# Chinese Cymbidiums



## abax (Aug 13, 2014)

I've been searching for months for someone/anyone who sells ensifoliums
and can't find a single vendor with the exception of one vendor on ebay
whom I don't know and grows them in straight sphagnum...not my ideal
way to grow Chinese Cyms at all. Any suggestions?????


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## naoki (Aug 13, 2014)

Ten Shin Gardens?


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## MattWoelfsen (Aug 13, 2014)

I would try New World Orchids, they have several Asian cymbidium for sale.

https://newworldorchids.com/product-category/plants/cymbidium/

Every once in awhile eBay vendor japaneseorchids aka Seed Engei sells Asian cymbidium. I buy Neofinetia falcata from them. They have a website too. They do not have any listed on their website, but contact them and they might have them unlisted.

http://www.seed-engei.com

Asian cymbidium are smaller than your average cymbidium and the smaller they are the more expensive! The ones that have variegated leaves are also expensive. These Cymbidium goeringii are from Japan but their origin is from the Himalayas, so I guess they would be considered Chinese.


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## fibre (Aug 13, 2014)

Perner has a lot of Chinese Cymbs. 
You may ask him by e-mail: 
[email protected] or [email protected]


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## abax (Aug 14, 2014)

Thank you all for giving me more leads to follow up. New World shows
mostly the cool growing Chinese Cyms. I love 'em, but my greenhouse
runs a bit warm for them. I'm looking specifically for ensifolium. I know
I can bloom ensi. as I have an ensifolium var album blooming now. The
fragrance is heavenly!

I sure do miss Maisie Orchids.

Fibre, where is hengduanbiotech located? If it isn't in the U.S., I won't bother them
with an email.


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## fibre (Aug 14, 2014)

hengduanbiotech is located in China but comes to the USA some times.


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## SlipperFan (Aug 14, 2014)

fibre said:


> hengduanbiotech is located in China but comes to the USA some times.


And if you order from them, they bring the plants to USA and ship to you from here.


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## rangiku (Aug 14, 2014)

I'd go with ordering from Holger Perner/Hengduan Biotech. The Perners come to the US for shows and symposium almost every year. 

Bet they will be back at the Pacific Orchid Exposition in SF in February. As Dot said, they ship the plants from the US. I've gotten 7 plants from the Perners this way.


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## abax (Aug 14, 2014)

How much lead time do I need to give Perner before the POE? Is he a PayPal vendor? It seems a bit chancy to buy plants without seeing them
and the poor plants coming from China to U.S. and then to KY. I think I
might email Thanh as well to see if he ever comes across Chinese Cyms and
maybe Mr. Lin.


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## NYEric (Aug 15, 2014)

matt from Ten Shin brings lots and the price was surprisingly low!


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## rangiku (Aug 15, 2014)

abax, I'm not sure if the Perners will be at POE so it is best to email them. 

As for purchasing plants sight unseen, I totally understand, but most of the time when we buy plants online you don't get to see them. That said, the Paphs and Neo I got from the Perners plants were of good size, am happy with my purchases and they are growing well.


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## abax (Aug 16, 2014)

Thank you everyone. I appreciate the leads. I can't imagine that someone
in the U.S. doesn't love these beautiful orchids enough to grow and sell
them. Crazy!


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## mrhappyrotter (Aug 16, 2014)

abax said:


> Thank you everyone. I appreciate the leads. I can't imagine that someone
> in the U.S. doesn't love these beautiful orchids enough to grow and sell
> them. Crazy!



Um, one of our very own members seems to have them in stock, and for a great price. Piping Rock.

http://www.pipingrockorchids.com/miscellaneous/cymbidium-ensifolium-pr190.php

I'm still trying to decide if I want to get one of the goeringiis. I don't have the room, and I killed one a while back, so I've not quite worked up the nerve to order one.


