Small-growing Cattleya species

[bethmarie]

I'm fishing for more Catt species that stay smaller than medium. There's walkeriana, and I think violacea stays pretty small, (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm pretty familiar with the Sophronitis species, and am aiming for plants bigger than those little beauties.

I'd welcome the input of experienced catt growers on this.

Cause, really, I need more orchids. Ahem.

[orchidsarefun]

Sunset Valley Orchids has a few listed, take a look. L alaorii as an example.

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[Roberta]

C. intermedia stays moderate in size. About 12 in, 30 cm in height or less. It is very adaptable to a variety of temperature conditions, and has a number of color forms.

[Leslie]

Certain varieties of the purpuratas like the coeruleas can be quite medium size. Also look at luteola, dormaniana, eldorado, pumila, praestens, and B. glauca.


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[u bada]

Cattleya kerrii, if you can find it would be a cool one to try (still have to get one myself), c. loddigesii is medium but kinda on the smaller size, and c. schilleriana, and c. aclandaie is probably the coolest smaller cattleya... the last 3 being bifoliates can be a bit tricky. Also agree with a lot of the smaller laelias are good ones to try, the hadrolaelias being of the smallest and relatively speaking pretty easy...

[Roberta]

I thought of another interesting one... C. schilleriana. It is a modest-sized plant with a spectacular flower. It also is quite temperature-tolerant (I grow it outside all year around in southern California, it handles winter nights near freezing if kept dry) (this was also mentioned in the previous post, from u bada, that came in as I was writing mine)

[katrina]

Many of the rupics are quite small. They can be a bit difficult to rebloom but they are small. A few of the ones that I have currently and they are small -- reginae, briegeri, milleri, liliputana (a tiny species!), tereticaulis, cinnabarina, and caulescens.


There is also C forbesii but it can be a bit temperamental sometimes. I have 3 and they are not the easiest catts to grow. They can also be somewhat scraggly looking even when they are perfectly healthy. Possibly not something everyone would want.


Going down my list...others in my collection that I don't think were mentioned but are considered to be on the shorter side and that aren't as difficult to bloom as some of the rupics --
C aclandiae
C alaorii
C brevipedunculata (formerly sophronitis)
C cernua
many C dolosas are on the shorter side
C fidelensis
C jongheana (one of my favs!)
C luteola
C nobilior (can be tricky but not hard to grow)
C pumila
C violacea is short and gorgeous but it's also a bit fussy about temps and watering. A good challenge for someone willing to spend the money on a good one. I've killed off a couple and I seem to be working on killing another one. Still have some babies...fingers crossed I can figure this species out because it. is. gorgeous.
Laelia dayana aka C bicalhoi



Moving into others in the catt family....
Encyclia fowlei
Encyclia bractescens
Myrmecophila albopurpurea
Myrmecophila humboldtii
Encyclia mariae (aka Prosthechea)
Encyclia vitellina (aka Prosthechea)
Ryncholalia glauca

Sophronitelia (Isabelia) violacea - super mini!

I have some others that would be more in the medium range but all of the above are rather short for catts. Also, some of the B nodosas are shorter in stature.

I feel like I'm leaving something out but that's a decent list of some that might be of interest. Also, as someone else mentioned, Fred Clark has a very nice selection of compact hybrid catts.

[silken]

My Cattleya jenmanii is one of my smallest species and is a reliable bloomer. C. leuddemanniana is also pretty compact. They both produce lovely good sized blooms.

[Leafmite]

Good luck on your pursuit of the smaller Cattleyas! I have gotten rid of all of my larger ones and now the giant one in my collection is my Burana Beauty. At one time, it was my smallest one.