The Cymbidium Room

In the middle of the Shanghai Botanical Gardens is a curious place named The Cymbidium Room.  It is curious as it contains more than a room – in fact it is a garden within a garden, with many pavilions and covered walkways in the traditional Chinese style.  But it contains no Cymbidiums.  In fact it contains no orchids at all.  It did have a wall chart showing something about orchids, but the ones shown in the diagrams are not cymbidiums. Cymbidiums are the really fleshy orchids the most often ones seen in the UK have many to a stem, and are acid green or yellow with red flashings in the central petals.

There were displays of orchid stands – great lumps of what must be tree roots or lower trunks with flat circular areas carved into them ready to hold a vase containing orchids.

There were pictures of orchids and vases for orchids to show you how they would be displayed.

Sorry, my mistake there were some orchids around this statue of Guan Yin the Chinese name synonymous with the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, the pinnacle of mercy, compassion, kindness and love.

The outdoor picnic area had raised beds of irises and other flowers in amongst lush green foliage.  And I do not know who the statue of the seated figure is – I cannot read the Mandarin – but he may have been the founder of the Botanical Gardens which were founded in 1974. The whole inner garden was cool and inviting on the hot day that I   visited, although I wasn’t tempted by the tea house, which overlooked this patch with pink flowering azaleas, pruned bushes, conifers and deciduous trees with bright fresh newly sprouted leaves.

The Conservatory Displays of Phalaenopsis Orchids

Elsewhere in the Botanical Gardens there were orchids.  They were housed mainly within a couple of conservatories or palm houses – I assume to lift the colour, as such places are usually rather unexciting, being mainly green. Generally with Phalaenopsis there is one stem per plant, but each stem may contain a number of flowers which here in China are trained over curving supports.

The Slipper Orchid House

In a side room off Conservatory one was a display of intriguing slipper orchids. ( I’ve tried to name as many of these plants as I can, but as there were no labels in English or Latin or even Chinese I have had to do it by researching later.)

Paphiopedilum macabre

Slipper Orchid

Paphiopedilum – slipper orchid

Slipper Orchid

Paphiopedilum varieties

Paphiopedilum Claire de Lune

The Slipper Orchids were displayed alongside other types – again I’ve tried to name them where I can with one or two others from other glass houses thrown in for good measure.

Oncidium sphacelatum

Doritaenopsis Sin-Yuan Golden Beauty

Dendrobium orchid

Dendrobium farmeri

Miltoniopsis Jean Carlson

Miltoniopsis orchid

Miltoniopsis orchid

Prosthechea cochleata

The Big Conservatory Displays

To show you what all these orchids looked like in the main Conservatory displays:

This display was entitled Fireworks

 These yellow Phalaenopsis were rows and rows of plants planted in slowly descending rows down the rock face.

Bauhinia, The Orchid Tree

Finally in the second conservatory I came across this Bauhinia, the orchid tree which has stunning pink flowers and after whom one of my daughter’s special friends is named.