Introduction to orchids - The flower of the God - Queen of the flowers - The star of Bethlehem
Among thousands of blooming scent flowers that God has bestowed on us mankind, orchids are listed by the Asians as a flower royal. Disa uniflora orchid is known as: The flower of the God, Cattleya is Queen of the flowers, Angraecum sesquipedale is: Star of the city of Bethlehem ( The star of Bethlehem), orchids Brassavola nodosa: beauty in the dark.
Vietnam, our hometown is also home to more than 140 types of orchids divided into about 1000 original varieties. These orchids breed in forests, Cao Bang, Cha pa, Lao Kay, Hue, Hai Van, Quy Nhon, Kontum, Pleiku, Ban Me thuot, Phan Rang, Da Lat, Di Linh, etc. Vietnamese orchids have a lot of rare trees and there are trees previously only found in Vietnam such as the paphiopedilum delenati, white and pink lips by a French soldier found in the uplands of North Vietnam. In 1913, it was also found in Trung Viet in 1922 and then it was not found again in 1990-1991 in Khanh Hoa.
Nearly 50 years of extinction, this orchid has enriched a number of European growers, transplanted, sowed seeds, and sold at a quite high price.
Joao de Loureiro, a missionary found Aerides odorata in an area near Hue and after traveling around Southeast Asia he wrote a book about the Aerides orchids in 1790. An orchid of this type sold in London in 1855 was 89 British dollars about 225 USD and a Vanda tree, Professor Pham Hoang Ho called Hue Da, but the orchid players in the country transcribed as Van Da's selling price in 1885 was 180 British dollars, about 450 dollars.
Cattleya orchids yellow
Queen of the flowers Cattleya - Queen of the flowers
Rhynchostylis retusa
Many Vietnamese orchids, flowers are really beautiful, fragrant aroma, the name is elegant, beautiful such as: White jade, Christmas spring, Crane attach, Long tu, Gia crane, Kim Kha, Bach phoenix, Hoang Thao , Ngoc points etc .. In literature, there is no shortage of orchid stories like Huong pebbles in Writer Nguyen Tuan's time and the stories of writer Nhat Linh.
Before 1975, tourists to Dalat, Lam Dong just spent a few dozen silver to have beautiful orchids. At the bird market, Ham Nghi Street Dog Market, commonly known as Old Market, is also a place where orchids are sold at the end of the year. In spring mornings, pedestrians walking through long shaded Duy Tan Street, Gia Long park full of starry trees, towering ruins, or green tree-lined Nguyen Binh Khiem Street, often see incense fragrant like a deep smell, a subtle cinnamon smell here It is the scent of the purple and red Rhynchostylis gigantea flower clusters growing on the rows of tamarind, oil and star trees that the common people in Saigon have given a name that is not elegant at all: tamarind orchid, orchid but I forgot the beautiful name and the text is "Ngoc Di".
Currently in the country there are many collectors and researchers about orchids and there are also companies growing orchids for sale and export, but with a limited capital, rudimentary technology, so they cannot compete with neighboring countries. has been in the international market for a long time. In addition, due to the international law protecting rare species and plants due to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITIES) convention, which prohibits the purchase and sale of some specialties, the orchids of Vietnam It is difficult to be officially imported into the United States. Meanwhile, many traders have hired people to go to deep forests and high mountains to find any large, precious or not orchid that will be sold to Thai or Taiwanese traders at a low price: 2 USD a kilogram. The orchid clusters still sold at orchids associations in Santa Barbara or South Coast Plaza may be originating in Vietnam.
Cymbidium ensifolium
Talking about orchids, must talk about the Chinese. LAN, we have borrowed from them. The Chinese people knew about orchids around 2500 years ago. The era of Confucius 551-479 before the nativity of Christ had the phrase "Offering orchid to God". In the 300th solar year, they knew about the mandala, Cymbidium ensifolium. Vietnam also has this orchid, named Thanh Ngoc, growing in small bushes, leaves about 40-50 centimeters long, light green or light brown flowers, fragrant scent often found in Lao kay, Ha Nam, Kontum, Gia. rails and Lam Dong, selling in the US at about $ 30-40 per small pot. Year 1000 Chinese people have books about about 1000 orchid varieties and planting instructions.
