Roth
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Many people know that Paphiopedilum callosum 'JAC' is one unique plant. All the plants named 'JAC' are divisions, genetically identical and of same value.
If I sell a pot plant Paphiopedilum Maudiae vinicolor that look more or less like JAC as divisions of the original 'JAC', historical plant that has a vintage value, with all the crap and speech, people will say that I am a crook and dishonest.
Now, neofinetia falcata 'Onamisekkai' or whatever crappy name are given are NOT cultivar. They are names that refer to a group of plants that have similar characteristics.
That's why I always considered neofinetia falcata sellers as dishonest in Asia, pretty much all of them, maybe a couple exception, just to put a safety margin in my experience and judgment.
the same applies to cymbidium goeringii and dendrobium moniliforme, cymbidium sinense sellers. The name given are NOT cultivars, but convenience name given to identify similar plants with similar traits, no matter what people want you to believe.
Now, how does the business do? I can speak freely, I have been offered those plants, and though I trade a lot of orchids, I never wanted to touch this market. Each business has its tricks, but that neofinetia Fuukiran Samurai of my arsch stories lasted for too long.
There are massive meganurseries in China and South Korea. In Korea I visited several in Jinhae, Goseong... near Seoul, Busan, many places. They do neofinetia, cymbidium goeringii and dendrobium moniliforme.
They just make seedlings and seedlings by crossing pretty much everything around for the cymbidiums and moniliforme. The variegated are propagated by tissue culture, as it is exceedingly easy to make propagation through shoot proliferation. You can keep the variegations this way and they make hundreds of thousands of clones of neofinetia. They do not know exactly which one is which one, because they have Korean names. Many appear through mutations during the tissue culture process. Some are seed propagated, as apparently it is very clear that several neofinetia variegations can be partially seed transmitted... Many are clearly virused as well, but still tissue cultured.
The prices are very, very cheap. I have not seen a plant over a couple USD for a clump (maybe 5-6 USD for the retail shop near the Seoul Airport... wholesale was around the 1-2 USD for sedirea japonica, the round leaf one, the I don't know the shitty name they gave with short round leaf ones, and the variegated ones, blooming size).
After, you have a band of large traders guys from Japan that go to those nurseries, do the karaoke girls at night time that most would be disgusted to see it, and during the daytime put Japanese tags, so it looks nice 'OOOOH 'ONAMISEKKAI' and whatever. They have pre printed tags in Japanese with the Japanese name, they just have to find the plant that looks like that in those meganurseries. I saw those people, stayed at the same hotel as two of them, they had three massive boxes of Japanese tags from different nurseries from Japan, just put them in the pots in the nurseries, and export from Korea to Japan the plants back to those nurseries. The desk office talked with me, and they talked with me about the girls they were picking up, the food buffet with naked girls Bruno style, etc... Guess they are serious descendant of the Samurai Orchid teams...
They sell them in Japan and from there to the USA. The hobbyists pays a few dozen to some hundreds USD for a pot plant that has been mass propagated through tissue culture, not for a 'division'.
To sum up
When you buy neofinetia falcata and dendrobium moniliform with Japanese name it is NEVER A CULTIVAR, but a NAME TO EXPLAIN MORE OR LESS HOW THE PLANT LOOKS LIKE.
Never listen to the sellers, it is the truth directly from the larger wholesalers of those things, and I was there too. And most will be from tissue culture, mass propagation.
There are real collectors, real nurseries in Japan who sell the real plants, some thousands USD, and they have their customers, they never sell to resellers or foreigners. But those nurseries who export all those 'Samurai blabla and 'Fuukiran' are clearly a plain scam.
That's why I always complained about those neofinetia stories for years. Now, if some people try to do a nice business, and promote interest in neofinetias, I have to say that many plants are delightful in their own, they look very nice, some really look even very beautiful. But for God's sake, they should stop those stories with the names, ancestral blabla and 'cultivars' if they still want to look serious.
If I sell a pot plant Paphiopedilum Maudiae vinicolor that look more or less like JAC as divisions of the original 'JAC', historical plant that has a vintage value, with all the crap and speech, people will say that I am a crook and dishonest.
Now, neofinetia falcata 'Onamisekkai' or whatever crappy name are given are NOT cultivar. They are names that refer to a group of plants that have similar characteristics.
That's why I always considered neofinetia falcata sellers as dishonest in Asia, pretty much all of them, maybe a couple exception, just to put a safety margin in my experience and judgment.
the same applies to cymbidium goeringii and dendrobium moniliforme, cymbidium sinense sellers. The name given are NOT cultivars, but convenience name given to identify similar plants with similar traits, no matter what people want you to believe.
Now, how does the business do? I can speak freely, I have been offered those plants, and though I trade a lot of orchids, I never wanted to touch this market. Each business has its tricks, but that neofinetia Fuukiran Samurai of my arsch stories lasted for too long.
There are massive meganurseries in China and South Korea. In Korea I visited several in Jinhae, Goseong... near Seoul, Busan, many places. They do neofinetia, cymbidium goeringii and dendrobium moniliforme.
They just make seedlings and seedlings by crossing pretty much everything around for the cymbidiums and moniliforme. The variegated are propagated by tissue culture, as it is exceedingly easy to make propagation through shoot proliferation. You can keep the variegations this way and they make hundreds of thousands of clones of neofinetia. They do not know exactly which one is which one, because they have Korean names. Many appear through mutations during the tissue culture process. Some are seed propagated, as apparently it is very clear that several neofinetia variegations can be partially seed transmitted... Many are clearly virused as well, but still tissue cultured.
The prices are very, very cheap. I have not seen a plant over a couple USD for a clump (maybe 5-6 USD for the retail shop near the Seoul Airport... wholesale was around the 1-2 USD for sedirea japonica, the round leaf one, the I don't know the shitty name they gave with short round leaf ones, and the variegated ones, blooming size).
After, you have a band of large traders guys from Japan that go to those nurseries, do the karaoke girls at night time that most would be disgusted to see it, and during the daytime put Japanese tags, so it looks nice 'OOOOH 'ONAMISEKKAI' and whatever. They have pre printed tags in Japanese with the Japanese name, they just have to find the plant that looks like that in those meganurseries. I saw those people, stayed at the same hotel as two of them, they had three massive boxes of Japanese tags from different nurseries from Japan, just put them in the pots in the nurseries, and export from Korea to Japan the plants back to those nurseries. The desk office talked with me, and they talked with me about the girls they were picking up, the food buffet with naked girls Bruno style, etc... Guess they are serious descendant of the Samurai Orchid teams...
They sell them in Japan and from there to the USA. The hobbyists pays a few dozen to some hundreds USD for a pot plant that has been mass propagated through tissue culture, not for a 'division'.
To sum up
When you buy neofinetia falcata and dendrobium moniliform with Japanese name it is NEVER A CULTIVAR, but a NAME TO EXPLAIN MORE OR LESS HOW THE PLANT LOOKS LIKE.
Never listen to the sellers, it is the truth directly from the larger wholesalers of those things, and I was there too. And most will be from tissue culture, mass propagation.
There are real collectors, real nurseries in Japan who sell the real plants, some thousands USD, and they have their customers, they never sell to resellers or foreigners. But those nurseries who export all those 'Samurai blabla and 'Fuukiran' are clearly a plain scam.
That's why I always complained about those neofinetia stories for years. Now, if some people try to do a nice business, and promote interest in neofinetias, I have to say that many plants are delightful in their own, they look very nice, some really look even very beautiful. But for God's sake, they should stop those stories with the names, ancestral blabla and 'cultivars' if they still want to look serious.