Wonderful pictures. I am only dabbling in Cym species. I have a dyanum and a tirgrinum.

Congratulations!!

Love your pictures! I'm jealous of your ensifolium. I had one just finish blooming, but couldn't detect a fragrance. I had read that it was supposed to be extremely fragrant and was disappointed. Perhaps the next blooming.

Looking forward to seeing a pic of the Jin He.

Sheila :)

Thank you for your comments guys!

Richard,Good luck with your cymbidiums! I'm very new to growing orchids, and looked online for the species you have. They look very pretty!!

Sheila, It was a bit confusing for me too, when searching for fragrant ensifoliums. Some say that the white/green blooming cultivars should be more fragrant, but according to other people it's not always the case. The other one I have, 'jin he', blooms are gold with red stripes, and is supposed to be very fragrant. I'll update pictures and report its fragrance when it's blooming. Which cultivar do you have?

Looks great! The foliage is also very attractive!

SO Pretty!! I love oriental cyms. Now, if only mine would bloom...or spike, even.

I know, I know--we're supposed to value them for their foliage. Ok; I do like their foliage. It is a lovely color and arranges itself with grace (especially those in the pictures above); but I cannot help wanting flowers, too :)

Mine is a Cym sinense pow shan paw with claw variegation bought a year ago at the local society show. It has barely grown since I brought it home.

Beautiful, deereyebrow! Thank you for the pictures. They give me hope.

Sweetcicely

deereyebrow, no cultivar name on mine. The ID simply says ensifolium. The blooms were identical to yours and the large plant had two infloresences. I purchased it in bud, perhaps all the travel & change of micro-climate affected it's blooming. The flowers lasted only a couple weeks.

It is growing vigorously, perhaps it will soon bloom again.

p.s. I've seen many deer, never noticed eyebrows???

Sweetcicely, I love their foliages too. IÂve also heard it can be tricky to make These guys bloom The person I bought these plants from on ebay was very nice and gave me a lot of suggestions on how to grow them. What she told me about how to make Cym. goeringii and lianpan set buds, is basically to give them cool temperatures, for a time period of one month or longer. She doesnÂt have Cym sinenses, though. I searched some Chinese websites for information on sinenses, and hereÂs what IÂve read (you probably already know most of it): Besides giving it all the conditions all the Chinese Cyms love, such as morning sunlight, good air circulation, acid and well drained potting mix, purified or rain water, frequent but very diluted fertilizer, etc., the sinense is warm growing and the most shade tolerant among all the Chinese Cyms. Things you can try to make it set buds are: first, the bulbs need to be big enough (usually takes 2 years of growth); Secondly, it needs temperatures below 15 C or 59 F for some time to set buds. They usually bloom in late winter / early spring, if the temperature by then is below 30 C or 86 F. Hope this will help and wish you have beautiful blooms soon!

Sheila, IÂm very new to this, but from what IÂve read, there are many ensifoliums have very similar color and shape of my ÂLong Yan SuÂ. They all look the same to me, too, but are supposed to be different cultivars and have different growing habits, blooming time, and possibly different fragrance. Chinese and Japanese people rate the different cultivars with very detailed differences in their flower form (including how each of the six pedals behave, which direction they bend, etc.) foliage color and shape etc. These might sounds crazy but seems to be a big deal in the Asian cym. culture. Though personally I donÂt really care so much about the details in how they look, I care most about the fragrance Some Âsu xin (means white/green colored center of the bloom) varieties IÂve read that should have fragrance are ÂJin Si Ma WeiÂ(Golden Hair Pony Tail), Guan Yin Su, Tie Gu Su /or Tian Xiang. And I agree with you, sometimes the conditions you give your plant do affect their fragrance, which includes temps, humidity, potting mix, fertilizers, etc. From what IÂve been told, the other thing to be aware of is, when these cyms are grown from seeds instead of tissue culture, they may loose some of their qualities, such as flower form, fragrance, etc. The blooming time of ensifoliums can last form a couple of weeks, to a couple of months, depending on the cultivar. Anyway itÂs good that yours is growing vigorously! Hope they will bloom again! Some ensifoliums can bloom up to 5 times a year, between May and October!

BTW, doesnÂt this little guy below look like heÂs staring at me with angry eyebrows?!