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## JeanLux (Aug 16, 2014)

Angela, if you are interested I could mail you the Perner's plant list (from dec 2013) for the Dresdner Orchid show in Germany! I ordered quite some plants, all good quality! The catalogue is in German language unfortunately but with pictures, so you would have a feeling of their selection! (PM me your email adress)

Jean


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## Linus_Cello (Aug 16, 2014)

mrhappyrotter said:


> Um, one of our very own members seems to have them in stock, and for a great price. Piping Rock.
> 
> http://www.pipingrockorchids.com/miscellaneous/cymbidium-ensifolium-pr190.php
> 
> I'm still trying to decide if I want to get one of the goeringiis. I don't have the room, and I killed one a while back, so I've not quite worked up the nerve to order one.



Thanks for the lead! I'm interested in trying goeringiis- but outside (and heavily mulched in the winter). Botanyboy's video had them growing outdoors with Calanthea sieboldi, and mine successfully overwintered this past cold winter.


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## abax (Aug 17, 2014)

I'm off to Piping Rock! The Cyms. I can't grow are kanran, goeringii and
sinense. Growing outside with lots of protection is a great idea for these
cool growers, Linus. Did your plant bloom this year?

Mr. Potter, let me order a couple and see what they look like. I've found
ensifolium to be the most temp. tolerant and easy to bloom. O.K., I just
ordered an ensifolium and a sinense for 24.95 each. Not a bad price, but
I'm betting they're small plants at that price. I have bloomed sinense a
long time ago and hoping a 58F-60F winter low will do the trick.


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## mrhappyrotter (Aug 17, 2014)

abax said:


> I'm off to Piping Rock! The Cyms. I can't grow are kanran, goeringii and
> sinense. Growing outside with lots of protection is a great idea for these
> cool growers, Linus. Did your plant bloom this year?
> 
> ...



Good luck with them. Piping Rock lists them as blooming sized divisions, so I hope you're pleasantly surprised. The flowers smell wonderful, which is always a big draw in my book.

I want to try goeringii because most of the clones I've seen are small enough to fit under the lights. Though, I'm not certain if the T8s would be strong enough to bloom one.


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## Ray (Aug 17, 2014)

FWIW, here in southeast PA, they all do very well for me in s/h culture. Maybe the evaporative cooling from the medium is a good thing, unlike for phals.


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## abax (Aug 18, 2014)

Before I had the greenhouse, I grew several ensifolium and senense on an
east windowsill and they did really well with a humidifier directly under
them. They got some sun in the morning, but shade the rest of the day.
I don't think most of the Chinese Cyms need very bright light in order to
thrive. The ensi album I have now is sitting on a step bench on the second level down and I have mirrors under it. It gets less light than
most of my Paphs. As I've mentioned before, it's mostly in clay aggregate (and a bit of osmunda and a bit of Orchiata) and is thriving and delightfully blooming. I think less watering and very high humidity
is the key to growing them well. I water it maybe once a week if it needs
it. I think most newbies to CCyms waaaaay over water and fertilize.

Oh, I meant to mention that Piping Rock had one minature CCym that only grew to 7"-8" at maturity. Fragrance is my undoing...I loooooove the fragrance of some orchids.


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## Linus_Cello (Aug 18, 2014)

My Calanthe sieboldi did not flower. But my discolor did.


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## Trithor (Aug 21, 2014)

Abax's Cym. ensifolium var album


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## abax (Aug 21, 2014)

Thank you, Gary, so much. What I wanted to show off here is Marni
Turkel's lovely and very effective Cym. pots. The plant is a new division,
but is blooming. You can see the spike on the right side behind some
leaves. I counted three new growths today. Chinese Cyms. are not the
touchy plants that a lot of people think they are, but they're sneaky. This
photo was taken over a month ago and it's grown considerably since that
time.


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## NYEric (Aug 22, 2014)

OL also sells goeringii.


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## Linus_Cello (Aug 22, 2014)

NYEric said:


> OL also sells goeringii.



Thanks for the tip


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## SlipperFan (Aug 22, 2014)

Planted in Prime-Agra? Interesting!


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## abax (Aug 22, 2014)

I have the high humidity to grow Chinese Cyms. this way, but I've grown and
bloomed ensifolium in several types of potting media and the plants never
seem to mind whatever I put them in as long as there's good drainage and
the medium doesn't stay wet.

Isn't Ms. Turkel's Cym. pot beautiful?


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## SlipperFan (Aug 23, 2014)

Marni Turkel? She's coming to our society in Sept. to give a talk.


