Orchids do not claim the spring light; a single fragrance is enough to surpass a thousand red blooms.
A top-grade newly discovered wild variety, Leaf Butterfly Three Stars. This strain of grass was selected and purchased in 2001 by Lili of Haijin Orchid Garden from a mountain farmer's rough orchid garden, and brought back for cultivation. At that time, there was no concept of the leaf butterfly at all, so it was not given much importance and was not seriously propagated. By 2004, there were only two pots, one large and one small. Later, because my flower nursery was relocated several times, that large pot of leaf butterfly...
Li Shengxian
Spring breeze and spring rain, and once again the best season of the year for viewing orchids has arrived.
The orchid is one of the traditional famous flowers deeply cherished by the people of our country, and it is also a famous flower worldwide. The reason people love orchids is that they possess the four excellences of "fragrance, color, form, and charm." As for fragrance, it is a subtle scent hard to grasp, drifting and uncertain, seeming to exist and yet not, seeming far and then near; as for color, its leaves are emerald green with a lustrous sheen, and its flowers are bright and vividly colored, pure and elegantly refined; as for form, its leaves are arranged with pleasing density, graceful and slender, with a noble bearing, and its flowers stand alone in splendid beauty, upright and graceful; as for charm, it is the combination of outward form and inner temperament, possessing artistic appeal and inspiring the imagination.
The orchid, honored by people as the "national fragrance of grasses," together with the ginkgo, revered among trees as the national tree, and the peony, honored among flowers as the national flower, is praised as one of the three treasures of Chinese gardens; it is also called "the first of the four elegances," ranking above the chrysanthemum, narcissus, and sweet flag. Ancient flower connoisseurs even placed the orchid above the "pine, bamboo, and plum." Wang Guixue of the Song Dynasty wrote: "Among the upright flowers and plants, bamboo has joints but is stingy with flowers, plum has flowers but is stingy with leaves, pine has leaves but is stingy with fragrance, and only the orchid possesses all of them." Compared with the "Three Friends of Winter" - pine, bamboo, and plum - only the orchid has all three beauties of flower, leaf, and fragrance. The ancients praised the fragrance of the orchid even more highly, honoring it as "national fragrance" and "the finest fragrance under heaven." Even Confucius praised it, saying "the orchid is the fragrance of kings." Just as Xu Wei of the Ming Dynasty wrote: "Do not be surprised that spring light does not belong to you; a single fragrance is enough to surpass a thousand red blooms."
The orchid, with its long, spreading leaves, emerald green as jade, its pure posture and lovely appearance, and its subtle fragrance that steals upon people, has the quietness of the chrysanthemum without its loneliness, the purity of the narcissus without its coldness, the elegance of the plum blossom without its fierceness, and the nobility of the peony without its vulgarity. In Xu Wenchang's writing, the orchid, together with the narcissus and clumping bamboo, are the "three beauties of Hunan." In Zheng Xie's eyes, the orchid is a gentleman who "seeks no fame or rank, only mist and rosy clouds." People also call fine essays and calligraphy orchid compositions; sincere and pure friendship is called orchid friendship; when friends are in perfect accord and become sworn brothers, it is called "golden orchid sworn brotherhood"; the exchanged genealogical cards are called "orchid registers," and so on.
There are many famous places in our country for viewing spring orchids. Well-known ones include the Orchid Garden in Guangzhou's Yuexiu Park and the Orchid Garden in the South China Botanical Garden, the Jiangnan Orchid Garden on the shore of Taihu Lake in Wuxi, Jiangsu, the Orchid Pavilion in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and Lanxi Orchid Village, the Orchid Flat in Ciping, Jinggangshan, Lanzhou in Gansu, Lijiang in Yunnan, and Lanyu in Taiwan, China, among others. In spring, those large expanses of famous orchid varieties compete in splendor, flowing with color and brilliance, leaving people dazzled and utterly delighted!
The flowers of the orchid are plain rather than gaudy, standing gracefully, with a subtle fragrance that is clear and far-reaching, rich and striking. With one branch in a room, the whole room becomes fragrant. When there are no flowers, the leaves remain evergreen all year round, with a clear and elegant bearing and a noble posture, swaying in the wind and naturally inclining up and down, giving people the feeling that "viewing leaves is better than viewing flowers." Comrade Dong Biwu once said: "The orchid has four clarities: clear qi, clear color, clear spirit, and clear charm." This shows how highly the orchid is regarded.
The fragrance of the orchid is transcendent and free from vulgarity, so that people never tire of it after smelling it for a long time; the more they smell it, the stronger their interest becomes, and the more they smell it, the more refreshed and delighted they feel. With an orchid in the courtyard, a clear fragrance fills the air; with an orchid in the living room, a subtle fragrance fills the hall; with an orchid on the balcony, its aroma drifts about. As the saying goes: "Beautiful flowers are not fragrant, and fragrant flowers are not beautiful." Praised as "national beauty and heavenly fragrance" and "the finest fragrance under heaven," the orchid has been deeply admired by people through the years, and its scent is pure and upright, so people praise it as the "ancestor of fragrance." There are also four standards for appreciating floral fragrance, namely: rich, clear, far-reaching, and lasting. The floral fragrance of the orchid is rich and fragrant, intoxicating, and its flowering period is far longer than that of other flowers, generally 3-6 weeks, and in some cases can last as long as several months, hence it is called the "king of flowers."
The orchid, the gentleman among flowers, truly has leaves for spirit and flowers for feeling; its green charm is lovely and stirs the heart. Its threads of delicate fragrance penetrate the heart and spleen; its clusters of blossoms adorn the brilliant spring! A good pot of orchids is like a thread-bound ancient book, like a cup of fragrant tea. If life can have orchid grass as a companion along the way, my heart is content.