Description
In many of the most famous oil paintings of the European masters, the colors of the subjects practically glow. Over the centuries, artists developed techniques of layering colors to produce a luminous effect, as the pigments of an underlying layer enhanced the upper layers.
A similar phenomenon takes place in orchid flowers, which is why orchid breeding surpasses breeding of other ornamental flowers. The variety and depth of color possible in orchid blooms is astonishing, as anyone strolling through a fine orchid show can attest. Some orchid flowers, like the finest oil paintings of the Renaissance, show the same luminous effect because the same layering of pigments occurs in the tissue layers of the orchid flower.
Cymbidium orchids can show this layering of pigments to great effect, with flowers showing a kind of glow.
Here in Cymbidium Koushu Mae (Akane no Hikari), the bronze-red color is enhanced by an underlying gold pigment, which you can see at the edges of the flower, and within the lip, where the gradient of color is exposed.
Cym. Koushu Mae was bred at the Mukoyama Nursery in Japan, another fine product of their breeding program. Besides color, this variety is a floriferous Cymbidium that is modest in its space requirements (for a Cymbidium, at least). IMPORTANT NOTE: NOT IN BUD/BLOOM WHEN SHIPPED.
