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Phalaenopsis Orchids
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The Art Of Making A Silk Orchid Flower |
"Some of them flourish in moist climates and still others in drier places."
The Art of Making a Silk Orchid Flower
Silk was first developed in China, where silkworms and mulberry trees lived naturally. To produce silk fabric, weavers must collect silkworm larvae, and first spin it, as almost any other natural fiber, then weave the fine threads.
Hand-Made Silk Flowers
This fine fabric, perhaps first woven 8,000 years ago, was originally reserved for the Chinese Imperial family. Just as they developed the first silk garments, they developed the first silk flowers. A ladys elegant costume might include a silk orchid flower, or some other type of bloom, tucked into her hair.
As knowledge of silk cultivation spread west, so did the art of making artificial flowers. By the 1100s, Italians were making these flowers, and they probably produced a silk orchid flower, among many other varieties.
Machine-Made Silk Flowers
Until this point, artificial flowers, like almost everything else, had been hand-made. But as Europe experienced the industrial revolution, they invented machines to help make more life-like silk plants.
The Powerhouse Museum of Sydney, Australia displays an excellent late-Victorian machine used to make artificial flowers. This little machine looks something like a small die press, but in fact, it was the culmination of Victorian flower-making technology.
A flower-maker would use dies in this press to cut flower petals out of silk or other fabric. He would have had many sets of dies to produce different species of flowers. Though a silk orchid flower may have only five or six petals, the next step, shaping the blossom, would take some patience.
Silk flower petals were then joined together using glue and wires. Then each petal was shaped with a warm soldiering iron and molds that fit the curvature of various flowers. The final step was dyeing and painting, which on some species of silk orchid flower, must have taken hours on each petal.
Today, artificial flowers usually do not contain any actual silk, unless they are very fine pieces of art. Other materials, like polyester, muslin, and satin are much easier and cheaper to work with. However, in a nod to the old art of artificial flower making, most blossoms are still referred to as silk flowers.
What was once exclusive, available only to the richest members of society, is now every where. Not only in arrangements, but also a silk orchid flower might make a nice, everlasting Mothers Day corsage or a decoration on a wedding dress.
Orchids The White Dendrobium Orchid
In addition to online stores, there are also online auction sites to consider.
"But regardless of the beauty of cattleya orchids, they can be a challenge to grow."
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Phalaenopsis Orchids Information |
| Blooming orchids (The Pantagraph)
A whiff of vanilla is unmistakable, and it comes from an orchid. Orchids also smell of exotic spices, sweet florals, Mentholatum, new-mown hay and rotting carcasses.
Orchids Paper Products Company Reports Financial Results for First Quarter of 2007 and Retirement of Chief Executive ... (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
Orchids Paper Products Company today reported net sales of .6 million in the first quarter 2007, an increase of 18% over the .1 million reported in the prior year quarter.
China's Gold-Mine Wild Orchids Face Extinction (Planet Ark)
BEIJING - Where have all the flowers gone? Over-harvesting fuelled by surging market prices is threatening to wipe out several species of wild orchids in eastern China, some of which command as much as US5,000 a pot, state media reported on Friday.
China's Gold-Mine Wild Orchids Face Extinction (Environmental News Network)
Over-harvesting fuelled by surging market prices is threatening to wipe out several species of wild orchids in eastern China, some of which command as much as 5,000 a pot, state media reported on Friday.
Orchids and Onions (Tribune Chronicle)
ORCHIDS: To Warren G. Harding High School Key Club and adviser, Janis Sanfrey, who recently sponsored the annual Special Needs Spring Fling dance. Key Club members volunteered their time serving refreshments and dancing the night away with students. Their efforts made a difference in many lives.
South Africa: Cape Orchid Show a Must (AllAfrica.com)
THE AUTUMN-flowering orchid season has begun and the Cape Orchid Show is holding its autumn show this weekend in Pinelands. Among the best known orchids for local gardeners are cymbidiums, which flower from May through to July.
The butterfly orchid requires warm temperatures and high levels of humidity; to ensure these conditions one must keep it mostly at room temperature with sunlight, even if it is not required to place it in direct sunlight.
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| "Each stem of a Cattleya will generally produce two to ten flowers, whereas a Phalaenopsis can actually produce many more flowers on one stem." |
| "A Hawaiian orchid stem can get to the consumer a little faster than foreign-grown flowers." |
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