Miniature Cattleyas

[Rose Clark]

Hi everyone, I am Rose from NZ and called in to my local Kings Plant Barn today to find a couple of georgous little mini cattleyas. I have 4 full size cattleyas and adore them but was thinking I would like to try a mini or 2
Does anyone on here have minis and if so whats your experience growing them? Are any of them scented?
Kind regards, Kiwi Rose

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

I have some unbloomed mini seedlings from Sunset Valley Orchids in California, but I think it would be difficult to get them to NZ. There are fragrant minis, and there are a few very small Cattleya species.

[realoldbeachbum]

Welcome to the OB, Rose. You found the right place for great orchid advice. These folks KNOW ORCHIDS and patiently provide guidance for newbies like me!

I recently purchased several mini Catts and am slowly falling in love with them. I find them easy to grow under the same basic conditions as regular sized Catts -- plus they take up so little space on my grow shelf. What is not to love about them?

So far, none of mine have fragrance.

Happy growing from Alabama, USA.

[Shadeflower]

A lot of the mini crosses have sophonitis as a parent which stops them being fragrant which I think is a shame.

I'm sure in time there will be lots of great Cattleya mini crosses but so far I feel that market is lacking.

When I first looked what I could add to my collection it was hard to judge how big plants would be. Some marked as mini Catts are still a foot tall because a big cat can be 4 foot tall I suppose but most my mini crosses are in my opinion still quite big.

The ones that stay small so far that I have include C Jenmannii, C luteola, C Nobilior and C Pumila. There are others like the C Bowringiana and Millieri but they are not fragrant.

Recently more C Pumila and Walkeriana crosses are coming out that are all small because the parents are, great potential there.

Guarianthe Auranthiaca stays quite compact but something like rth young-min Orange gets surprisingly big (a hybrid of it)

[Roberta]

Rose,
First, Welcome!

I don't know which mini-Catts might be available where you live. I am near Sunset Valley Orchids in California, and breeding them has been raised to a high art. I have a bunch, because the owner, Fred Clarke, donates generously to society raffle tables and auctions, and I have bought some as well. I don't recall fragrance in any of the smallest ones - Not only the S. coccinea ancestor in many minis isn't fragrant, but some of the other sources of small size (like the Brazillian rupiculous Laelias such as L. breigeri and L. milleri) aren't either - but have fantastic color to compensate. There are some that are a bit larger (I'd call them "compact" rather than "mini") like C. (Ctt.) Chocolate Drop or Rlc. Cynthia are extremely fragrant. So for a particular plant, knowing its ancestry can help in making an educated guess on fragrance. If you have your eye on a particular plant, post the name and there are folks here (including me) who are happy to look it up.

[Diane56Victor]

Welcome Rose.

[Rose Clark]

Thanks everyone I will let you all know when I know the name of the one at my garden centre and will get a pic of it if it’s still there that is!

[Maryanne]

Hello Rose:
Welcome to the O'board.
For minis, I've had very good luck with C. Mini-Purple (coerulea variation), one with the "Little Toshi" line of breeding in it's parentage, and Laelia praestans (species- did this get switched to Cattleya now?)
Once you find a line of breeding, and or a species that does well for you, stick to that and similar orchids. The orchid vendor if he or she is any good, should be able to advise.
Good luck and happy growing,
Maryanne (on the other side of the Earth)

[yug]

I had a friend a number of years back who bred/grew/sold mini-catts. I asked him about them, and he said that the best part is that they don't take as long to reach blooming size as the standard ones do. He had this little thing he created called 'Mahalo Jack' (C. walkeriana x C. orpetii - I think) that was really nice. It was scented, too. He bred for plants that kept the bloom size somewhat proportional to the plant size. He didn't like huge blooms on tiny plants or vice-versa. He said that proportional presentation just looked better.

[Roberta]

C. Mahalo Jack is a classic... yes, looked up, that's the parentage. Another nice thing about a lot of the minicatts is that they bloom more than once a year. I suspect that's the influence of parents such as S. coccinea (and where used, rupiculous Laelias such as L. breigeri and L. milleri)