Easy for beginner orchid suggestions

[sewagner86]

I am getting a small grow area together for my mom for her birthday/mothers day. Her cats get into plants and eat them so to combat that, I purchased a small cabinet with a glass door and mesh sides. I want to get a few orchids for her beyond her miniature phals that I currently am keeping for her. The requirements are

• they need to stay smaller....think 12×12×12 area for one shelf. She can't take them out when they spike because the cats will eat them.
•they MUST be easy keepers for home conditions. I will have grow lights set up in the cabinet for her, but that's about it.

She really like paphs, I don't know if there are miniature oncidiums, phals she can grow. Any suggestions on specific orchids for me to get for her?

[estación seca]

Excuse me if it seems presumptious. Are you sure she wants this? It's a fair amount of additional work.

We would need to know your temperature and humidity ranges for better advice. There are mini to small Oncs, Paphs and even Catts that do well indoors under lights if temperatures are proper. There are lots of less common small orchids that might work.

[rbarata]

Home conditions will be different from inside the cabinet.

[sewagner86]

So, my plan is to purchase 1 or 2 orchids for her....nothing super hard to take care of. She knows I am setting up the cabinet for her and bringing her her plants.

And the cabinet literally has open sides but its more of a meshy type metal over it, I have a cabinet just like it. It is no warmer than inside my home where I have it.

I have phals, oncidiums and cattleyas myself. The ones I have I know she could care for easily. She has managed to keep 2 mini phals alive and well until her one cat started chomping on them.

She lives in south central PA. The home is very dry in the winter but kept about 70. She tends to keep the house more open in the summer so it's typically warmer and definitely humid.

[estación seca]

Look into the mini and compact Catts at Sunset Valley Orchids. Also Oncidium hybrids Twinkle, which comes in several color forms; Rex's Firefly: Howeara Lava Burst, a true mini; various Paphs, especially sequential flowering hybrids like Pinocchio and Avalon Mist; Sarcochilus hybrids, sometimes available at Sunset Valley Orchids; small to mini Den. hybrids in the Latouria group like Mini Chip or Micro Chip.

[Leafmite]

I have seen small Paphs and Phrags brought to meetings in our Orchid Society. I am not very familiar with these orchids...I just have one Paph and it is mainly for the pretty leaves. It is a species that blooms just once a year but some Phrags are sequential bloomers.

A nice smaller Cattleya that blooms two or more times a year and is fragrant is Hawaiian Prominence 'America'.

Make certain you let your mother's preferences guide you when you create the collection. Some orchids are fragrant, some bloom more than once a year, and there are many colors and forms from which to choose.

Have fun!

[Subrosa]

Provided you have outdoor space, the easiest orchids are going to be the ones native to your area.

[Optimist]

This is nice and easy. Dendrobium Atroviolacium X Compactum. It's one of those Latouria dendrobiums someone mentioned. It is about 6 inches taller than the container, and needs a lot of water and medium bright light. It has huge flows of yellow/purple flowers (yellow background with purple spots and stripes) grows fast, and has a spicy vanilla scent. If the canes deflate, soak it in water for a few days and they puff up. It does like high humidity too, which is where my culture fails, but I get great flowers from it anyway. (Oh. This may get bigger, so I think of it as easy, but I don't know if it will fit into your cabinet. A dendrobium Aberrans may be a better choice. Also a plant nursery in California, "Andy's Orchid" specializes in miniature orchids. He's really nice and will answer your questions too.