FLOWERS IN EUROPE USA
Orchids, most commonly grown in the tropics and were brought back by captains, merchants, missionaries, and tourists, so Europeans came to know very late. In 1510 they only learned to spread the Vanilla fruit for confectionery. The first orchid tree brought to the UK is the Disa uniflora tree by Captain John Ray took from the Cape of Hope - Cape of Good Hope. But in fact Europe also has many orchids like Dactylorhiza in England, Gymnadenia is very fragrant and many flowers in France and Germany, etc. It should be added that the word ORCHID due to the Greek word ORCHIS. In the 75th year of the solar calendar, perhaps when he saw a certain orchid, Pedanius Dioscorides had an image that named the orchid with a Greek name that was not elegant at all: Testicule = Ngoc onion.
The United States also has beautiful orchids like the Cypripedium acaule growing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire state. California also has the state-named comedy orchid that is often seen growing in Yosemite National Park.
Cypripedium californicum
Starting in 1731, European - American scientists and herbs have just started studying orchids and sought to classify them according to criteria: growth conditions, reproduction, and shape. John Lindley was born in England in 1799, he went to many places to study orchids and left the world a set of books that could be said to be an extremely precious sutra, currently priced at $ 1200. He died in 1865 and was awarded the title Father of Orchids = Father of orchids.
Royal Horticulture UK, Royal Horticulture Society (RHS) was established in 1889, but not until 1897 officially awarded orchids. The first orchid to win the first prize, First Class Certificate (FCC) is the Cattleya dormaniana tree originating from Costa Rica.
American Orchid Society (AOS) established in 1921 with a starting number of 100 members. Currently a total of about 30,000 people including 330 local chapters and 170 chapters from other countries around the world. Want to join the American orchid association just send $ 60 per annuity to the address: American Orchid Society, 16700 AOS Lane, Delray Beach, Florida 33446-4351. The association will send new members a summary book about orchids and how to plant some common orchids, a book clearly stating the association's rules and regulations, the names of the staff members in the executive committee, the honorary members, the judges, the addresses and phone numbers of the guilds, local orchid gardens, etc. in addition, monthly members also receive an orchids monthly magazine that states the activities of the association and valuable research papers.
CHARACTERISTICS OF HOA LAN
Orchids are popular because:
- The color is bright, full of looks, from clear as jade, white as ivory, silky smooth, smooth as chalk, dark purple, light red, brown, green, yellow, purple to dot, speckled, striped, There is no shortage of zigzagging.
- The real shape is different from hundreds of thousands of different shapes, although most of them are only 5 wings wrapped around a lip = lip, but each flower has its unusual differences. Orchids have round wings, some kind of pointed wings, some kind of truncate, some kind of outstretched lines, some zigzags, wavy lines, some have beard, tangerine spout, there are flowers like butterfly, bee (Ophrys insectifera). Orchids have small flowers like the tip of a gout but also have Grammatophylum speciosum orchid dust in the Philippines that is nearly 10 meters high, about 2 meters long and weighs about a ton. This orchid also grows in Vietnam but is only 2-3 meters high and bears the same name as the famous singer: Thanh Tuyen.
- Orchids of all kinds: fragrant, gentle, faint, sweet, high bar, regal so the ladies have to pay a very expensive price for a small perfume bottle. In Thailand there is a Vanda that is anonymously and strictly protected, a fragrance dedicated to supplying a reputable perfume maker. If the orchids bloom soon and at night, no matter how fragrant and sharp they can be, they cannot be listed as a royal flower. Orchids, if kept at the right temperature and humidity, can remain intact, intact from 2 weeks to two months, some up to 4 months, with things blooming year round, but also Type only 1-2 days has faded.
Many people find orchids often cling to branches, rocky cavities, so they think that orchids are a kind of mistletoe (Parasite), but in fact, orchids do not live on the sap of the tree. Lan just cling to it to live, absorb the natural essences carried by flowers, rotten leaves, bird droppings and other crystals transported by rain and wind.
People often mistakenly call all types of orchids orchids. But actually orchids grow in many places and are divided into the following 4 categories:
Epiphytes Orchids cling to branches or stems.
Terestrials Cymbidium grows underground.
Lithophytes Orchid agar grows in rocks.
Saprophytes Orchids grow on moss or rotting wood
Orchids grow in all five continents, four seas, from cold snowy regions to hot, arid deserts, from high mountains, deep forests to meadows of the plains and even wetlands. everywhere. Most orchids prefer to grow in tropical forests, especially in the Andes mountains of South America and the Himalayas of Asia. In these places, most of them are 3,000 feet to 7,000 feet high and the temperature varies from 50 to 90 ° F and every month it rains at least 3-4 inches of water.