{{gwi:195862}}

Yes, I do see the eyebrows & he does look angry with you...don't fence me in!!! He's beautiful, very different from our S. Texas deer.

Actually we don't have any dogs and I have the gates of the fence open so deer often sneak in to graze on our lawn. ;-) This picture was taken through the basement window and this little guy was surprised by me, and giving me the 'mind your own buziness' look.

ps I'm in SD and this is a white tail deer. Are deer in Texas bigger? I love wildlives and think they are all beautiful.

Deereyebrow,

That is indeed a cute little guy. We recently had to fenced two acres to give our dog some room to run, and I miss the deer. Last year we had twin fawns and their momma grazing in the morning. The turkeys still fly over the fence when their broods are old enough. Looks like you have a really good place to enjoy lots of wildlife.

Thank you So Much for taking the time to post all that detailed information on Cym. sinense culture! I had read some of it, but you included details that I have never seen. I will try them all and maybe, just maybe :) my sinense will bloom this winter.

For a while I worried that the plant might need repotting, but when I peeked at the roots, they were plump and cream colored and the plant was not pot bound.

The mature pseudobulbs (5 mature, 1 near-mature, and two stalled new growths) have probably been growing for more than two years. Realizing that it was getting too much heat and direct sun where it was, I moved the plant a month ago to an east window which gets nice and cold in fall/winter.

The pot sits on the floor, where the roots are shaded by the window base, but where the leaves get direct morning light, adjusted by venetian blinds, and bright, indirect light for the rest of the day. (This is the same area where my Christmas cacti get their bud setting cold snap.

I'd love to see pictures of your other Cyms as they come into bloom. Thank you, again, for your help!

Sweetcicely

You are very welcome! This is such a great website and I've been getting so much useful information from it. It feels good to return a little :-) Sounds like your sinense is very healthy and growing fast! Hope it set buds soon - notice that the condition of cool temperature, as I understand it, is a more or less constant low temp, not just a big jump between daily high and low. But as you can tell, I am learning too, and have no idea if my cyms will bloom for me again next year. Maybe we can learn together :) I will update with my other esifolium when it's blooming.

Yes I love our place by the edge of the Black Hills. The wildlives always cheer me up. The turkeys sometimes come into the backyard and can't find the way out (they don't remember how they get in...) and will keep complaining untill I show their way out. I don't know if they are just too lasy to fly and take advantage of me...

Your plants are beautiful and the charm of the Asian species is apparent..thanks for sharing...

As for fragrance I have one cymbidium with two spikes in bloom now and I have to say that this is the most fragrant cymbidium I've come across! I can smell the flower across the room especially during the morning! It also seems to love the heat and spiked this summer in 90 degree+ weather. I've linked to a photo below and highly recommend this orchid.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo of Cymbiduim Chen's Ruby

Wow that's a gorgeous cym, argusdc! Thank you for sharing! How does it smell like?

Isn't that nice, to have a fragrance fill your room, or even your entire house! I can smell my ensifolium too, here and there, now and then, in every room of my house!!! Sometimes it wafts in an unpredictable way. It fills mostly my office room where it is sitting in, and our family room where it is close to. And I really love the fragrance. Soooo nice. It's not like any other plant I know. It's so great to have a beautiful orchid that also smell good! Sounds like I should add have Chen's ruby to my collection!

Your little buck looks much stockier than our deer. Part of it might be his wooly coat. Our deer in this part of Texas don't need that kind of coat. They are very sleek, even in the thick of our winter months. Long necks, long very thin legs and yes, the white tail. I love to see them jump over the fences & ditches, so graceful. I can watch them going thru the woods for quite a distance by following the white 'flag'as it wags back & forth.

I'm not great on discerning types of fragrances but I would desribe it as a full rich fragrance, quite noticeable and very pleasing..

Deereyebrow, I've not seen anything in your detailed culture notes (thank you for posting them) regarding repotting. My plant is in a gallon container and the pot is full. Are they OK with a repot or do they resent disturbing the roots? Your plant is so pretty, I'd love to repot mine into a nicer pot.

Sheila :)

Argusdc, Thanks for the information about its fragrance. Sounds really nice! And the blooms look big and beautiful and happy. So nice!

