Getting to Know Orchids: Experience the Unique Charm of the Faint Orchid Fragrance

Promoting Chinese orchid culture, spreading orchid knowledge

On a Saturday in spring four years ago, I was strolling through the flower market in the provincial capital as usual, looking for things I liked among the tree stumps the mountain farmers had brought in. The early spring sun was warm, and people grew lazier and lazier. Strolling through the bonsai and tree stump trading area, I ran into many familiar faces and we greeted one another, bustling and lively. The ground was covered with Sageretia thea, Chinese elm, and five-needle pine, single-trunk, multi-trunk, and cliff-hanging branches, in a myriad of forms; in the past two years the price of raw stumps had also risen, and the quality was not as good as before. After wandering around for quite a while I found nothing. Suddenly I noticed several people gathered together arguing about something, so I joined the fun and squeezed forward. It turned out to be a man from Zhejiang selling orchids. At the time I only knew that what he was selling was Cymbidium goeringii. The man from Zhejiang said to the person closest to him: Don't worry, everything I sell is wild-collected. This one has a minimum price of 200 yuan, otherwise I won't sell it. Looking at the plant in his hand, I couldn't make out anything special after a long while; I only heard him say something about petal type. Just two sparse stalks of grass, completely unremarkable. 20 years ago, when I had just started work, I planted a whole bucket of orchids in a discarded galvanized iron bucket, and that was when the fragrance of orchids entered my mind.

In the past I had often bought some plants at the market too, 5 jiao or 1 yuan for a flower scape, just to smell the faint fragrance of the orchids. I had also heard that orchids were very valuable, but I had never seen it for myself. At the market, orchids and bonsai were sold in separate zones, and I often saw crowds swarming around the orchid stalls, but I never paid much attention. Squatting in this group of people for quite a while, I handed out a few cigarettes to several people who seemed to know their stuff, to get friendly with them. These "masters" then opened up, talking about petal types, butterfly flowers, and crystal, leaving me completely bewildered, while I pretended to understand and nodded along with a humble, ingratiating look.

The man from Zhejiang thought I was a beginner. After rummaging around for a while he took out a plant and said: Brother, I'll give you a good deal, take it for 30 yuan. He also said a whole lot about the plant's characteristics. I couldn't show no interest at all, so I pretended to be generous, paid the money, and left with the plant, still muttering to myself: 30 yuan could buy a pretty good raw stump.

Two years ago I moved house and now live in an apartment building. The small balcony with walls on two sides is crammed full of bonsai in large and small pots. The environment is poor, the humidity is low, and most of them grow listlessly. I often have to carry them up and down, which is a real hassle, and watering them every day affects the lives of my neighbors. I had long wanted to try something different, but had never found anything suitable. Today it seemed I had a bit of a clue. The next day, also a Sunday morning, I headed straight for the orchid stalls. Over a hundred people were packed together. Some were rummaging back and forth through the mountain farmers' piles of plants; some were holding plants and looking them over left and right, holding them up to the sun, examining them carefully with a magnifying glass, as if diamonds were hidden inside; some were haggling loudly, arguing red in the face over five or ten yuan; some wore serious expressions, explaining something to the few people beside them; and some had come purely to buy plants and enjoy the fragrance, quickly picking a few and turning to leave.

Being new here, I didn't dare speak. When I saw people talking I quietly gathered around to listen to what they were saying; when I saw others paying attention to a plant, I stood beside them and looked too, and once they put it down I would pick it up pretentiously and examine it carefully. A mountain farmer of about 40 said to a flower-selling girl: Look at this plant of yours, it has a bit of swept tip. I hurried forward and saw clearly that the leaf tip of a small plant had a bit of yellow, and I quietly noted it in my mind.