A New Perspective on Appreciating Orchids: Enjoying the Beauty of Orchids from a Different Angle

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Generally speaking, there are three viewpoints for appreciating orchids: appreciating the flowers, appreciating the leaves, and appreciating the plant. Orchids, orchids - first comes flower appreciation: fragrance, color, form, and so on. Orchids are certainly flowering plants for appreciation. Next comes leaf appreciation. Although orchids do not belong to the concept of foliage plants in contemporary horticultural flowers, their leaves' elegance and refinement are fully worth appreciating. Even without flowers, orchids can still be appreciated for their leaves - flowers are enjoyed for a time, leaves for a year. Another viewpoint in orchid appreciation that has developed over the past dozen or so years is plant appreciation - appreciating the whole orchid plant, such as the sturdiness of dwarf varieties, the striking unusualness of dragon varieties, the strange transformations of crystal varieties, and so on. These orchids mostly do not emphasize flower appreciation; even if their flowers are quite ordinary, some people still appreciate them. Of course, if the flowers are also good, their ornamental value becomes even higher. It can be seen that plant appreciation is also a viewpoint.

What I want to discuss is another viewpoint in orchid appreciation: bud appreciation. The Qing Dynasty figure Zheng Banqiao had a poem praising orchids: "I planted potted orchids and returned to my hometown; the rain and dew of heaven make them lush and dark green. Today I hold a handful of thriving orchid buds, and rejoice again that the mountain climate endures." The Southern Song Dynasty figure Lu You also had a poem praising orchids: "The icy stream suddenly opens, cold currents green; the orchid clump newly releases red dew-tipped buds." Clearly, "a handful of thriving orchid buds" and "newly releases red dew-tipped buds" were also viewpoints from which poets appreciated and praised orchids.

Not long ago, I followed comrades from the Guangdong TV filming crew to Chaoshan, Guangdong, for filming and interviews. When we visited Mr. Yang Weigang, president of the Chenghai City Orchid Association, and the reporter pointed the camera at him and brought the microphone close to him, unexpectedly the first thing he said was: "What I most like to look at are orchid buds." He pointed to the orchid buds at the base of a potted orchid that had flowers, leaves, and a very beautiful plant form; his viewpoint was not on the flowers, leaves, or plant, but on the buds. He continued: "Orchid buds break through the soil, sturdy, pure, full of vitality, like pearls and jade; they truly make one's heart drunk. I just like appreciating orchid buds." In the realm of appreciation, in the world of art, things are extremely broad; each person can have their own preferences, and each person has their own interests. As long as it is healthy, there is no need to promote one and disparage another; let each person have freedom of spirit.

Indeed, orchid buds have their own qualities worth appreciating. Some orchid buds look like ivory carvings, some like pearl grains, some like agate tips, some like emerald jade; most can give people a feeling of purity, jade-like smoothness, sturdiness, and simple elegance. Pure and elegant like these "pearls and jades," flourishing with vitality - how beautiful, orchid buds. The especially pure orchid buds, that is, those containing no mixed color at all, not even the slightest trace of mixed color, can often produce plain-colored flowers, meaning the flowers produced are pure-colored flowers, with no mixed-color spots, patches, or lines on the lip, whether white plain flowers, or red plain, yellow plain, light green plain flowers, and so on. In short, they are pure-colored flowers. Their bud color often resembles the flower color: red buds produce red flowers, white buds produce white flowers, but there are also red buds that produce plain white flowers, such as the red-bud plain in Zhongshan City, Guangdong. Things always have exceptions, and orchids are the same. Orchid buds may be pure or pointed; some look like knife tips, some like peanut kernels. Orchid growers often like to select and plant those whose orchid buds look like peanut kernels, believing they may later produce large flowers, either lotus-type or plum-type, which will be somewhat better looking than ordinary orchids. Therefore, examining the color and shape of orchid buds is also one of the secrets of orchid selection and breeding. Orchid growers have also studied this a great deal.

Every spring, when mountain orchids come to market, the stalls are filled with all kinds of newly collected mountain orchids. Buyers often turn their eyes to the orchid buds of these mountain orchids, and some even carefully examine the orchid buds with a magnifying glass, hoping to discover something and foresee something. There is no greater attention paid to orchid buds than this. But apart from a very small number of orchid growers who can judge accurately and predict very well, buying at a cheap price orchid seedlings that will later have superb flowers, most people still cannot judge accurately: they think the buds are very good, but the flowers that later open are only ordinary. In this examination, hope and expectation, shrewd foresight and careless mistaken selection, life philosophy is also fully present - it is even more trouble than choosing a "successor" or choosing a romantic partner. The misleading that orchid buds give people is sometimes even more dramatic than the misleading that people give people in interpersonal relationships. The ancients said: "Newborn things are ugly." I think this is only an observation of animals. Look at those kittens and puppies: some have not yet opened their eyes, some are all knotted skin, squeaking and squealing - how ugly. When they grow to maturity, young men and young women, handsome boys and pretty girls, then they are beautiful. But with plants it is otherwise: new buds and tender seedlings, when they break through shell or stem and emerge, are often pearl-like and jade-like - how beautiful. For plants, one could also say, "Newborn things are beautiful."

Although plants and animals both belong to living things, their manifestations are often completely different. Newborn animals are often ugly, while newborn plants are often beautiful; this is one point. Furthermore, animals often keep their reproductive organs (whether female or male) hidden, such as growing in relatively concealed places. Plants are different: plants often let their reproductive organs (flowers, ovaries, pistils, stamens, fruits, and so on) appear openly, such as growing in the most conspicuous places, or appearing in the most conspicuous forms. Ecologically, plants are much more sexual than animals. We do not go to appreciate animals' reproductive organs, yet we all go to appreciate plants' reproductive organs - appreciating their flowers, their pistils, stamens, and so on. Is that not strange? One of the viewpoints in orchid appreciation can also be orchid bud appreciation. From the ecological characteristics of plants, this is quite reasonable, and it can also become a consensus among orchid friends.

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