I assume that you are talking about a group of blooms that look something like this where a single flower is nothing like the size of a softball.
{{gwi:158019}}
This is a named variety rather than the "common" varieties that are grown as garden plants grown around these parts.
The orchid readily makes keikis so that a single plant increases in size year by year. Does best under-potted (Plant is in a pot that looks too small)

Hi Greg! Welcome to Orchid forum! Watch out! You're peeking in on the dark side.

Ok what you are probably talking about is NOT an orchid. The picture above from Arthur is an Epidendrum orchid, so I would be willing to bet what you are thinking of is the orchid cactus that I see on eBay all the time. The flowers remind me of a football chrysanthemum.I will venture a guess that your flower size is connected to whatever fertilizer you are using or not using.I can talk about orchid fert but don't know anything about cactus fert. Since you're over here you might want to browse through our gallery, we have lots of pretty pictures!!!MMMWAHAHAHAHA! (evil orchid enabler laugh, very similar to Dr. Evil) ginnibug

If you are talking about cactis orchid. they are not orchids, they are cactis. You can easily grow it from cuttings. The trick is to let the cutting dry for few days then plant it in very corose medium. This will prevent it from rotting. In about 4 weeks it will have roots. Don't water the cutting a lot, just sprink few drop of water will be enough for it.
If you want it flower soon, you need to put it in a smaller pot, let it root bound. Hope this help.

Thank you everyone, I understand that without a picture it's sometimes a little dificult to determine exactly what the heck is he talking about so I will send a pic in awhile. It is just like the picture Arthurm showed but just to make sure my eyes arent playing trixs on me I'll send one of mine.

O and by the way the type of Fertilizer I use is .... drum roll please...... M/G !!! But the flowers or blooms are smaller than the ones that came with it.

I will say this I originally saw them and purchased them by the beach and Im at least 30 miles inland from there. So not sure if thats the diference or not but I'm thinking maybe even though I hope not.

I will send some pictures via the new method which I can only send one (1) at a time.

Greg

Ok guys, here she is , this is actually a picture when I first purchased her and I'll have to send a new one of a resent photo of how it looks today.

Maybe I need to start over with the soil but from what I've heard this plant is so forgiving you'd think he was the savior.

In any case all suggestions are appreciated .

Greg

This is a picture I took today and as you can see the clusters of blooms are significantly smaller, what kind of water does this type require? And I hear it needs lots of direct sun light which it gets at least 7 hours right now , and the M/G for fertilizer.

Greg

Here is another one grown against a north facing fence so it gets a lot of sun (Southern Hemisphere). Name Unknown. They are treated as garden plants and need "benign neglect". Not someone fussing over them and watering and fertilising to excess.
They bloom sequentially so even if well grown you will end up with a tuft of tiny flowers at the end of a long stem with spent flower scars. You need to do a tidy up after the plant has flowered for a few months and encourage the plant to grow new stems (canes or pseudobulbs) from the base of the plant.
{{gwi:158017}}

Thanks Arthurm, I'll clean her up some and give her a freshin up for the summer, thanks

Greg

Well today I finally caught up with the clean up process and I trimmed all the long stems I also noticed how long and thin they were also and realized if the blooms were any bigger the stems would have snapped they were so thin.

How long does it normally take for them to form new blooms they seemed to be a slow grower?

Greg

Hi
I'm in s florida so may be quite different but E. radicans (Orange yellow varieties ) grow in every conceivable way I grow them in pots ,troughs attached to palms in baskets along with catts, Vandas. They are semi epiphytic so soil is irrelevant but they do perform best in troughs with very open soil. They flower almost continuously from Feb to Aug In troughs I give them some slow release during summer. Now the white ,pink, purples are much more difficult . They make spectacular beds along
with broms or anything that won't shade them too much.
For me the largest flowers are produced in FEb April gary

Gary, thanks alot for your response, I think I've bee n overly concerned with the soil when it sounds like they can tolerate every type of abuse out there.

I will pay less attention to the minor details. I just recently trimmed up the old stems and clean her up and now hopefully all the energy can go to blooming.

One thing for sure is that she always seems to bloom my concern was they keep on get smaller and SMALLER so I was getting curious as to what was going on, Is it just me or should I not even be concerned.

Greg

The question of naming these plants came up the other day when a Novice (new grower) benched a couple of plants in the Novice Species Class. Now as i said above non orchid growers grow them as garden plants. Stick them in a sunny spot and they are unkillable. None have labels and there are all sorts of colours. I suspect that most are hybrids, but i do not know for sure! I told him to move the plants to the Novice Laeliinae Hybrid Class. Peak flowering here is October which tallies with what Gary says above (April, Northern Hemisphere)

Hi
Recently when moving a Catt from a wire basket grown in sphagnum There were 25 separate stems of E. radicans actually choking the Catt.!! I placed these on a picnic table for later placement .That was 3 weeks ago and every piece has righted and is growing new roots lol Granted they are laying on top of some very old tree fern and the weather has been VERY humid along with almost daily rains but are in full blazing sun!! Quit fussing and let them do there thing?? lol "Bedding orchids are a GREAT rarity!!
gary

Well thanks Gary , and I must day I'm sorry the term catt means nothing to me if It's and orchid term, I have ears to learn though if you can shed some light on subject.

What I did pick up is these epidendrums don't fuzz to much and given air
Air and sunshine they will produce.

That makes me happy and one last question, my plant receives sun from morning till around 2:o'clock . My neighbor just recently cut down a large tree that blocked all full sun shine the rest of the day , would you considered me moving my epi to a location where it can have more direct sun the whole day?

Thanks to whoever responds no hurries or worries just share some light.

Greg