Orchid beginners should choose this one: easy to grow, easy to bloom, and cheap, with high ornamental value and a strong fragrance

Introduction

Green plants and potted flowers are essential decorative elements of home life. Keeping some flowers and plants at home has many benefits: it can beautify the room and delight the mood. "Huasheng Potted Plant Diary · Issue 1312" introduces an orchid suitable for beginners to grow.

Today's featured plant

Orchids are a traditional famous flower of China, with a long history of cultivation. They have been loved by Chinese people since ancient times, and there are countless ancient poems and verses related to them, so they can be said to be an important part of Chinese culture. Previous issues have introduced many issues on Cymbidium ensifolium and Cymbidium goeringii. This issue introduces a kind of Cymbidium faberi worth getting.

Dayipin

This flower is named Dayipin, the first of the eight old varieties of Cymbidium faberi. Its flower shape is large, with a narrowed base and flared lower petals, and among Cymbidium faberi it is the one most similar to a lotus-petal type (the ancients called it the true lotus type). A poem praises it: "With the bearing of a scholar and the talent of an exiled immortal, guests vie to praise it as the leader; since entering Jiangnan its reputation has grown heavy, and a thousand pieces of gold would not exchange this chief of flowers."

High ornamental value

The flowers of Dayipin are often pale yellow-green, with purplish-red spots on the lip, giving an overall fresh and elegant impression; it blooms abundantly, often sending up several scapes at once, and a single flower scape can bear dozens of flowers at the same time. It is fragrant, with a pure, rich and lingering scent. It usually blooms from March to May, after the flowering period of Cymbidium ensifolium and Cymbidium goeringii.

Easy to cultivate

Compared with Cymbidium ensifolium, Cymbidium faberi is somewhat more delicate, and cultivation and care require some effort. Beginners are advised to use special orchid soil, not garden soil directly. It likes a semi-shaded, ventilated and cool environment, and is best placed in a ventilated, cool spot with diffused light. It must not be exposed to strong sunlight in summer, and watering should follow the rule of watering thoroughly only after the soil has dried out.

Orchid bonsai

As the foremost of Cymbidium faberi, Dayipin once commanded a high price. Of course, wild-collected orchids still are not cheap today. Tissue-cultured seedlings cultivated by orchid farms are consistent in quality, yet their price is very affordable, making them suitable for beginners as practice plants: if they fail to keep them alive, there is no heartache, and if they grow them well, they will have a beautiful potted bonsai flower.