On Feb 11, 12:27*am, NY orchid lover wrote:
Here's my take on cymbidiums, although I don't claim to be an expert
on all the varieties: most need bright light in order to flower, so
unless you're in a very warm climate such as those unfortunate Aussies
who are literally burning up I wouldn't worry about giving them too
much sun. You can always pull back if signs of leaf burn appear. And
since you mentioned fragrant varieties I would be interested to know
which type you have. Many are not fragrant and I keep thinking of one
I owned when I first started collecting orchids- not realizing what a
gem I had. It filled an entire room with its fragrance. I haven't been
able to find another one like it, and since it was a raffle prize at a
local orchid society with just the tag, "warm hybrid' I really don't
know its origins or parentage. Hope this helps

The pink one is labelled as (Fancy Free X Red Beauty) Debbie's beauty,
and the yellow one is labelled as Tracey Reddaway 'Geyserland'.

The scent varies in strength during the day, seeming to be stronger
when the light is brightest. At dawn I have to get within a few
centimeters to detect it. At noon, the scent fills the room. While
Walmart isn't exactly well known for being a source of good orchids,
my attention to these was drawn when I walked past their seasonal
department and noticed their strong scent. When I went closer, I
found dozens of Cymbidiums, about 90% of which had a really strong,
pleasant fragrance, and they actually had labels like "(Fancy Free X
Red Beauty) Debbie's beauty" or "Tracey Reddaway 'Geyserland'". There
were, actually, a couple dozen different cultivars with quite a
variety of colors and flower size (of course, I picked the two with
the most vibrant colour and strongest scent and largest
flowers, ... ;-). I was shocked. I had never seen orchids in
Walmart in such good shape and with such labels, and as I mentioned
before, I had never seen Cymbidiums with a scent and I had seen lots
of them at different vendors and orchid shows.

It turned out that they had arrived the day before (so the Walmart
staff hadn't had a chance to kill them yet). One of the Walmart sales
girls told me she wasn't allowed to water any of the plants;
management claiming that was for safety reasons (no drains, so water
would pool on the floor). Gee, I guess I'm doing something wrong
because I never have water on my floor after I water MY orchids. ;-)

A few weeks later and most of them were still there, looking rather
sad and all had lost their scent: I guess there wasn't enough light as
there are no windows there, and just a handful of florescent tubes a
few meters above them. They were clearly struggling, and coping with
their conditions better than the Phals (which were not labelled WRT
cultivar): they had clearly not been watered in weeks, and were fading
fast. I guess the Cymbidiums were fading more slowly than the Phals
because of whatever resources they had in their pseudobulbs (all the
size of large plums and still quite hard). The flowers on the
specimens with the fewest pseudobulbs had started to wilt, while those
the size of the ones I bought (i.e. with the most large pseudobulbs)
still maintained their form and had declined only to the extent of
losing their scent.

Cheers,

Ted