Introduction and Characteristics of the Xijin He Die Spring Orchid Variety
Lü Rongguang's gold-award-winning "Xijin He Die" was bought for 600 yuan from a farmers' market in 2003. At that time, the market price of this "He Die" was 10,000-15,000 yuan per seedling, and in 2006, when orchids were at their hottest in speculation, this "He Die" sold for as much as 100,000 yuan per seedling. How can one pick up such a great bargain? Lü Rong...
Lü Rongguang's gold-award-winning "Xijin He Die" was bought for 600 yuan from a farmers' market in 2003. At that time, the market price of this "He Die" was 10,000-15,000 yuan per seedling, and in 2006, when orchids were at their hottest in speculation, this "He Die" sold for as much as 100,000 yuan per seedling. How can one pick up such a great bargain? Lü Rongguang said this is the "orchid gambling" skill that every orchid enthusiast learns only after paying quite a bit of "tuition."
In the orchid world, there is a custom of "orchid gambling," much like "stone gambling" in the jade world. For newly dug orchids from the mountains, when the buds have not yet opened, it is impossible to tell what variety they are. Both seller and buyer rely on their own experience to guess, and if the flower turns out to be a rare new variety on the market, then it is worth money. When first starting to grow orchids, it is hard to avoid buying duds. It is common for orchids bought for several thousand yuan to be worth less than a few dozen yuan after blooming. After continuously accumulating experience, Lü Rongguang developed a pair of "fiery golden eyes" for identifying orchids.
Buying the "Xijin He Die" was a successful example of "orchid gambling." It was a day in February 2003, a little after 9 in the morning, when Lü Rongguang went to the farmers' market to look at "down-mountain orchids." Every year from winter to the following spring is the season for "down-mountain orchids" and also the time for "orchid gambling." As soon as he arrived at the flower market in the farmers' market, Lü Rongguang saw from afar that the several orchids in the hands of a Jinyun orchid farmer were unusual. Walking closer to look, a clump of orchids that had originally grown together had been divided into three clumps, with flower buds ready to burst. The Jinyun man asked 200 yuan per clump, 600 yuan in total. Lü Rongguang did not haggle and bought them all. After buying these orchids, people in the market at the time kept staring at him, wondering why this customer was so quick to agree, not realizing that he had already picked up a great bargain. After the flowers opened, they indeed turned out to be the rare "He Die" type, and Lü Rongguang named it "Xijin He Die."
