How to find mini-catts to buy...

[Royal]

Ditto all the great reviews for Marble Branch Farms and Sunset Valley Orchids. Two of my favorites. Both focus on seed grown hybrids using quality parents. You may be picking up a future award winner!

[Duane McDowell]

Sunset Valley Orchids sells a lot of miniatures - they are classified by size on the website, too! Carter and Holmes has a few miniatures - great prices, too. Their LC. Newberry Luisa's Love are gorgeous (and super-easy to grow). I got a bunch of Slc. Dream Catcher from H & R Nurseries - they are fantastic, and true miniatures. And, absolutely - Gold Country is great. I bought some divisions of awarded mini cats from him and I've been very pleased with them.

[Lady Tottington]

Originally Posted by Duane McDowell

Sunset Valley Orchids sells a lot of miniatures - they are classified by size on the website, too! Carter and Holmes has a few miniatures - great prices, too. Their LC. Newberry Luisa's Love are gorgeous (and super-easy to grow). I got a bunch of Slc. Dream Catcher from H & R Nurseries - they are fantastic, and true miniatures. And, absolutely - Gold Country is great. I bought some divisions of awarded mini cats from him and I've been very pleased with them.

Thanks Duane! What exactly does the Lc and the Slc mean? When I see that, does that mean it will be smaller? Or?

Also, when you have gotten a division, what size have they been, and how long has it taken till you have gotten it to bloom?

Thanks for your help and answers!

[Lady Tottington]

Izzie, thank you for all the info! That is so good to know! I think I will place an order from them within the next month or two. I live in Utah, so if something can do well in their Denver location, my growing season would be similar. What exactly is a "micro-mini" Izzie? Do you have one of those? Curious I am!

And Nat! Thanks for that link! They have some beautiful orchids, and their prices are reasonable for sure, especially if I purchased a few, with the hopes of getting something thrown in Both mini's and compact (which I'm not sure what the difference is!), which means I might have to get one of each

Thanks to all for answers and direction!

[orchidsamore]

Lc stands for Laelia x Cattleya.

Newberry Luisa's Love is no longer an Lc the Laelia has been reclassified to Cattleya, so the hybrid is a pure Cattleya.

C. Newberry Luisa's Love

Slc used to stand for Sophronitis x Laelia x Cattleya but the entire family of Sophronitis has been reclassified as Cattleya and the family Sophronitis no longer exists

Dream Catcher is also a pure Cattleya now.

C. Dream Catcher

[Lady Tottington]

Thank you Jerry, that makes more sense, there is so much history I have yet to learn! Why do they later decide to reclassify and just to Cattleya?

[RosieC]

There has been a whole load of orchids reclasified as new genetic data is found.

Also you tend to go in phases... they will decide to break up big genuses into several smaller ones, then several years later new people are in charge of naming and decide that really they should all be lumpped together in to one big genus.

It's quite difficult to ever be on top of what the latest changes are.

[Duane McDowell]

I've been slow to adopt the new classifications in the Cattleya group - sorry about that!
Sunset Valley Orchids defines mini-cats as those that will stay under 6" tall and bloom in 3-4" pots. They define compact cats as those that will stay under 12" tall and bloom in 4" pots. Really the only way to know about a specific cross or plant is to read the description from the grower. When I'm trying a new type, I call the growers and talk with them, asking for specific recommendations.
When I bought divisions from Gold Country, they were nice big pieces (several bloomed growths and at least one new lead). They were blooming size plants. The specific ones I got are very miniature, so they are in 2 1/2" pots as mature plants. The plants I have bought from Sunset Valley Orchids have been 6-9 months from blooming for the most part. One of my favorite ways to buy from them is bloomed seedlings on Ebay. That way I know I'm getting a blooming size plant, and I know exactly what the blooms look like. I search for "SVO Select" on ebay to bring up the listings. They put up new ones every week.

[Izzie]

A micro-mini is miniminiminimini.

[Lady Tottington]

Originally Posted by RoyalOrchids

Ditto all the great reviews for Marble Branch Farms and Sunset Valley Orchids. Two of my favorites. Both focus on seed grown hybrids using quality parents. You may be picking up a future award winner!

somehow I missed this! I like the idea of getting a future award winner... I have never in my life won any kind of award! That would be a perfect first!