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## abax (Aug 23, 2014)

I'm green with envy, Dot! If she brings some pots, buy a couple. The
glazes are beautiful and very natural looking. She doesn't do tacky. I keep
meaning to email her to see if she still produces the Cym. pots, but I forget
to actually do it. The one pictured above is well over ten years old and looks
new. It's been used for several different kinds of orchids and did me proud every time. Neos. in coco look particularly nice in her pots.


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## Linus_Cello (Aug 24, 2014)

abax said:


> I'm green with envy, Dot! If she brings some pots, buy a couple. The
> glazes are beautiful and very natural looking. She doesn't do tacky. I keep
> meaning to email her to see if she still produces the Cym. pots, but I forget
> to actually do it. The one pictured above is well over ten years old and looks
> new. It's been used for several different kinds of orchids and did me proud every time. Neos. in coco look particularly nice in her pots.



Are there more pictures of these pots? My mom likes to do pottery; maybe I can have her make a few.


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## SlipperFan (Aug 24, 2014)

Thanks, Angela!


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## abax (Aug 25, 2014)

Linus, this is the only photo I have of Ms. Turkel's Cym. pots, but she does
have a website if you just type in her name on your browser. There are
several photos of pots and choice of glazes your mom might enjoy seeing.
There's also some information on how she does the slightly flared lip of the pot. Is your mom an accomplished potter? It's a fascinating process.
I'd love to see photos of her work when you have the time. I'm a great
admirer of potters and buy their work anytime I find some. Please forward my best wishes to your mother!


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## RNCollins (Aug 30, 2014)

*Cymbidium ensifolium*

orchidPhile has Cymbidium ensifolium 'Fu Long' and 'Sa Mo Jin'.

They also offer Cym. sinense and goeringii.

You can email Carri Raven at [email protected]


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## abax (Aug 31, 2014)

Thank you, Carol, I'll check it out. I've found a couple of vendors, but the
Chinese names of the varieties of ensifolium confound me and I have no
idea what the flower color means or the type of leaf. I need a translation!


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## Linus_Cello (Aug 31, 2014)

abax said:


> Thank you, Carol, I'll check it out. I've found a couple of vendors, but the
> Chinese names of the varieties of ensifolium confound me and I have no
> idea what the flower color means or the type of leaf. I need a translation!



https://translate.google.com/


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## KyushuCalanthe (Aug 31, 2014)

Yep, translation software is getting better and better, though with names it can give some funky results. Even if you go by the Chinese characters it is tough to figure out Romanized versions.

Here's the list of Jenosa (Chinese) Cymbidiums from Hengduan Biotechnology from last fall to get a taste of a few:

Hengduan List 2013

And an article I wrote about their business. These are great people to deal with. If you preorder they will bring the plants to the states on one of their lecture tours so you can avoid all the hassle of paperwork, etc.

Hengduan Biotechnology Article

I looked into the possibility of exporting orchids out of Japan, but given the relatively small interest in them (couple with high pricing), and more importantly the serious hassle involved I've decided to bow out on selling overseas, except maybe in bulk shipments. The reason why Japanese businesses don't bother with this is that there really isn't a good market there. Hengduan Biotech is a real jewel of opportunity.


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## abax (Aug 31, 2014)

The problem with translation is that the names are usually poetic rather
than descriptive. Many of the names are lovely, but almost impossible
to convert to English. I looked over the 2013 list and they have some
gorgeous kanran and goeringii. 

Carrie Raven at Orchidphile will be sending out an e-mail list for fall...
oh goodie!


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## RNCollins (Sep 1, 2014)

abax said:


> Carrie Raven at Orchidphile will be sending out an e-mail list for fall...
> oh goodie!



Angela,

I've got Carrie's early fall email list. PM me your email and I'll send it to you. 

It's a 58 page PDF document, but you'll drool over the great pictures... mostly Phals


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## abax (Sep 1, 2014)

I've already done THAT drooling...so many Phals.! I'm waiting until she
gets the Chinese Cyms list later this month or next. I'm not overly fond
of all those hybrid Phals., but I'd be interested in some interesting species
I don't have so far. Thank you for the offer.


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