"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
Someone gave me a 'Cornish Gardener' free paper, in which there is a
longish article on orchids. I don't know if its been cut or just badly
written, but some of it is just incomprehensible.

Can you make sense of this?

"...if you are buying a Cymbidium orchid as a pot plant or as a corsage, ,
never buy one with a pink 'lip' (which is the bottom petal that hangs
down).

This is because the plant has germinated, , and just like any flower that
has germinated, it will soon die ..."

Now, I'm guessing that by 'germinated' the writer means 'pollinated'. But
surely loads of cymbidium orchids have pink bottom lips? The lips on mine
are pink as soon as the flower opens.

And why should one flower having been pollinated mean the plant is
unsuitable as a pot plant? I can see why it might be inappropriate as a
cut flower, but surely the point of cymbidiums is that they go on
flowering
for an incredibly long time and make new buds almost constantly?



Pinkish Cymbid flowers, in my experience, do darken on the lip as they get
older, so is that what the writer meant. They are also not liable to get
pollinated in this country as they flower when most insects aren't around so
I don't know what they are on about.
Our white and yellow ones don't show any pink ever, just go brown as they
wither.
Actually, you reminded me, I must bring ours in now, think they have had
enough cold nights to initiate flowers spikes now.

--
Regards
Bob

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