Cymbidium goeringii "Gyoku-ei" (Japanese) 日本春蘭「玉英」

[Asian Cymbidium Empress]

Cymbidium goeringii "Gyoku-ei" (Japanese) 日本春蘭「玉英」。It's time to check the buds. There are 2 buds this year. Stage 1 shading is finished, the flower buds are whitish. The smaller bud came out later than the bigger bud, so it still has a few more weeks to go before it reaches 3cm-5cm in size. The flower buds are continued to be shaded using aluminum foil caps. The aluminum cap is only removed 2 weeks before flowers bloom in the spring. To bloom, vernalization is required in the winter (0C-10C no higher and no lower). This plant produced buds 3 years in a row and will bloom 3 years in a row by Spring 2022. Although this Cymbidium goeringii only has 4 growths (the leave length is no more than 20 cm), it has probably more than 10 white long hard roots, that's why it can bloom 3 years in a row. When Japanese culturing method is followed, C. goeringii produces strong roots and can bloom every year. Last picture was the flower from Spring 2021. All my C. goeringii are grown in Toronto, Canada.

[smweaver]

You've shared a lot of interesting growing (and flowering) techniques for these in a number of posts. Is the gravel (or what appears to be gravel) on the top just a thin layer of this material, or is this the actual potting mix? I find Cymbidium goeringii to be quite a fascinating species--and one that I would be terrified to try to grow (let alone bloom), based on its reputation for difficulty. I do enjoy all of your posts and pictures, however, so thank you for sharing your knowledge about this species.

Steve

[Asian Cymbidium Empress]

The potting material imported from Japan directly. It is called "East Asian Cymbidium Mix". This is the material used for all East Asian Cymbidium in the Jensoa section, including C. ensifolium, C. sinenese, C. kanran, C. goeringii, C. goeringii subspecies, and C.faberii. The Mix is a combination of 3 materials/pumices in a predetermined ratio: hard Kanuma, baked akadama, and satsuma. Hard kanuma and baked akadama are higher quality than Regular Kanuma and regular akadama as the regular stuff are too soft and crumble too easily, creating waterlog. So, I have 3 grades of the Mix: Large, Medium, and Small and potted like this: Large bottom 10% of the pot, Medium 80% of the pot (main body of the pot), and Small (top 10% of the pot). This is the traditional potting method as described in all the books. This material is the standarized materials used in East Asia (China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan), so nothing special. You might be able to get some components in the US (but I am not sure if it has all the sizes). if you want to grow it, and buy the components individually, you will need to buy 3 sizes of each pumices (so 9 in total). It's just too much work, so I just flew to Japan to get the materials, saves all the headaches.