Produced in Sichuan, medium-short leaf material, leaf posture semi-arching, water-ripple pattern on the leaf surface fairly obvious, large-flowered narcissus-type petal 4CM-4.5CM, color purplish-red leaning to black, the pouch and tongue remain unchanged in shape until withering. Because this flower came from very weak seedlings, the sprouting rate was not high, and it only regained vigor last year; the current quantity is around twenty growths.
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When temperature, humidity, light are suitable and nutrition is reasonable, most species of Chinese orchids can generally produce 2 to 3 rounds of new shoots. Usually, under suitable growing conditions and environment, Chinese orchids take about 90 to 120 days from the budding of new shoots to forming a plant. In growing orchids, people have found that whenever new shoots emerge from the soil in early April, by mid-to-late June the second round of new shoots has broken through the soil again. The first batch of new shoots basically matures after 80 to 90 days of growth. The second batch of new shoots, after 120 days of growth from July to October, also forms strong plants. Calculating on this basis, growing 3 batches of new shoots in the 365 days of the year is theoretically possible. In fact, however, this is not the case, because the seedlings from the previous year often have not grown to full size and need to continue growing the following spring, which delays the budding of new shoots until May to June. By the time the new shoots emerge and grow, they coincide with the high-temperature season of July to September, when orchid plants grow slowly. After summer and the short autumn, after mid-November, the temperature gradually drops, and the vegetative growth of the orchid slows down, so by the end of the year the immature new seedlings can only wait until the following year. Year after year, every year a batch of seedlings fails to grow to full size. From this it can be seen that the budding of new orchid shoots is related to the climatic conditions suitable for orchid growth. The number of times new shoots bud depends on how many days in a year can be created that are suitable for reasonable orchid growth; the more days provided, the more batches of shoots there will be. In the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the 24 solar terms are distinct throughout the year. In a normal year, from Grain Rain to Summer Solstice is fairly suitable for orchid growth, totaling 75 days. From White Dew to Cold Dew totals 45 days, also suitable for orchid growth, adding up to 120 days; this time is enough for orchids to go from new shoots to large seedlings. Why does it happen that even one round of seedlings a year cannot grow to maturity? The reason must be problems in management and cultivation. In fact, growing 2 batches of seedlings a year is not difficult; if the 30 days of early spring and the 60 days of summer (using artificial cooling) can be utilized, another batch of seedlings' growth cycle can be obtained. Therefore, improving the orchid-growing environment and artificially creating a microclimate suitable for orchid growth can make orchids produce more new shoots.
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