Sheila, I found some instructions about when and how to repot ensifoliums, and here they are: They are tough strong plants and you can repot them in any season, as long as itÂs not too hot or too cold; but the best time to do this is in late fall, from late September to mid November, this way they can rest during the winter and start new growth early next spring. Stop watering 2 days before repotting, because roots fully absorbed with water break easily. Carefully take the roots out, make sure not to hurt any of the new growth (sometimes they have certain Âgrowing spots that when hurt will not bloom again). Still be very careful with the roots, especially the new ones tend to break. You can cut off the too old and dried out roots with sanitized tools. Clean the plant, and let it dry in shade. You can dry them for up to 2 days if there are new wounds from cutting on the roots to give them time to heal, this way they wonÂt rot. You can also put some burnt grass ash or wood ash on their wounds. When the roots are dry and have a white/creamy color, and soft, it can be repotted. It is important to water thoroughly after repotting. Sorry if I wrote too many things that you already know. It is a note for myself, too. :-) Oh, another note I found when searching for these informations: Some direct sunlight will help ensifoliums to set flower bud. They can be left outdoors and can take more sun than other cyms. But they need to be shaded during the hot noon or when the sun is too strong. Protect it under a roof or something from pouring / or too frequent rains, water run into the heart of their foliage can cause rotting. Temps need to be above freezing.

I love seeing the deer hopping, too. How can they do that so gracefully! And this year was the first time I see them changing coats. At first I saw Âdirty gray spots on their orange-ish summer coat, I thought they must had taken a mud bath or something (We had a lot of rain this year!). After seeing every one of them getting dirtier and dirtier, I realized that they are just changing coats So I guess they are preparing for winter already. Hum. Maybe I should start preparing my garden for the winter, too. Have no idea what the zone 4 winter will do to my plants!

Sorry, not grass ash. I think wood ash is better.

Thx for the explicit information! Looks like I'm about at the perfect time to repot.

Any time :)

It took about a week for four blooms to open. There were more buds on the tip of the spike but never grew big (May be I didn't make it too happy...). Hopefully next time it will have more blooms! The fragrance is VERY nice and powerful. It smells very similar to the fragrance of Long Yan Su, but just a little bit lighter, and has more of a sweetness in it. I love both of them!

{{gwi:195863}}

{{gwi:195864}}

It's name 'Jin He' means golden lotus. Do the flowers look like small lotus blossoms to you?

I feel addicted to them already... I want more! Here are some other enfoliums on my wishlist:

Cym. ensifolium 'Fu Xing Qi Die'
{{gwi:195865}}

Cym. ensifolium 'Yi Pin Mei'
{{gwi:195866}}

Cym. ensifolium 'Hong Niang'
{{gwi:195867}}

Just saw the seller listed many more beautiful enfoliums and also some sinenses. Many of them have a lot more attractive flowers. Don't know what to choose!

Cym. sinense Tao Ji'
{{gwi:195868}}

Now I start to understand why some people love and collect so many different orchids... They are, amazingly beautiful and exotic looking plants!

I'm still reading a lot about how to grow them. Here're some new tips to help them set buds, for myself and others who're interested: more sun and less water! -In growing season only. More sun helps forming flowers, and less water makes them thirsty and think about reproduce. Apply to heathy, strong plants only, and those has at least 2 or 3 growths. Wish me luck! :)

Hey Deereyebrow! How are you doing these days?

I hope you see that this thread was resurected and tell us how your plants have been doing:-)
I am now addicted because of you. I am hoping to get one or two like yours! Thanks.

Love the deer's eyebrows by the way.lol

Mike

This is way cool--I am an admitted fragrance junkie. But where are you getting these?? thanks! Congrats!

Cymbidium ensifolium Jin Qi--how to care, the leave ends are turning brown

You do realise that this an ancient thread......Sometimes better to start a new one. Anyway, care depends on where you are in the world. Leaf ends turning brown could be a watering problem.

I am in Toronto. does it require lots of light? also, brown leafs means too much or

too little water?

It certainly does require a lot of light and you are heading into winter. You need some advice from growers with similar growing conditions AND with your plea for advice stuck down here at the end of a Cymbidium perfume thread you are unlikely to get it.

What is the mix like? Is the plant slightly potbound. What is the water quality like in Toronto.

How often do you water? Does your fertiliser have trace elements e.g. Calcium etc.etc.

Maybe look at the Canadian Orchid Congress notes for Cymbidiums in Canada.

For me, it use to be a salt issue but now that is resolved..