Orchid sourcing: new orchid growers can refer to these suggestions

I must first state that I am not writing this post to teach people what orchids to source. I know whether I am anybody to do so. What I write is the experience and lessons bought with tuition by me and the orchid growers around me, hoping to give new orchid growers some help.

1. Grow orchids from your local region

Orchids have regions. Jiangsu and Zhejiang grow spring orchids and Huilan orchids, Sichuan people grow spring sword orchids, Yunnan and Guizhou grow lotus-petal orchids; broadly speaking, each has its region. Once any orchid crosses regions, it inevitably fails to adapt to the local environment, and new orchid growers find such situations harder to handle. Even someone like me, who has grown orchids seriously for eight years, still cannot manage it properly. For example, a high-mountain cold orchid from Yunnan that I sourced: five years now, every year it sends up new shoots and drops old pseudobulbs; by last year the old pseudobulbs finally only half died back, and now at least it has one and a half shoots. Waiting for it to bloom, I am afraid my daughter will already be married. But the person who sourced it to me already has two large pots and it has rebloomed. We both started from one shoot, which leaves me with no temper at all. A planted orchid of the send-spring type is the same. Another example: Daxuesu can be called Yunnan's number one famous flower. In Yunnan its petals look somewhat like a rhombus when it blooms, but in Shanghai, if not specially handled, it is bamboo-leaf petals, and it is completely hard to appreciate the elegance of this flower. There is another point: after all, few people grow orchids across regions, so once a problem arises there are fewer people around to consult. In addition, there is another form of non-local plant; I mean re-exported plants. Because I have not sourced old varieties for a long time, I do not know the situation of re-exported plants in recent years. Re-exported plants mainly refers to traditional old-variety plants re-exported back from Japan, South Korea (perhaps also Taiwan, but I do not know the situation in Taiwan, China, so orchid growers who know please add), these plants are fine in variety. According to my experience, after growing them for several years they are no different from locally grown plants. Because these plants are grown in greenhouses with high temperature, high humidity and high fertilizer, their price is also relatively cheap, but ordinary orchid growers face an adaptation process after sourcing them. The first two years are often very difficult, with heavy loss of pseudobulbs, and if you are slightly careless they die, which will be a great psychological blow to new orchid growers. Therefore, in the first few years of growing orchids, I suggest mainly growing local orchids. As for orchid growers in non-orchid-producing areas, honestly I have no experience either, but I think they should also source second- and third-generation plants grown locally, and plants in good condition are more suitable.

2. Before you have some basic experience, please do not rush to source new varieties.

Having a new variety, especially a new variety you can name yourself, is the wish of many orchid growers. But for new orchid growers this often means great risk. I rarely hear of orchid growers being badly cheated when sourcing old varieties or new and old varieties. Whenever someone is badly cheated, it is mostly when buying new flowers at a street stall. The eye for judging varieties cannot be trained in a day. Although orchid books write a lot about experience in identifying fine flowers by the plants, old orchid growers all actually understand in their hearts that what is written is often useless in practice. Relying on that to look for a horse by a picture, most of what you buy back will be toads. Add to that the endless tricks of orchid fakery, and some people's "handwork" is really skillful, so it is better not to trust your own eyesight so much. Build a foundation first, and only after you have at least some identification experience should you consider it. Of course, it is still unavoidable that old masters buy flawed goods. At the same time, you should also accumulate a certain amount of growing experience, at least not only consider it after you often kill plants by growing them. You should know that it is not easy for God to create a fine product, and letting it die and thereby go extinct is very sinful.

