Introduction to the Characteristics of the Zhuhai Fisher Girl Cymbidium sinense Variety

Zhuhai Fisher Girl was discovered in the early 1990s. At that time the orchid market was heating up, and some far-sighted orchid growers and horticultural companies were optimistic about the Cymbidium sinense market, so they planted large numbers of wild-collected Cymbidium sinense from various places, hoping to select valuable good varieties from among them. In the spring of 1990, Zhuhai orchid enthusiast Zhou Shaodong, from more than 2000 jin of wild-collected seedling plants from Fujian, found a group of two wild-collected Cymbidium sinense plants that was quite unusual: the bud gestation period was very long, and from the time the scape emerged in November to the end of March the following spring, the buds grew larger and larger, far exceeding the bud size of ordinary Cymbidium sinense. It was not until mid-April that the buds slowly opened, blooming in layer upon layer, opening toward the sky, and indeed living up to expectations: it was a group of multi-petal, multi-lip peony-type Cymbidium sinense strange flowers of the highest grade! Seeing such a beautiful flower, orchid enthusiast Zhou Shaodong immediately named it "Tian Shi Wu" and published an appreciation article in the Macao Daily News. After this flower appeared in the newspaper, it immediately attracted widespread attention from orchid enthusiasts in Guangdong, Hong Kong, China and Macao, China. Feng Gangyi, chairman of the Macao Chinese Poetry Society and an orchid enthusiast, was the first to find orchid enthusiast Zhou Shaodong and offered a high price to ask him to part with it, but unfortunately did not get his wish. After its discovery, this flower shone brilliantly many times at orchid exhibitions at various levels, and won the gold award at the First Guangdong Province (Dongguan) Orchid Expo. On January 18, 1994, orchid enthusiast Zhou Shaodong formally registered this flower with the China Orchid Society, with the number (Lan) 003, and at the same time Professor Wu Yingxiang renamed it after Zhuhai City's iconic stone sculpture "Zhuhai Fisher Girl", more clearly pointing out its breeding place and the characteristic of the colored ball in the flower when it first opens.

Zhuhai Fisher Girl has many aliases. Besides "Zhuhai Fisher Girl", named by Elder Wu at the time of registration, there is also the name "Tian Shi Wu", given by orchid enthusiast Zhou Shaodong when he published an article in the Macao Daily News. In addition, at that time an orchid enthusiast surnamed Xie from Panyu, Guangzhou, felt that this flower was so splendid that it ranked as first class and should only exist in heaven, so he gave it another name, "Yao Chi Yi Pin". Later, when this variety spread to Taiwan, China, because of different channels of acquisition and because of the needs of commercial operation at the time, this flower gained yet another auspicious and pleasant-sounding name: "Da Sheng Qi Hua". Therefore, in the several years that followed, when the Cymbidium sinense market was surging, these names were all widely used. While promoting this variety to a great extent, they also caused confusion and mixing-up among orchid enthusiasts about this variety. There was once an orchid enthusiast who collected all these varieties one by one and carefully observed and studied them, only to find that from the plant to the flowers, leaves and buds there was absolutely no difference. In the end he could not help but sigh: once again one flower with many names has left people dizzy and confused.

Plant Characteristics

The plant of Zhuhai Fisher Girl is robust and strong, with leaves in an arching shape, short-stemmed and curved-drooping. The leaf color is emerald green with a slight yellow tinge, full of luster, and the leaf texture is smooth and glossy. The general leaf width is about 2.5-3 cm, and the widest part of the leaf appears at 1/3 of the distance from the leaf tip; the leaf length is between 50-60 cm, but because the leaf shape is curved and drooping, the plant height is only about 25-30 Cm. The leaf tip tapers bluntly, and like Gongzhou Long it twists slightly at 1 cm from the leaf tip. The upper margin of the leaf has serrations, and the serrations are so fine as to be almost imperceptible. When the leaf buds of Zhuhai Fisher Girl first emerge from the soil, the bud tips are bright purplish red, with purple vein lines radiating downward. After the leaf buds are slightly larger, they are overall green with a purple tinge.

　

Zhuhai Fisher Girl blooms as a multi-petal, multi-lip strange flower. The flower scape rises well above the leaves, bearing 5-10 flowers, fragrant and brilliantly colored, extraordinarily beautiful. After the flower buds emerge from the soil, the whole bud is purplish red with a slight green tinge. When they grow to the small bract stage, the small buds are also purplish red with green, and at this time the bud shape is the same as that of ordinary Cymbidium sinense buds. Afterwards, the growth of the flower scape slows, and over a period as long as two months the buds slowly gestate and swell, finally reaching a bud diameter of 1.5 cm or even a bit larger, short and round in shape, with a pointed beak and bulging belly, feeling very thick and substantial to the touch, and green in color with a purplish black tinge. When the flower first opens in April, the three outer petals, the petals, the lip and the column all open normally, but the body of the column becomes very broad and thin, and between the broad column and the lip there grow several lips as well as countless tiny petals. At first these tiny petals merely form a round "petal ball" in the middle of the flower, and set off by the surrounding petals, it truly resembles the bright pearl in the hand of the stone sculpture Zhuhai Fisher Girl. After several days, the "petal ball" opens fully, and as many as more than 20 tiny petals, some butterfly-like and some masculinized, bloom to their heart's content on the central stage of the flower in a riot of color, giving off fragrance. The flower of Zhuhai Fisher Girl is large, with a diameter reaching about 4-5 cm, and its colors are rich and dazzlingly beautiful: green petals, yellow-green lip, deep red lip spots, bright yellow anther cap, and purplish red or yellow-green tiny petals. The whole flower is like a multicolored torch, blooming toward the sky.

