Orchids are easy to grow, have a long blooming period, and strong fragrance; their flower shapes are unusual and the price is cheap, making them suitable for beginners.

Introduction

Green plants and potted flowers are essential decorative items for home life. Keeping some flowers and plants at home has many benefits: it beautifies the room and pleases the mood. "Huasheng Potted Plant Diary · Issue 1210" introduces you to a kind of orchid very worth having.

Today's Featured Plant

Orchids are a traditional famous flower of China, with a long history of cultivation. There are countless ancient poems and flowers related to them, and they are deeply loved by the Chinese people. To this day, they remain one of the most important indoor potted flowers for the home. There are many varieties of orchids, and this issue introduces one suitable for beginners to grow. The flower shown above has so many buds that hobbyists who do not know it might think it is a hybrid orchid. In fact, this is an authentic Chinese orchid (guolan), named Fushan Qidie.

Fushan Qidie

Fushan Qidie, abbreviated as Fushan, is a variety of the orchid species Cymbidium ensifolium (jianlan) in the family Orchidaceae. It is one of the classic multi-petal unusual-flower varieties, selected in Taoyuan, Taiwan, China in 1986, and was once very famous. Its leaf width is medium, with a drooping leaf posture. The flower shape is unusual, double-petaled, with flowers within flowers, often with butterfly-like transformations, opening facing upward, not nodding, layered densely, with a full flower shape and brilliant flower color. The lower the temperature, the more pink the flower color tends to be. A single flower scape can bear several flowers, and it is deeply loved by orchid enthusiasts.

Long Blooming Period

Fushan belongs to the four-season orchid and blooms very readily. In theory, it can bloom all year round, and usually blooms multiple times a year, concentrated in summer and autumn. It still blooms as usual in the hottest summer, and sometimes also opens in winter and spring, so it can be grown as a potted plant for New Year flowers. Its flowers are large and strongly fragrant; one plant can perfume a whole room. When it blooms, the whole room is filled with fragrance. The scent is very pure and refreshing.

Easy to Cultivate

Four-season orchids generally have strong plants and well-developed root systems. As the saying goes, "growing orchids is growing roots." If the roots are grown well, the plant will naturally be in good condition. Fushan is very easy to cultivate. Use specialized orchid growing medium. Water once a week in spring and autumn, about once every two weeks in winter, and more often in summer, watering thoroughly after the medium dries out. No fertilizer is needed. Place it in a ventilated spot with scattered light. Once you understand its habits, it is very easy to grow, and beginner or lazy flower lovers can grow it well too.

Worth Having

Fushan used to be a variety that orchid enthusiasts scrambled to buy. After all, it is a representative of the unusual-flower type, and it used to be expensive. Now, with the expansion of cultivation, it has become an ordinary grass that everyone can accept. It can be bought for just over ten yuan, making it arguably the most cost-effective famous orchid variety. It can be used by beginners for practice. Paired with an elegant flowerpot to make a floral bonsai, it looks more refined than traditional green plants and flowers. It is a perennial; plant it once and it blooms every year, letting you enjoy both the flowers and the fragrance. It is worth having.