A Brief Introduction to the Variety Characteristics of the Spring Orchid Fugui Hedie
In order to reduce the moisture content of the potting mix that had originally been used for two years, from late spring to early summer of this year I repotted all the orchids in the whole orchid room and added some more media. This autumn quite a few orchids have already been sold, but because the transactions were rushed, or because orchid friends took them away pot and all, I had never been able to carefully check the condition of the potting mix in the pots and how the roots were growing. Today...
In order to reduce the moisture content of the potting mix that had originally been used for two years, from late spring to early summer of this year I repotted all the orchids in the whole orchid room and added some more media. This autumn quite a few orchids have already been sold, but because the transactions were rushed, or because orchid friends took them away pot and all, I had never been able to carefully check the condition of the potting mix in the pots and how the roots were growing. Today it happened that I was completing a trade for a new variety with a good friend, and having nothing else to do, I could examine things carefully. Before emptying the pot I was still a little nervous, but the results of tipping it out and inspecting it were fairly satisfactory. Overall the root activity was quite high, with no damage to root tips, no fertilizer or pesticide burn, no damage from insects or fungi; of the fourth-generation growth only half a yellow leaf remained, but the three roots below the pseudobulb were still intact. After planting in spring, because one old root below the fourth-generation growth had been bent and damaged, there was an empty section of less than 2 cm, but below that point the root still had new growth exceeding 3 cm. When I took it out of the pot I had washed a pair of scissors to have ready, but there was nothing that needed trimming, and the nodes below the pseudobulb were also very fine, separating naturally with a single twist.
Fugui Hedie originally came down from the mountains in Anhui and was purchased by me, and afterwards I shared it out for cultivation with several good friends. In recent years a friend in Anhui said that Fugui Hedie still exists in Anhui and had also flowered, and after sending me photos of the flowers, that too was an outer-petal butterfly type, but it is a different variety from Fugui Hedie; originally there were also orchid friends who bought that variety from Anhui under the name Fugui Hedie. The two front-growth seedlings of this pot of Fugui Hedie went back to be married into Anhui today. --Lanfeng Tangzhu