Undoubtedly orchids have been admired for centuries. It is inconceivable that native people of many countries have not admired orchids as they grew and flowered in their habitat. However, whether they were collected and successfully grown as pet plants over the millennia has not necessarily been recorded.
The first accounts of orchids being truly collected and grown artificially can be traced to the Chinese who called them lan. But it is possible lan could have initially included many different flowers such as lilies, as well as orchids.
The Chinese and Japanese artists included cymbidiums in drawings. The Japanese samurai admired and collected them for their sweet fragrances, plant growths, and leaf variations. Neofinetias were collected and nurtured as well. Since the simple start and art of collecting and cultivating orchids in China and Japan, the Western world caught up quickly, spreading the gospel of orchids. Commercial ventures especially in England grew around the importations and new discoveries of orchids. The expense of collecting and importing with subsequent huge losses made it prohibitive for the ordinary hobbyists to purchase them in great quantities. Mostly the affluent became avid collectors and their activities undoubtedly included things such as one-upmanship, prestige, snobbery and pride of possession in a one-of-a-kind orchid plant or hybrid. Many books were written touting different formulas for growing orchids including greenhouse culture and outdoor culture, thus spreading the word on how “easy” it was to grow many orchids. The growth of many orchid societies undoubtedly has had influence in popularizing the hobby. Today orchids are so readily available in grocery stores, general gardening stores, and through the Internet, that the hobby of orchid collecting runs the gamut of those who are serious orchid breeders, to artists, to orchid scientists, to multiple and monogeneric collectors, and of course to those wishing to have potfuls of beautiful, inexpensive, unlabeled orchids. Getting to this last phase of the hobby, of course, took centuries to accomplish which includes the evolution and improvements of artificial germination, the improvements of growing media, the concept of meristeming, and the use of computerization in growing, marketing, and orchid distribution.



Newly seen Bulbophyllum and their cultivation
Roland Schettler

During the last years several Bulbophyllum species came to the collections of orchid growers and amateurs. Some of them are old friends but some are really new, they have fantasy names just to identify them. The difficulty for scientists is, without any origin their is no chance to describe them. The plants came from collectors and breeders in Vietnam and the countries around. Some of them are very exciting, they produce lovely colours and unusual flowerforms. For the reason that Bulbophyllum has somewhat as a renaissance some showy hybrids will also be shown. Examples for these new members of genus Bulbophyllum are Bulbophyllum lepidum rot, Bulbophyllum pectenveneris, Bulbophyllum retusiusculum and Bulbophyllum frostii.
Some outstanding cultivated examples will be shown and directions for cultivation and reproduction will be given.

Roland Schettler, after the study of theology, philosophy and biology work as scientist at the field of biotechnology in the Institut of Pantbreeding, Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landwirtschaft in Braunschweig, Germany. After that leading scientist of the firm Piccoplant in Oldenburg Germany. Today working as highschoolteacher in Halver, Germany. He is one of the founders of Vereinigung Deutscher Orchideenfreunde and their president since 1995, since 1994 the Editor of Journal für den Orchideenfreund, author of several articles and Editor of two books in the field of orchids. He is a speaker and judge at WOCs and EOCs and advertiser of judging the forthcoming WOC in Dijon, France.

Comparative analysis between Orchis species and their hybrid
Schatz Bertrand