was pushing the orchid market into a scene of prosperity, orchid factories had already opened full throttle, performing endless transformations among orchid species at speeds you could not imagine. Under hybridization of "Dafugui": the "Biyu Yuanhe series," "Chunjian Dafugui series," and "Huangjin Dafugui series"; under hybridization of "Songmei": the "Diwang Mei series"; under hybridization of "Yu Hudie": the "Datang Shengshi series"; and the "Hanxiang Mei and Qihua series" of Cymbidium kanran, and so on, too many to take in.

It was not until 2006, after all the ups and downs among orchid species were laid bare by "Sky-High Orchids" and the paper window was pierced, that everything plunged a thousand li at once, sending the orchid market running downhill like an unbridled wild horse beyond control. At that time, tech orchids among all orchid species appearing one after another was undoubtedly adding N whips to a galloping horse, driving it straight into the abyss. At the same time, catalyzed by the "Datang Shengshi" case, those tech creations that had been "still holding the pipa half hiding their faces" came out one by one to face the orchid market. By then, making up stories was no longer so important; what mattered was how to succeed in siphoning money before it became known to orchid enthusiasts everywhere.

Moving from darkness to light can be called progress, but what you are allowed to know is only the tip of the iceberg. At this time, what is gradually released in batches are the "ordinary" hybrid orchids that the manipulators believe have relatively little market space. The real "premium" operations still remain in rumors among orchid enthusiasts.

They build orchid factories and wave the banner of "letting orchids enter thousands of households," but with ulterior motives. Some say this played an important role in pushing orchid prices down, but who reflects on who actually drove orchid prices up in the first place? People will not grow orchids just because they are as cheap as cabbage, because there are already too many flowers to choose from. If one considers only the appreciation of delicate fragrance, ordinary orchids and common flowers can fully satisfy mass consumption; one can enjoy the leaves and savor the fragrance, and using orchids to symbolize aspirations in paintings is entirely possible. It can be seen that the planners of hybrid orchids have intentions that do not lie in the wine itself. Under the principle that Sima Zhao's intentions are known to every passerby, this instead triggered a great flight of growers, as if they had seen orchids' tomorrow. As profits grow smaller and smaller, people who make a living from this have to consider adjusting their thinking and finding another way out, because orchids' present is too chaotic. Add to that the deception everywhere in orchid business, and these are the main reasons the orchid market has reached today's passive state.

Without rules, how can anything take form? Without industry oversight, how can integrity be guaranteed? The chaos in orchids has aroused widespread concern from all sectors of society. Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces prepared proposals for people's congress representatives, but for various reasons they could not be submitted for the time being. I think this matter will have to be raised again before long.

II. Water can carry the boat, and overturn it

The implementation of orchid tech hybrid orchids has gone from Cymbidium sinense, Sijilan, Cymbidium kanran, Cymbidium goeringii, Cymbidium ensifolium, and Cymbidium tortisepalum to cymbidium, with cymbidium being the most flourishing. Interspecific hybrid progeny are continuously backcrossed; the purpose of the resulting creations is to hide the basic characteristics of the parent plants so that appreciators have no way to get a handle on them. Among these, the largest scale is intraspecific hybridization, with seedlings produced in the hundreds of millions. The flower forms produced include plum, lotus, butterfly, immortal, fantastic, plain, colored, and variegated, everything one could want. In variegated orchids, many variegation directions have broken through the previous scope of natural variegation in cymbidium, such as large caps like those of Cymbidium sinense.

The current circulation methods for hybrid orchids on the market: apart from premium ones sold by staking out locations, the rest are distributed through wholesale models. Inside orchid factories these hybrid seedlings are treated just like ordinary orchids, very cheap; they are merely products they can turn into money. What fate these orchids meet after leaving the factory is not something they consider.

Factories are only responsible for producing hybrid after hybrid, not for publishing the parent origins along with the seedlings to society.

Creating such disorderly chaos is a manifestation of missing industry rules, doing whatever one pleases. One day, factory decision-makers will "pay the bill" for today's behavior.

The disorderly appearance of hybrid orchids has broken the rules of the game and met with resistance from traditional orchid lovers. This will be permanent.

 

 

III. Breeding that does not follow the rules

Obtaining new life through hybridization is one of the natural ways orchids reproduce. Both artificial hybridization and natural hybridization are completed through pollination. But the difference between the two is that nature's direction is unknown, the gene pool naturally mutates in infinitely vast ways, and the appearance rate of fine-petaled flowers is extremely low, hence their high rarity. Artificial hybridization, however, is directional; its parental gene pool is limited. Although there is interference from transgenerational gene mutation affecting the results, the establishment of its parents is N times the probability of fine-petaled flowers arising from natural mutation, and the external features of the parents' dominant genes are obvious. This is the essential difference between the two.

