There probably is not a person in the world that is not moved in some manner by this interesting and beautiful flower. Those who grow them and go to see them also have their own feelings about this ingenious little plant as well, as could be seen at the World Orchid Conference in Singapore this year.

For many, the orchid is known as a great seductress. The reason they like to call the orchid a seducer is simple. This intriguing plant has the ability to trick other animals and insects to pollinate it in exchange for absolutely nothing. That is right, the insect or animal that ends up pollinating the flower gets nothing in return.

Generally this is not the case with other flowers. If a bee goes to pollinate your run of the mill flower, it’s going to get go back to its hive and be able to create honey, but not if it pollinates the orchid. How amazing is that? A flower that can persuade others to work for it and get paid for nothing for the work. No wonder there are so many different types of species in the world.

What is even more interesting is that most of the different species of orchids now are produced by people who have fallen under the same spell the insects and other animals have fallen under. The beauty and incredible alluring smells offered up by the orchids have captivated orchid growers. It seems now, the orchid has also captured the hearts of man to do all the work, just like their insect friends.

However smart the orchids are at being able to persuade humans to create more and more of them, no one who grows these beautiful flowers ever feel as if they are being used by the orchid and that all their work yields nothing. Instead, each grower is rewarded with their own special set flowers that draw more people to them than ever before. So there at least, the human workers are different from the insects and animals the orchids in the wild con into working for them for nothing.

Growers of orchids baby their plants as if they were their own children, proven at this year’s World Orchid Conference when it was noted that most growers agree that their flowers will suffer if it’s too cold and they will even sweat if the temperature in the boxes they travel in gets too hot. Some growers when coming to this event even admitted they worried so much about the health of their orchids that they could not even sleep half of the time before the event.

There are over 25,000 different species of orchids in the wild and the only other flower to rival that would be the daisy. The reason that they can maintain such a variety of species is because of their ability to summon, lure or trick the exact pollinators that they want to pollinate them, and then this helps the flowers in the wild to avoid mixing their genes with other nearby species of orchids. So when you go to a flower exhibition, one like the “Orchid Olympics”, a lot of the varieties you see there are through the cross breeding done by man and not the orchids themselves.

The over 200 competitors put many years of hard work and dedication into their orchids, but the winner in the best plant category was called Cycnodes Taiwan Gold. They are truly stunning. The swan-like shape and bright yellow color will take your breath away. If you haven’t seen these before, please search Google images to see these beauties.

No matter how you look at it, the orchid is truly an ingenious plant that has found a way to survive by having others do all the work, but have also been able to capture the hearts of millions of people with their sheer beauty.

Have your orchids ever won a contest? Tell us about it by leaving a comment below.

To discover how to multiply your orchids, here’s the #1 orchid propagation method.