Why a 4,000 yuan orchid left me completely baffled after it bloomed

Last year, through the introduction of a fellow townsman, I bought a pot of an orchid called Ruidie at a stall in the flower market. This fellow townsman said he knew the flower seller, and that the seller had several famous varieties; if someone else bought one, it would cost at least 5,000 yuan per pot. He asked if I wanted one, saying that if I did, I could get it for only 4,000 yuan. At the time I thought, I'd better take a look first before deciding.

When we got there, I picked up the pot and looked it over from side to side, top to bottom. It really was a famous variety, and moreover it was Lushi Ruidie. I asked the seller how much it was, and he said 5,000. Then he saw that my fellow townsman was there too, so he said to me: "If you want it, make it 4,500. Once it blooms, you won't even be able to sell it for 20,000." I said it was too expensive and that I didn't want it, then turned and walked away. When I had gone about four or five steps, the seller called me back and said: "All right, 4,000 it is, take it." After I got back I still felt a bit uneasy, so I called one of my best classmates to come over and take a look, because he has dealt with orchids year-round and is very experienced. After he looked, he also confirmed it was a famous variety. Now I was completely reassured, so I paid the money and took the flower away.

After getting home, I made a special trip to a pine forest on the mountain to find the best soil, and also bought some of the best fertilizer, then very carefully repotted this orchid into a pot. In terms of routine care, I was also extremely diligent. I waited and waited, hoping it would bloom soon. After about several months, its blooming season finally arrived, and I couldn't have been happier at the time. But while waiting for its flowers to open, I really found it a bit hard to believe, and I was also completely baffled. That's because I have grown orchids for more than ten years, and when this pot was bought, aside from not being able to judge it because the flowers had not opened, everything else really did indicate it was a pot of a famous variety.

But I was still wrong. The flowers it produced turned out to be those of an ordinary orchid worth about a hundred or so yuan. Everyone has seen the second picture, right? Isn't it very ordinary? But I still refused to give up. It was clearly a pot of a famous orchid variety, so how could it produce ordinary flowers? Later I took this pot of orchids specially to Xiamen and found a highly renowned orchid expert in the country. He looked it over again and again, then said to me, anyone would take your pot of orchids for a famous variety, and ordinary people cannot tell. Even I, before it blooms, would find it very hard to recognize that it is fake, because orchids like this have their growth artificially controlled by very experienced people applying chemicals to the leaves when they are still seedlings before blooming, making everything except the flowers exactly the same as a famous orchid variety. Even if you had grown orchids for decades, you simply could not tell. After I heard what this expert said, so that was how it was. Here, I specifically remind everyone that when buying famous orchid varieties, you must be extremely cautious, so as to avoid unnecessary losses. (The third picture is a photo of the famous orchid Lushi Ruidie in bloom.)