"Barra" wrote in message t.nl...

In Eric Hansen's book Orchid Fever he mentions "To-yo-ran" orchids. It is a
way in which Japanese devide orchids. Local/regional orchids are called
to-yo-ran (Korea, Taiwan, China and Japan) and Yo-ran (from other regions).
To-yo-ran orchids emphasis is on the orchid but also the pot, leaves,
substrate, perfume and surroundings. Not only the flower.

Which chapter of the book? It sounds like toyoran might refer to what
we call "Asian cymbidiums," (sinense, ensifolium, goeringii, etc.) not
a discipline or principal. The esthetic emphasis is probably just
inherent in the Japanese cultural/esthetic outlook. As with
Neofinetia (one Japanese name is fu-ran), flowers are only a small
part of the picture for many orchids in the Japanese view, unlike the
formal Western judging systems which don't give a hoot for anything
but flowers (many big, round, flat, richly colored flowers, of course.
) as long as the plants are basically healthy.

Michael