LAST CALL: Flowers Worthy of Praise
Malenic, Marina
LAST CALL MARINA MALENIC Flowers Worthy of Paradise r IHIS SUMMER the New York Times in its business section detailed a Taiwanese plot to dominate the world's $2 billion orchid industry....
...Reporter goes on to lament that "the favored flower of debutantes' corsages a generation ago...
...The varieties sought by modern collectors, however, tend to be exotically unattractive and often evil-smellingsuch as this year's American Orchid Society blue ribbon choice at its 24th New York International Orchid Show, the Bulbophyllum phalaenopsis, whose brown blossoms purportedly give off the "distinct odor of a decaying corpse...
...Long before Georgia O'Keefe, blossoms of all kinds had been seen as possessing a sensual aspect—the flower, after all, containing the sex organs of the plant...
...Of course, the Times is entitled to its opinion...
...In the West, interest in native varieties of orchid can be traced to the Ancient Greeks, who gave us the English name for the plant...
...It is believed that Cymbidium, an Asian variety that produces several rows of large, sweet-scented blossoms in various colors, was cultivated in Japan and China as early as 66 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR OCTOBER 2004 500 B.C...
...As a side note, the head of the society's judging committee is none other than Jim Rassmann, Vietnam veteran and avid defender of candidate John Kerry...
...Granted, during the height of the Victorian orchidelirium (similar to the tulipmania but lacking the symptom of economic catastrophe) wealthy British collectors sent armed orchid hunters to the ends of the earth in search of the most exotic specimens—often with instructions to burn the locale before returning in order to prevent other seekers from finding another of its kind...
...And Oncidium, producing a spray of enchanting blooms described by aficionados as "dancing ladies" with long, fluttery lower petals—such as the scarlet-blossomed, chocolate-scented "Sharry Baby"—can mesmerize even the most curmudgeonly of gardeners...
...The assumption here that the elegant plants would somehow be diminished if hoi polloi—and particularly hoi American polloi, of course—could afford to purchase orchids and might even like them can be dismissed as the usual Timesian elitism...
...Just as staid Victorians were beckoned by the exotic sirens of the plant kingdom, modern orchid hunters like those depicted in Susan Orlean's engrossing account The Orchid Thief (which later served as inspiration for the filmAdaptation) continue the quest...
...The term orchis, meaning "testicles," refers to the tubers found in pairs in some species...
...The Times also offers a prediction—divination apparently being a skill now cultivated by reporters at our newspaper of record—that if Taiwan's scheme to become a great flower power were to come to fruition, orchids would "lose their image as the high-priced but finicky princes of the flower world...
...At this rate, Wal-Mart peddling the "finicky princes" for but a farthing can't be long in coming...
...Flirtatious Paphiopedilum, with its pouty, often purple-hued lower lip, is likely to remain exotic, being one of the few genera that defy efforts at cloning for purposes of mass propagation...
...The already common yet charming Phalaenopsis (the genus Taiwan is likely to farm almost exclusively) is also known as the "moth orchid," and its dainty blossoms are particularly fetching in lemon yellow...
...are already starting to appear in rows of $15 potted specimens at mass merchandisers like Home Depot...
...While most are native to the tropics and subtropics, many are found in temperate zones, making them ideal house plants...
...One particular type, Aceras anthropophorum ("man orchid"), was even used as an aphrodisiac because the shape of its flower's lip resembles a figure of a man...
...But orchids are somehow particularly alluring...
...Moreover, it is a little known fact that orchids are the most numerous flowering plants on earth and, despite their reputation for sensitivity, are not particularly difficult to care for...
...Modern irony or whatever it is that inspires such astounding lack of taste aside, it seems unlikely that the orchid will ever fade in the eyes of those who are able to appreciate beauty...
...The report reveals that the island's government, in favor of greater independence from mainland China and eager to promote its own economic expansion, is constructing the Taiwan Orchid Plantation, set to become the largest of its kind anywhere in the world...
...That fever, however, has since died down, and many varieties of orchid have been readily available to the average gardener for several decades...
Vol. 37 • October 2004 • No. 8
