Did your grocery store mini stay mini?

[Fishkeeper]

I've read that the miniature who-knows-what-makes-this-up hybrids at grocery stores tend to grow larger than that, and now I'm curious how often that happens.

I have two, one purchased at about 2" across and one at 3", which are now respectively at 4" and 5" but don't appear to be getting any larger.

For the purposes of this thread, a mini Phal is one that's ~6" or less across. Flower stalk size is interesting, but it's leaf size I really want to know about.

So, who else has bought a mini hybrid phal from a grocery store or similar source, and what did it end up doing?

[camille1585]

I don't have any grocery store mini Phals, but my sister in law has one since a couple years. I repotted it for her over the summer and it seemed not much bigger than when pruchased.

In the past these minis were often produced by stunting growth with growth inhibiting chemicals, but I think now they have managed to breed to truely miniature hybrids. Just my two cents.

[Ray]

Certainly there are species and hybrids that naturally grow "smaller than the norm", but I think many of the "grocery store mini's" are standards that have simply been forced to bloom while still small and young.

[jcec1]

I have a couple of minis that have stayed mini. They are the 'multiflora' types that have blooms less than an inch big. One is about four years old and is still mini - a trait of both is that they seem to bloom for years at a time!

[Pattywack]

Funny you should ask....I have four “minis” I purchased about 3 yrs ago from Lowe’s. They were in the tiny colorful pots, plants were potted in moss in those flimsy plastic inner pots. I purchased these for table decor at Easter as the colored pots were too cute. All were flowering. There is a nice purple one, a yellow, a similar purple and a nice harlequin.

After Easter I unpotted them and gave them all fresh moss, cut large holes into the plastic pots and put them back inside the cute colored pots. My idea was to see how well these plants would grow and how large these minis would be if kept in the tiny pots. Would they ever flower again? Would they live like this? If the plants began to decline I would repot into larger pots.

Two of these plants were almost constantly in bloom, especially the harlequin and it had roots climbing all over. These were all grown in my kitchen windows, a bay window with SE, S and SW exposure.

This summer when the two bloomers finished flowering I decided to set them all free. They all survived, they have grown and bloomed...they are much larger than they were originally. Original size was 3 to 4 inches, they are 6-6 1/2 now and I hope to see flowers again one day. They are mounted on a wood raft together, growing in my greenhouse shelving unit.

I use t5 lights and a fan, humidity is near 80 constantly, temp is 60’s nights- 80’s day. They are in a shady area in this grow space. I believe they are happy! Sorry for the long post. Here are the last pictures of the two constant bloomers and a picture after I set them free.

[Pattywack]

Oh! I forgot to add, our home faces north with a covered front porch. I plan to use this raft as a wreath next spring!

[jkofferdahl]

A lot of growers do, indeed, stunt or otherwise dwarf the size of Phals chemically, and these plants may grow larger than what is considered a mini. Many of the so-called minis get a lot of their parentage from P equestris which, while on the smaller size, is still really a full-sized Phal. However, more knowledgeable and decent growers are hybridizing the true miniature Phals and getting some delightful results. Parentage of these may still contain genes from smaller but normal-sized Phals such as equestris or cornu-cervi but to naturally dwarf their size they are including appendiculata (the smallest known Phal species), braceana, cochlearis, deliciosa,hainanensis (my favorite mini),lindenii, lowii, parishiimalpoensis and thailandica.

A couple of true miniature hybrids are Equichi, which is a cross of equestris and chibae, and LOC Island Sunser, a cross of pulcherima and hainanensis.

It's rare that any any of the true miniatures, or mini hybrids, grow a leaf span broader than 4 or 5 inches.

[greenpassion]

Originally Posted by Fishkeeper

I've read that the miniature who-knows-what-makes-this-up hybrids at grocery stores tend to grow larger than that, and now I'm curious how often that happens.

I have two, one purchased at about 2" across and one at 3", which are now respectively at 4" and 5" but don't appear to be getting any larger.

For the purposes of this thread, a mini Phal is one that's ~6" or less across. Flower stalk size is interesting, but it's leaf size I really want to know about.

So, who else has bought a mini hybrid phal from a grocery store or similar source, and what did it end up doing?

I have several 'mini phals', and they all have stayed much smaller than the larger ones I have. These were bought in small plastic liners, packed in moss. I repotted them all in 2" and 3" pots with bark, (this was a year + ago) and they all have continued to spike and bloom for me, It's interesting to see my keikes, babies from large phalsj start out the size of these mini's, but soon grow much larger.