Hi Longriver, can you post any pics. Never heard of these. Thanks. PS. what is the fragrance like?

I am a newbie for this orchid flower. My sister grows this kind of orchids. So I am very familiar with the nice fragrance. The flower is small and the fragrance is of a class by itself. The ancient Chinese book (about 2,000 years ago) rated Chinese Peony and Orchids to be the top of all flowers.

After I went to China this year by chance to see a Chinese orchid show. I decided to collect a few for the wonderful fragrance.

I just ordered 5 cultivars from Texas. The web site has the pictures at sale@bambooorchid.com. You can check it out about the pictures and the general idea.

I don't know why Chinese Orchids are not popular here. There are so many cultivars and most of them have very nice and unique features, notably beautiful foliage (very long and slender) and wonderful fragrance. Some fragrance kind of reminding me of Chinese rice flower. Lots of them don't have showy flowers and there are several kinds have huge flower stalks with hunders of large flowers with nice light fragrance.
The fragrance usually not very strong but could waft tens of feet away. One tiny flower can fill the whole room with unique fragrance, but when you want to trace it, you can't locate where it's from.
I know all this because my wife grow up in ShaoXing, one very nice small city with 3000 years history. People there grow all kinds of exotic flowers especially orchids. In one small market, I saw like over 300 cultivars of Chinese orchids. The most popular one, spring orchids grow like weeds there, only cost 1 buck a orchid.

Fantastic information.

Most of mine are Cym. ensifolium.

Translation from http://www.plant.ac.cn/hua/01-28/2347.htm

Three pots culture method

March in the spring and September autumn in the fall are the only times to divide Chinese Classic Orchids (CCO). The successful cultivation of CCO requires extensive knowledge on their culture. The key is the root. Here is the method lectured to me by a CCO master. I had success using this method.

The so-called "three pots" means you use a big, a medium and a small pots for each plant.

Step 1: Choose one large tall Chinese/Japanese Classic orchid pot; one medium (size 3) orchid pot, expend the draining hole to almost the whole bottom; and one egg-sized pottery pot.

Step 2: Place the medium pot, upside-down, into the large pot. The draining holes of the two pots are in one line. Then place the small pot, upside-down, onto the draining hole of the medium pot. The diameter of the opening of the small pots should be the same size as the bottom of the medium pot. The height of the small pot is a quarter to a third the height of the medium pot. Use a small piece of window mesh to cover the draining hole of the small pot.

Step 3: Dip the newly divided CCO shoot, or newly wild-dug plant, into anti Fungi solution. Let it dry in shade. The roots must look dry on the outside. Gently organize the roots, ride it over the small and medium pots inside the large pot. You MUST NOT break any root, for that may lead to the death of the whole plant. In the end, gently add the CCO special cultivation soil/media (made from carbon, barks, perlites, stones, pottery balls, composed pine needles, etc.) into the large pot. After you finish filling the pot, hold the outer pot with both of your hands, lightly drop it on a wood surface once  to increase the contact surface between orchid roots and media. Then you must cover the soil top with white stones or green moss. This is a must because if any of the leaves of the orchid touches the soil, the whole plant may die of infection.

Step 4: If the soil is wet to touch, water in about 5 days. If the soil is dry, water immediately. Use sterilized rain or snow water before the roots heal. Place the plant in to half shade with good air flow for at least a month.

Step 5: After that, it is you usually care practice for these CCOs. This is not an easy practice itself.

The benefits of this method are:
1. Improved aeration of roots.
2. The empty center serves to cool the roots during summer heat. The roots can be easily killed/rot due to heat.
3. Improve humidity inside the pot; assuming the environment is humid in the first place.

Chinese classic orchids are chased after for their simple, and preserved elegance. Their unique style and culture-needs inspired generations of old-school Chinese scholars.

Winterview orchids on the web specializes in these cym species, and has some great cultural info. New World Orchids, and Asiatica nursery, a specialty nursery run by famous plantsman Barry Yinger, also has many selections, although they can get pricey!

I've grown cym. ensifolium var Yu Hua for several years, and it's been almost bulletproof. The fragrance is indeed one of my favorites, although I've had some bug problems. I'm now growing formosanum and sinense, and looking forward to some winter blooms.

I'd take these over giant, standard cymbidiums most days!

Great thread!

Jim

PS -- Longriver, have you ever seen chloranthus spicatus growing or for sale in the US? There's very little info on the web. Thanks!

I have cymbidium ensifolium Kuan Yin Su Xin (White Goddess of Mercy) and Golden Elf.... their fragrance is wonderful, one of my favorites. There's the traditional planting method using the deep cym pots, but they also do ok in a plain plastic pot... mine are in regular orchid mix mixed with a bit of long fiber sphag.

hello guys, could you please let me know where to buy chinese fragrant orchids? chun lan or mo lan.

Thanks,
lvyao

lvyao,
You can find several varieties being sold on eBay right now. The cheapest one are some C. ensifoliums. And the most expensive ones are C. goeringii types. When you do a search on eBay, make sure to tick the box to show sellers from the US only.

Kawamoto Orchids (also on eBay) sells a hybrid called Kusada Shinning 'Palapala' which has C. ensifolium.

Aloha Orchid Nursery, at the moment, sells 3 different hybrids that are known to be fragrant. From what I read on orchid forums, the Maureen Carter is said to be the most fagrant of those three.

I've read Hatfield Orchids sells C. goeringii in the past. But I don't see any at this time. All I see are hybrids and their fragrance is not really described. Even though they carry 'Asian Style Hybrids' that have fragrant Chinese species, the result may not always be fragrant so be cautious when selecting hybrids if you want fragrant ones.

Dar

Here is a link that might be useful: Aloha Orchid Nursery

I am new to these Asian orchids, and would like help on their culture. I notice that c ensifolium is recommended for shade, whereas goeringii and sinese require full sun. is this correct? I would like to grow these inside on a windowsill--do you think that would work? Thanks!