Here is a pic of my mini phals.

Very lovely!

Yes they will eventually grow up. There has been hormone manipulation with these to keep them this small and without application try eventually start growing again.

Some may be compact, but others will get much bigger.

That's disappointing to know.When I saw them in the different colors I was amazed and thought they would remain small.Anyway, thanks Terpguy.I'll enjoy them as minis for a while since orchids are slow growers.

Allymarie

There must be lots and lots of genuine mini Phals available from orchid nurseries. There are over 500 primary hybrids with Phal. equestris as a parent and there is plenty of other miniature breeding as well.

The question arises "what is miniature?" The division on size at monthly meetings at a local orchid society here is;
Phal. Hybrids 75mm and over
Phal. Hybrids under 75mm
75 mm is about 3 inches.

That further begs the question: miniature foliage or miniature flower, or both combined? There are large foliage plants with tiny flowers, and small foliage plants with proportionally large flowers.

In the orchid judging world I have never seen any categories based on plant size. The genera, species or hybrid, size and number of flowers are the criteria used.

So the judging classes will vary among orchid societies depending on where those societies are in the world, the type of orchid society (single genera, species only, or whatever you can grow). If, (hypothetical) you had six Phal. orchid growers in your society with the expertise of Brooke, you would have more than two Phalaenopsis Classes.

Arthur AOS divides the classes by color, never size and OMG do they have color classes.

Terp what type of hormones does a grower use to manipulate the size of the Phal? I know the rumor mill thinks all commercial Phal growers can manipulate temps to get Phals to bloom early but this is the first time I've heard of hormone manipulation.

Brooke

Pure speculation on what's used, Brooke, I'm not sure. And oddly I'm hard pressed to provide an example as I can't recall what my former boss used on our annuals in production greenhouses (none of which inhibited flowering). But what makes the most sense to me are gibberellin inhibitors such as Bonzai.

The use of hormones here makes a lot of sense. You'd be hard pressed to get true seedlings of this size to consistently bloom out as we see with many of these "minis" we see in grocery stores and whatnot. With multiple spikes no less! So either these are already full size or there has been significant manipulation. Given the ample anecdotes of many of these growing out to be larger plants, evidence points to plants outgrowing hormone application.

I fell for a mini at a BBS, and though I knew that it was most likely NOT a true mini, and may one day become a full size orchid, it didn't really bother me. I just loved the color, and for $7, I couldn't pass it up. We'll see what happens over the next year. I brought it home the first week of October, and the blooms are just now showing signs of fading. The pot stands about as high as your average coffee mug.

It's just gorgeous, love those pink flowers.

Allymarie

Hi Allymarie,

I've had quite a few Phals. In my experience, care is the same, regardless of size.

Sometimes, online commercial orchid growers' sites will say if a Phal is "compact," but that term isn't very specific. Usually, I email the grower about a particular orchid and ask what the leafspan and height are likely to be in 4-6 years, given good growing conditions.

I learned the hard way to ask beforehand after falling in love with the photo of a Phaius blossom online. After 18 months, the plant was 36" tall and about 20" wide. Way too much for my small growing area.

As for the eventual size of your new Phals, it will become known. :)

WhiteCat8

I've had a few "mini phals" for many years, they have never grown larger leaves, and they grow and bloom consistently ever year. I don't think all of them are kept small with hormones as hormones run out unless they are being produced by the plant itself. Only one, I would consider a "medium phal" but it has been consistently growing this size for years too. So maybe some are the result of chemical treatment, and some are legitimately "mini".

The mini's are really lovely, I have one of them home myself and wouldn't mind to have it 'grow up' and get bigger since the flowers are of brilliant silky peach colour and create gorgeous garlands of flowers, and thus having this in big size would be amazing and a real show stopper.