When buying orchids with flower buds out of season, you need to look carefully to tell them apart; the second type cannot be kept alive.

This is a cymbidium (Cymbidium faberi). It was collected from the wild in March of this year. At that time, this cymbidium was growing on a fairly exposed spot at the top of a mountain, and it looked like it had suffered cold damage last winter. When it was collected, it had no flower buds, and the plant itself was in very poor condition.

After potting, the plant never recovered. On July 5, it was discovered that it had actually produced a flower bud, and there were also two new shoots. This is clearly abnormal; cymbidiums rarely produce flower buds in this season, and its new shoots were also the kind known as "submarine shoots," curving out and growing from the middle of the base, which looked very laborious.

When it comes to orchids producing flower buds out of season, there are two situations. The first is when the orchid missed its blooming period that spring, or was affected by external forces and failed to produce flower buds. Generally, plants in this situation are not weak, and have enough conditions and energy to produce buds. But the flowers they produce are mostly not as good in quality as those in the normal season.

But a cymbidium like this one is clearly not that situation. This is the second type. Plants have a kind of reproductive signal; once they feel their life is nearly over, they will use up all their energy to reproduce. Blooming is only the first step of reproduction; this is an instinctive reaction formed during the plant's evolution. As written in textbooks, this is the plant's reproductive growth.

For the first type of orchid, Haoshe Farmer recommends removing the flower buds; the key is to grow a strong plant. After all, out-of-season orchids are not fragrant or beautiful enough, and there is no need to lose the good opportunity to grow the plant for their sake.

As for the second type of plant, it basically cannot be kept alive. Haoshe Farmer also saw online a while ago that someone was selling this kind of out-of-season orchid plant with flower buds. Of course, they will clean up the orchid plant neatly and then make up a story for it, and often they can still sell it for a good price.

But orchid enthusiasts, especially beginner orchid enthusiasts, mistakenly think that this kind of orchid has new shoots and flower buds, and feel as if they have gotten a bargain. They do not know that those new shoots are actually waste shoots, and the flower buds are also impossible to open; most importantly, the orchid plant simply cannot be kept alive.

So when you encounter this kind of orchid that produces flower buds out of season, you must look carefully: is its plant strong enough? Did it actually miss its blooming period, or did it produce flower buds because its reproductive signal burst out before dying?