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My first Asian Cymbidium from Mystery Garden Store on Etsy. This plant came in phenomenal condition, no bad roots, no wilting leaves and it had been in the box almost 2 days because I was out of town this weekend.

Beautiful variegation that reminds me of the more expensive shima 縞 (stripe) Neofinetia/Vanda falcata varieties. The flower I believe is a red one, but I'll have to wait for spring to confirm. Asian Cymbidiums are considered semi-terrestrial orchids.

The pot and potting mix is also from Mystery Garden Store. The pots for the Asain Cymbidiums have to be tall, and the mix is traditionally 2 or 3 types of pumice that are from Asia that are commonly used in bonsai mixes along with some medium sized orchid bark. The following are some of the pumices used, romantized

• Akadama
• Satsuma
• Kanuma

The mix from Mystery Garden Store contains Satsuma and Kanuma, and some medium sized orchid bark. Supposedly, traditionally, you would split the mix into 3 sizes of large, medium and small chunks, layering the pot with the large to small mix from bottom to top, but given this mix contained basically all the same size I saw no point in doing that, and the instructions sent to me didn't mention that.

Watering this plant during winter is usually a week or a little over between waterings, as the plant wants to dry out between waterings more in the cold and dry months. At least that's what I read on the care instructions.

Given I'm in North Texas, this guy has to grow indoors at the edge of the light from the grow lights from my cabinet. They don't handle the extremes of the temperate environment here.

In the Mandarin name, the best I can find for `墨兰` is "ink orchid."
I think `兰` refers to Cymbidiums, as you see it in all the Asian Cymbidum species online.

`达摩中透` is something like "Dharma Path/Medium", but `中透` is like "penetrate" or "seep through" and `达摩`is "Dharma" or the concept of virtue, moral order or duties in Buddhism/Hinduism/Jainism/Sihkism. So the variety name probably refers to the yellow variegation of the leaves "seeping through" or making a path through the green. I can't find what "Da Mao" is though, although for all I know that refers to Dharma.

Andrew at Mystery Garden Store might actually know better than just me searching the internet and using DeepL to translate, though.

Can't wait to see this guy flower!

About all I can remember from my college Chinese class is 中 means middle/center, as in 中國 (China) which would be the middle country on a map of China. So that's probably the "Medium" in "Dharma Path/Medium". Any way that's a nice plant.

oval wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 6:48 pm About all I can remember from my college Chinese class is 中 means middle/center, as in 中國 (China) which would be the middle country on a map of China.

Hmmm...now that you say that, it's possible the name could just mean "golden medium/middle/path" which makes vastly more sense.