Orchids belong to a large flower species with about 750 species and 30,000 primitive varieties and about a million have been artificially or artificially crossed, orchids (Orchidaceae) is a species of flowers in number 2 after the flower. chrysanthemum (Asteraceae). The reason we have to use the word roughly because nowadays, orchids are still growing in many places of deep paint and cup no one knows. Particularly in Vietnam, in the past decades, people have found some plants that have never been in the list of international orchids. They are Christensonia viêtnamica, Renanthera citrina, Paphiopedilum helenae, Paphiopedilum vietnamense and Paphiopedilum hiepii.
Calanthe Dorminii orchid is the first tree to be grafted in 1858, this type of Vietnamese name is Kieu orchid or rather called wine gourd orchid. Currently, the International Registration Authority for Orchid Hybrids (International Registration Authority for Orchid Hybrids) certifies their names and commercial copyrights for about 300-400 new orchids every month. world.
NAME LANAN
The names of orchids include 4 parts:
1- The first line contains species of orchids such as Cattleya. Cymbidium Oncidium, Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilum etc ...
2- The second line of letters indicates the name of the orchid tree. The name of orchid plant varieties is italicized in lowercase letters eg Paphiopedilum hiepii. named after professor Nguyen Tien Hiep who found, or named the place where the original was found as Paphiopedilum philippinense, the name of a comedy orchid found in the Philippines. This name is also used to refer to colors such as Masdevallia coccinea, coccinea meaning red, or to refer to aromas like Aerides odorata or to indicate the state of flowers such as Dendrobium pendula, Vietnamese name Hoang Nhan with a droopy bunch of flowers.
3- If the name is written in capital letters like Paphiopedalum Olivia, only tell us that the orchid has been grafted (due to the Paphiopedilum niveum grafted with the Paphiopedilum tonsum orchid, this name was confirmed in 1988.)
4- For example, Mr. Pham Hai Nam planted this orchid tree, flowers blooming beautifully, he took the contest and won the first prize, this tree will carry the name given by Mr. Nam and the award as follows: Paph. Olivia 'Two Men' FCC / AOS
The American Orchid Society has the following awards:
FCC First Class Certificate = first class
AM Award of Merit = runner up
HCC Highly Commended Certificate = third place
C.C.M Certificate of Cutural Merit = Prize growing
AOS American Orchid Society = American Orchid Society.
In the past, if you wanted to have orchids, you had to roll into deep forests and high mountains to find them. But starting in 1898 people have been successful in sowing and commercially flourishing since 1908. Usually other varieties have separate male and female flowers, but orchids have both male and female stamens. In a flower, except for a few like Catasetum etc. At first it was used by insects for pollination but then it was done within 1 minute and anyone could do it, except Some varieties are quite difficult. An average orchid has about a million small seeds and can be collected in different durations according to the variety. But when sowing seeds for seedlings, it is a pretty dreadful thing to disinfect, disinfect and germinate solutions for orchids. In 1960, French professor Georges Morel invented the Meristem method, which means cutting the sprout or spreading roots into small pieces and then placing them in a special solution, keeping on the machine while rotating and shaking. A few weeks later, this orchid will become a mass like silk, divided and planted into small orchids. At first, Professor Morel experimented with potatoes and dahlia flowers and then Cymbidium orchids. Then the scientists from Europe and America brought applications to other orchids. Vacherot orchid growers - Lecouffle in France is the first place to sell orchids cultivated by this method in 1964. Thanks to the Meristem method, many rare orchids are not extinct, but also because of that, the price of orchids is completely reduced. down.
Thanks to abundant facilities, abundant books, education, high technology, many amateurs today can also transplant orchids in the two ways mentioned above. Orchids grown by seeds, when flowering, each plant is a little different, but orchids made up of tissue culture are all the same as the mother plant. Growing orchids have now turned into an industry with an investment of up to tens of millions of dong. Every locality has orchid gardens, large ranging from 5-10 greenhouses to 30-40 acres, small from terraces to shaded gardens.
Orchids, the price is not too expensive, average 10-30 $ per pot, planting orchids does not take too much time, needing 10-15 minutes a week for 15-20 pots. Lan is not too difficult to grow and does not need to have green thumbs as many people think, just determination and attention to the points in the following tutorials are enough.
