Introduction and Appreciation of the Cymbidium goeringii cultivar Sanyuan Baoding

Key points for flower appreciation:

The cultivar blooms readily, setting buds in the eighth and ninth months, buds purplish red, flowering around the Spring Festival, strongly fragrant. Each scape bears 1 to 2 flowers, and strong plants easily produce double flowers; the flower opens as a true three-star, the petals (peng ban) fully lip-converted, short and round, arranged symmetrically with the lip, forming a three-legged tripod stance, opening fountain-like, half facing upward; the inner three petals are exactly alike, rounded as a full moon, smooth and bright, also like fine jade -- as if chiseled and polished! Superb craftsmanship; the ground color is white as snow or porcelain, pure as ice and jade like a fairy, petal substance thick and glutinous, marked with a few striped red blotches, the contrast striking, beautiful and elegant, the flowers and leaves together dainty and exquisite, the flowers graceful and delicate, utterly charming; the outer three petals are normal, colored purplish mottled green.

Background story:

In the spring of 2004, an orchid enthusiast from Yuxi City (Chen Wenji -- the boss of a road and bridge company) asked an orchid dealer from Wenshan to bring this just-collected plant to Yuxi for him to select and buy. The next year it produced one growth and one flower, and the old pseudobulb declined. In 2006, for personal reasons (he has since passed away), this orchid friend could no longer grow orchids, so the Yuxi orchid friends Guo Yunhui and Xu En (who jointly rushed to buy the lead two growths), and Mr. Ma Silong upon hearing the news (who rushed to buy the old growth and the leafless old back-bulb growth) separately raced to buy the only three remaining growths. In 2007, the orchid friend surnamed Guo bloomed it again, with two scapes of flowers, no different from the previous year's blooms. After being exhibited and offered on the market in 2009, it repeatedly withstood high-price offers from out-of-town orchid growers and was not sold. In the following years, the orchid friend surnamed Guo, out of excessive affection (he even built a greenhouse within a greenhouse specifically to grow this plant for propagation), cultivated it poorly and lost them all. The orchid friend surnamed Ma also did not know how to grow orchids and never grew it well; the introduced old back-bulb growth was once in imminent danger, nearly consigning this plant to oblivion. After many twists and turns it was rescued by a senior orchid artist in Yuxi, and only today has it reappeared in the world.

As of the spring of 2012, the surviving stock in the world is only 13 heads, old and young combined (excluding bud shoots).

Award information;

In 2005, won the Silver Award at the 2nd China (Yuxi) Orchid Fair.

In 2009, won the Gold Award at the 5th China (Yuxi) Orchid Fair.

Famous cultivar registration information;

New Chinese Cymbidium cultivar -- Sanyuan Baoding

Number: Orchid No. 0317

Registration name: Sanyuan Baoding (Cymbidium goeringii)

Registration date: March 2, 2009

Expert comment: This cultivar is selected from the native species of Cymbidium goeringii in Wenshan, Yunnan. The petals (peng ban) are butterfly-transformed, a three-star butterfly, with rather beautiful color and petal form, highly ornamental. Traits are stable; registration approved.

Meaning of the flower name; Sanyuan: "yuan" means beginning, origin; the first day of the first lunar month is the beginning of the year, the season and the month, hence called "Sanyuan" (three beginnings). Baoding is a name for a kind of ding (tripod cauldron); to set off its preciousness it is called baoding. It is also a symbol of status; an object that can safeguard the stability of a region is called a "baoding".