An Introduction to the Characteristics of the Cymbidium goeringii cultivar Xiaoling Mei

Xiaoling Mei was collected in 2006 from the Zhangting mountain area in eastern Yuyao. The collected clump consisted of five and a half plants, together with one flower bud and several old pseudobulbs. The collected plants reached 50 cm in height and 1 cm in width, with gracefully arching and drooping leaves of exceptional beauty. This flower has elegant, obliquely drooping leaves, with a smooth, glossy surface and a jade-green color. A strong plant has leaves about 30 cm long and 0.8 cm wide. The flower is on the larger side of medium, with tightly edged, short and broad outer petals, silkworm-moth-shaped petals (can-e peng), a red tint at the tips of the petals, and a large, vivid horseshoe-shaped red patch on the Liu Hai tongue. It is the finest of the new plum-petal cymbidiums collected in Yuyao. After flowering, the plants once suffered dieback, and to date the total count is nearly fifty plants, large and small. After several years of careful cultivation, the plants gradually became more compact and were restored to vigor. In 2011, two pots each produced a flower bud. It happened to coincide with the national orchid exhibition in Zhenhai, and some orchid friends suggested forcing both pots into bloom for the show, but I insisted on keeping one pot to flower naturally. It is worth mentioning that neither flower bud was produced by a strong plant, so it is likely that the floral quality of Xiaoling Mei can be expected to improve further. The flower holds reasonably well, and the stem is beautiful too; it is just that the color is muddy, and the red veins on the petals are a bit impure.

The name of the flower is taken from my wife's name and from my gratitude for her understanding and companionship through an extraordinary period of my life. My wife, Xiaoling, is an ordinary middle school teacher, beautiful and virtuous. At that time I was striving after so-called ideals, studying vocal music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. After much hardship, for various reasons I could not continue. As my ideal seemed to drift further away, fortunately my wife was there to accompany me through the most disappointing and destitute days of my life, and through my later efforts to pull myself together and work tirelessly in vocal music teaching. Xiaoling Mei is a witness to this as well. Xiao carries the meaning of vigor and vitality, of being positive and upward-looking, and also the deeper meaning of mutual understanding and companionship; moreover, Xiaoling was also a former name of my wife. In choosing the name Xiaoling, I simply dared not forget my wife's kindness.