Precious orchids are now mass-produced, yet collectors are searching for wild orchids

Precious orchids have become mass-produced products, yet collectors are searching for wild varieties, all because of their unique character

Most people who grow orchids go through several stages, starting out knowing nothing about orchids and gradually coming to love them. Then they learn to grow them, and when introducing plants, of course they want named ones, famous cultivars with a lineage. But today many famous orchid cultivars are factory-style mass-market products, and they lost their original unique character long ago, just like cookie-cutter "manufactured beauties," all too easy to make people weary of the same look. [Note: Reviewing my translation here - I should complete this segment properly.]

But now more and more orchid collectors are shifting their focus to wild mountain-collected orchids, precisely because mountain-collected orchids have a character that cultivated orchids cannot match. The orchid in the photo below was found by Haoshe Nongfu on a mountain in March of this year, a Cymbidium goeringii with two flowers on one stem, and the flower scape is very tall too. Although its petal shape is not like the lotus or plum types among famous cultivars, its fragrance is truly that of an orchid in a secluded valley.

The orchid in the photo below was found ten meters away from the one in the previous photo. On the same mountain, in the same patch of soil, with the same orientation, varieties this different can still grow - perhaps that is the charm of wild orchids. The distinctive feature of this orchid is in its petals: amid the pinkish-white petals, a stroke of rouge red is painted in a stunning way, the petals are glutinous, solid and thick, and its fragrance is even more distant and subtle than the previous one.

This is an orchid that has not yet opened, and it has its own distinctive feature too. Its flowers face upward toward the sky, and every single flower on this one orchid does so, five flowers in total. Although when it was found you could not yet see the petals or the lip, and no floral scent could be smelled either, is this sky-facing personality alone not enough to make it worthy of our affection?

This is a Cymbidium goeringii that looks very ordinary; what attracted Haoshe Nongfu was its fragrance. At the time it was on the same mountain as the several orchids above. Haoshe Nongfu had been tramping through the mountain wilds for half a day and felt tired, so he sat down to rest in an open spot. Suddenly a gust of wind blew past carrying floral fragrance, and Haoshe Nongfu is naturally sensitive to orchid fragrance, so he got up to search for it. In the end, he only found it more than 30 meters away from where he had smelled the fragrance. Every orchid on the mountain has a slightly different fragrance, so Haoshe Nongfu knew that the one he had just smelled was this one.

The column of this orchid is a little hooded, and the red of its lip is very beautiful. Perhaps because of the lighting, the photo did not come out ideally, but when he saw it on the mountain, Haoshe Nongfu was intoxicated by its fragrance.

Fellow orchid growers, do you think it is better to grow famous cultivars? Or mountain-collected orchids? Your valuable opinions are welcome.