Cymbidium grandiflorum

Petal type: green shell green plum petal features: three-petal wrinkle, thin, angular, tight edge, cat ear, square lack of tongue. The design is yellowish. The bracts are light green. It is a rare species of the old famous species. History: five years of Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1666), Fuyang, Zhejiang Province. It was elected by the citizens of Zhujiajiao in Qingpu County, Shanghai. at that time, the gold surname of Dongting Mountain in Suzhou opened a pawnshop there, refused to buy it and told the thief to steal it, which led to a lawsuit. Legend has it that both sides paid bribes to officialdom, appealed step by step, and failed to win or lose. They appealed to Emperor Kangxi, which aroused his curiosity, and ordered the flower to be sent to Beijing. Later, when watching, a bee happened to fly on the flower and immediately named it Bee Qiao.

Huilan "Fengqiao" is a red-shell green plum petal, which is praised as a treasure of Cymbidium by the orchid. It even had a great reputation in history, and the person who named it "bee Qiao" was the then emperor Kangxi. How could a supreme emperor name a little grass? We have to start with the cause of something.

Legend has it that in the middle of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, the rich merchants and gentry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang flourished in planting orchids at that time (1691 in 1701). In the possession of varieties, they pursue "new" and "strange", and have a proud mentality of "dominating the top". Every spring, orchid shells in Shaoxing, Yuyao, Fenghua and other places always go to the mountains to dig and buy "Luoshan orchids" from local orchid farmers, usually with 10,000 orchids and orchid grass packed in gunny bags. After it is packed into more than ten or dozens of bags, it will be shipped to Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuxi and other places, and sold at the price of three or two taels of silver. The price is, of course, negligible to the rich merchants and gentry, but if a good kind of precious bell can be picked out in a bag, the price is hard to say. From the saying that spread at that time: "Nine plum petals, tens of thousands of foreign flowers" can be seen how high the value of the cymbidium plum petals was at that time! For the identification of orchid varieties, the morphological characteristics of grass and stamens can only be said to be half. If you want to be very clear, you have to look at flowers. In order to let the orchid with stamens blossom early, of course, it has to go through a special method-"promoting the flower". First prepare one or more seven stone jars, then take out the bluegrass in the sack, clean it up neatly in a handful of hands, and dip the langen root in the water, let the Langen lean against the cylinder wall, and the leaves are lined up in an orderly circle toward the center of the cylinder. After the first floor, then the second floor, the third floor. When the stack reaches a certain height, it is covered with a cylinder head made of straw. Six or seven days later, when the bluegrass is taken out, it can be seen that Lan Rui has elongated and blossomed. In this way, we will choose carefully and calmly according to the shape and color of the flowers.

It is said that at that time, in a place called Zhujiajiao in Qingqing County, a water township on the outskirts of Shanghai, there was a large family surnamed Fang who opened a cloth shop. the family was very rich, and the shopkeeper loved Lan all his life. Every spring, as long as the orchid boat arrives, he must buy a few sacks to go home and choose flowers from them, but what he encounters is always some "walking flowers." it's good to have second-and third-rate flowers. During the Mengchun season, there is a temple fair in Zhujiajiao every year, and the flow of people is very lively. The shopkeeper of this cloth shop chooses orchids at home for several days in succession. When he was tired, he went out for a walk and stretched his fine bones. when he walked to the gate of the land temple, he saw a gentleman waving to him, grabbed him and looked at him, telling him that "Yintang" had a red light and that he would have good luck this year. The shopkeeper of Fang listened to some kind words, paid some broken silver, turned around and left, but he was stopped again as soon as he stepped out of the threshold. Mr. Xiang said, "although my husband has gained something this year, he should be broad in dealing with people, and tolerate it if he can bear it." because my husband has a small black mole between his eyebrows, it is easy to be secretly calculated to lose money, so it is better to be careful. "

Towards noon, the shopkeeper left the land temple and walked across the Dashi Bridge into the store. Mr. Xiang Xiang's words had long been abandoned on the road. He sat again on a small stool and continued to choose orchids attentively. His family urged him to eat, but he said, "No, you have eaten first." Dangdang …... After the clock struck twelve, his family urged him to eat again, but he said, "it's not too late to eat after picking this pile."... "Ho!" He suddenly cried excitedly, and saw a clump of leafy cymbidium in his hand, pulling out the leaves with his hand, revealing a green bract and a slender scape, with several flowers already blooming at the bottom. He examined them one by one with wide eyes: the petals were tight, the pockets were raised, the roots were fine, and the tongue was missing. Good flower, good flower! The shopkeeper was even more delighted when he got the treasure. He immediately left the other bluegrass, carefully trimmed the residual roots and fallen leaves from the grass, and carefully planted them in a delicate Yixing purple sand basin. Because the flower had been blooming for several days, he felt particularly energetic and exuberant.

The place in Zhujiajiao is not very big, and it can be said that the news of who has got a good flower will not spend the night. For a while, visitors come and go constantly. Among them, there is a shopkeeper surnamed Jin, who runs a pawnshop. He is a famous rich man in Qingpu. He is also an "orchid fanatic." like orchid. Although there have been many good and rare species in his family, today he sees this Huilan light green with yellowish plum-shaped outer three petals. Although it is a cat's ear, it can be seen on the whole flower, but it shows a lively and daring temperament. In my heart, I couldn't help but be amazed and secretly praised: there are such good flowers in the world! Compared with what I have planted, I really have a feeling beyond my reach. Finally, in an unbearable mood, he asked the shopkeeper surnamed Fang to sell the flower. after being rejected by the cloth shopkeeper, he asked his relatives and friends to intercede, saying that he was willing to spend a lot of money to buy half of it, but he still hit a brick wall. For this reason, the owner of the shop surnamed Jin was bedridden for a few days. He didn't think about tea and rice every day, didn't sleep at night, and turned to the opposite side all night, and finally came up with a plan: not to be a gentleman, but to be a villain. He paid a high price and invited Wang Yifei, a famous gentleman in the underworld at that time. Two days later, when it was done, the shopkeeper surnamed Jin, of course, was beaming and hurriedly cut off the scape and mixed the grass into his own cymbidium pot. As the saying goes, "there is no impervious wall". The news of the theft of orchids from the owner of the cloth shop soon caused a sensation in Zhujiajiao and Qingpu counties. The Yamen sent "Ma Kuai" to look for clues and tried to solve the case. during the visit, he learned that the owner of the shop had tried every means to get this flower, and he was the most suspected, but after secretly inspecting the orchids planted by the Jin family, he found no clues and suffered from no evidence, so he could only temporarily become a cold case. Of course, the theft of Xinhui planted by the shopkeeper surnamed Fang was heartache and angry, but it was helpless. She finally fell ill in bed and did not recover for several months.