The application of artificial hybridization to crops such as grain, vegetables, and fruits is one of the methods for obtaining new varieties. An excellent new variety about to come to market must have clear parental information, and its stress resistance and quality must be stable after several years of trial planting before it can be promoted. Those that fail to meet ideal requirements need to be culled through survival of the fittest. Although flowers are consumer goods and do not affect people's daily lives, hybridization breeding should also follow industry rules. This has always been the case with peonies, roses, lotuses, and chrysanthemums. Why can orchid hybridization breeding practitioners ignore the rules?

IV. Formation of the alliance interest chain and examples of terminal product characteristics

Because the purpose of hybrid orchid implementers is to siphon money, they abandoned the rules of hybridization breeding, leaving hidden dangers by releasing products onto the market in disorder. This extends many interest chains, making the already integrity-deficient orchid world even worse. What was mentioned at the beginning of this article is the terminal end of the interest chain. These artificial "premium" plants, after several years of wild domestication at various points, have basically been transformed in external appearance, including the degree of deterioration of roots and leaves. If one carefully identifies them from the plant and grass type, no trace can be seen, but this type of orchid has one common trait: the flower quality is always the premium of the premium, impeccable whether appreciated for color or degree of butterfly transformation.

For flowers of this grade, I obtained related information from several people during the same period. The plants were different, but the basic characteristics of the flowers were consistent. Within one week, the quoting method started at several hundred thousand per plant and ended at 20,000, mainly depending on what price range the buyer would take the bait. Once the price was negotiated successfully, delivery would be promoted in the near future.

The transaction method is to inspect the goods with the flower still on the plant, payment and goods settled on the spot with no debts on either side. By the time the orchid flowers again, the person who sold you the flower that year can no longer be found.  

V. Unable to keep oneself untouched

It is already a fact that tech orchids coming onto the market in disorder have disrupted the orchid market. In the short term, it looks very profitable, but analyzed from long-term development, one cannot keep oneself untouched. All prosper together, all suffer together. Whoever does not follow the rules of the game will inevitably suffer the market's retaliation, and by then will pay a heavy price.

Some say it was the sky-high prices of wild-collected orchids that drove the appearance of tech orchids. They do not realize that some research institutions obtained special funding from certain programs to solve orchid breeding problems. But they follow breeding rules, and unqualified new varieties are absolutely not allowed on the market. This both protects the interests of native species and adds new varieties to horticultural cultivars. The flower opens two branches, each showing its own end; native and horticultural do not conflict with each other and are both under benign control. This is the right path for tech breeding.

VI. Tech proliferation and the counteracting role of technology

The times are developing, and technology is soaring. Previously there were only things one could not imagine; now there is nothing one cannot do. Breeding orchids through technological means has always been quite controversial, and the verbal battles between the pro and con sides have never stopped. Many people say that blindly resisting is not as good as going with the flow, starting from orchid culture and guiding everyone to consume.

Since the pace of tech orchid development cannot be stopped, one can only accept this fact, but after hybrid orchids came onto the market in disorder, they aroused common condemnation within the industry. Whoever tied the bell must untie it. Since hybrid orchids can come onto the market in disorder through technological means, they must have weak links. If one were to establish gene banks according to formal technological requirements to verify them, that would be unrealistic in the face of today's out-of-control hybrid orchid situation. The best method is to use the counteracting role of technology to restrain those acts of using hybrid orchids to siphon money.

Now information is gathered quickly. As long as everyone collects related information they encounter or see online, then through "human flesh" searching and further compilation, it is not hard to discover that the same thing appears, and it can be determined that the new flower is a planted hybrid orchid. In addition, under the dominance of the parents, it is not hard to find where the problem lies in hybrid orchids, as long as we are careful enough in identification.

Concluding remarks

My friend Mr. Li says: "We must pay close attention to a phenomenon. When a certain variety or a certain type of flower is being pursued and hyped by the crowd, it is not far from hybridization, or it has already come out. Therefore, stay as far away as possible and do not touch it. We are powerless to change this situation, but we can manage ourselves and not get involved."

Mr. Li's words of concern reveal helplessness, but honest advice grates on the ear and is all heartfelt. Over the past few years they have benefited me greatly. Perhaps this is one of the best ways to deal with hybrid orchids.