Compared with several multi-petal strange-flower varieties from Taiwan, China, Zhuhai Fisher Girl combines the peculiarities of Yu Shizi, Guoxiang Mudan, Datun Qilin and other flowers. Its shape resembles Yu Shizi, its petals resemble Guoxiang Mudan, and its lip resembles Datun Qilin, but in terms of flower shape, petals or color, it compares favorably with them and even surpasses them, especially in fragrance: Zhuhai Fisher Girl is delicately fragrant and rich, far surpassing the Taiwan, China-produced Cymbidium sinense, whose fragrance is somewhat inferior.

Market, Cultivation and Other Matters

Zhuhai Fisher Girl has a history of nearly 20 years since its discovery, so it can be called a new-old variety among strange-flowered Cymbidium sinense varieties. In the first few years, along with the ups and downs of the Cymbidium sinense market at the time, the price of Zhuhai Fisher Girl seedlings also went through changes from 10,000 to more than 100,000. The most remarkable was a transaction with a Taiwan, China businessman in 1995 - one pot for 590,000 yuan. That can be considered the peak moment of Zhuhai Fisher Girl. Such a price among the Guangdong-produced Cymbidium sinense of that time could only be compared with Shenzhou Qi. In the past five or six years, the Cymbidium sinense market has gradually gone quiet, and after nearly 20 years of cultivation and propagation, Zhuhai Fisher Girl is already quite numerous, and its price has gradually come down. At present the seedling price is stable between 250-400 yuan. As one of the best varieties among multi-petal strange-flowered Cymbidium sinense, the current price is already very attractive, and orchid enthusiasts who like Cymbidium sinense naturally should not miss it.

This variety has robust plants, a well-developed root system, strong disease resistance, and is easy to cultivate. However, there are points to note in the process of growing and tending it. The bud gestation period of Zhuhai Fisher Girl is very long, and the nutrients it needs to consume are correspondingly increased. Therefore, in daily management, care should be taken to give it more sun after autumn begins and to apply more phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, so as to help the plant accumulate sufficient nutrients. In addition, if you want the flowers to open fully, it is best to plant three or more connected plants together. Otherwise, insufficient nutrient supply may lead to bud blasting, and even if it manages to bloom, it will be like a beauty in illness, retaining only the form but losing the spirit. Last year I had a pot of two plants that was like this: one scape with five flowers finally produced only two that could open, and the number of tiny petals inside was sharply reduced, and the fragrance was somewhat weaker as well.

In the process of cultivation we found that Zhuhai Fisher Girl is in fact a strange-flower variety rich in variability, and the plant is rich in crystal-quality variation. Many times, the new shoots of Zhuhai Fisher Girl will carry broom-tail-like crystal lines, bringing exciting anticipation, but most of the time these gradually disappear as the plant grows. Sometimes, however, when the leaves unfurl, one or two crystal lines suddenly appear on the new leaves, either long or short, either transparent or cloudy. But in any case, the currently common crystal-quality variation is still unstable. What is hateful is that some orchid dealers take advantage of these plants with occasional unstable crystal-quality variation and sell them as strange flowers with crystal arts, in order to deceive orchid enthusiasts who do not know the truth. Everyone should be on full alert when buying this kind of orchid in the future. Recently, from books and periodicals one can see that some orchid enthusiasts in Taiwan, China have cultivated Zhuhai Fisher Girl plants with line arts, including claw arts, striped variegation and so on. Regardless of whether these are natural variations or produced by technological means, I think they will not affect our love for and pursuit of these varieties that are both flower and art.

Zhuhai Fisher Girl was originally a city sculpture of Zhuhai City, located on the beautiful Xianglu Bay in Zhuhai City. She carries a fishing net on her shoulder, her trouser legs lightly rolled up, and both hands raise high a sparkling, brilliant pearl, with a joyful yet shy expression, offering treasure to humankind. Zhuhai Fisher Girl is also the flower of Zhuhai, yet it has long since walked out of Zhuhai's harbor and into the homes of orchid enthusiasts all over the country, blooming toward the sky year after year, weaving a petal hydrangea in the flower's heart and silently conveying fragrance to people. Excerpted from "Orchid Treasure Classic"