3. Accumulating identification experience and growing experience should come from growing old varieties.

Actually I already said this in the last paragraph of "Talking About Tech Orchids Again," but it seems it did not attract attention. It was around 2002, when I had not been growing orchids long, and I was single-mindedly thinking of finding bargains at street stalls. As a result, I paid a lot in tuition but bought nothing. By chance I met Mr. Dai Xianqin, and I kept asking him how to judge plants, and I even took those dogmas from books and made him explain them to me. Later, Mr. Dai was pressed by me until he said, go grow all the old spring orchid varieties yourself for 10 years and you will know everything. This was a shout to wake me up. From then on I began to seriously grow representative classic old varieties of each petal form, such as Song Mei and Jiyuan, and carefully observe the whole process from new shoots not yet emerging from the soil to growing into mature plants. Sometimes I did different comparative tests such as sunny growing, shady growing, fertilizer growing and lean growing, and made a record of every watering and fertilizing. After several years of growing, I unknowingly had some feeling in my heart. Holding an empty plant in my hand, I basically had a rough sense of whether it was a coarse flower or a fine flower, and as for what petal form it was, sometimes I could get one or two right. But this was limited to spring orchids; for Huilan orchids I still could not tell. As for tech orchids, I saw them in large numbers for the first time during this year's Spring Festival, mixed among traditional plants. I could not give any specific reason, only that something felt wrong, and the more I looked the more wrong it felt, especially the plants. Among a large pile they could almost be distinguished immediately, clearly separated. I think this feeling can in fact only be obtained through daily continuous observation, and there is no shortcut. Perhaps it really is as Mr. Dai said: grow them honestly for ten years, and only then will you suddenly understand.

As for growing experience, I think what is obtained from growing old varieties is also more valuable. I do not know how others' experience is. Anyway, my feeling is that fine flowers are much harder to grow than ordinary flowers. I suppose it is because ordinary flowers are the normal state among orchids, while fine flowers are abnormal, so ordinary flowers have stronger adaptability and vitality. Therefore, experience in growing ordinary flowers is often of little use for growing fine flowers. Also, plain-heart orchids seem harder to grow than Song Mei and others. The plain-heart orchids I grow always tend to develop black spots on the leaves, possibly because they are not adapted to my environment. I also hope orchid growers with experience in this can talk about it.

4. Listen widely and collect broadly on growing experience, but mainly rely on yourself

Growing orchids is not easy, so some orchid growers like to ask around everywhere, and when they hear experience that worked for others, they immediately copy it when they get back. The result is changing from one thing to another, and in the end, like the man of Handan learning to walk, they still have not formed their own fixed growing pattern. In fact, everyone's growing environment is different: different floors, different orientations, different climates, different water quality, different potting media, different surrounding environments. Therefore, others' experience is only a reference; the key is still to have your own little calculations for growing orchids. I spent several years sacrificing a few pots of orchids. For those few pots, I used different potting media, placed them in different positions, used different watering methods, applied different fertilizers, and almost every month took them out to look at root growth. In this way I gradually accumulated my own growing experience, and I am still doing this work now, only because I do not have enough time I am less careful than before. But honestly, God is especially harsh on those of us growing orchids in Shanghai. Even with such careful care, all I have achieved is merely not dying. To speak of thriving, I am afraid I will have to wait until I retire and have time to ponder more. And when I went to Shengzhou, Zhejiang, and saw in the local development zone office how spirited the Song Mei they casually grew were, my heart was filled with endless emotion.

5. To increase varieties, mainly exchange, and know when to stop

Sourcing varieties is still quite expensive. Everyone's money is hard-earned, and spending large sums on buying flowers is irresponsible to the family. Therefore, increasing varieties should mainly be through exchanging orchids with orchid growers, increasing varieties for each other, which is the best policy. This requires that in the first or first few sourcing purchases you get some varieties that others will later be willing to exchange with you. You must at least have some capital that can be used for exchange later, so that afterward you can spend less money. So, if what you source is a variety that will later spread everywhere, everyone should know what I mean, I am afraid exchanging it will be a bit difficult.

Orchid varieties can never be fully sourced. When I first grew orchids, I once resolved to collect all varieties in the old orchid manuals, and after retirement publish the most complete orchid manual and growing compendium. Now I gave up that idea long ago; in reality it is impossible with personal ability. I think growing a few representative works of each different petal form is enough. Any more and I really cannot manage them.

The above are some of my insights. Some things I regard as experience may later be proven by myself to be lessons; it is hard to say. I hope more orchid growers can also talk about their experience and lessons without reserve, not be conservative, and not hold the attitude of a mother-in-law looking at a daughter-in-law. That is not good for the entire orchid world. Please also point out what is wrong; it can count as me seeking fame and praise once again.

Orchid Bar, your good teacher on the road of growing orchids