First NO-ID Mini phal to bloom this year.

[HollyMStewart]

Okay, first of all, I know its a long shot, because of the multitude of phal hybrids. But, on the off chance someone has this plant, it can't hurt to ask!

I bought this (and a few others) back in the fall of 2011. $1 clearance shelf from Lowes, bloom dropped, no ID. Proud to say that it is now happily blooming not even 6 months later, after tons of root growth and 1-2 new leaves.

Now, I dont know much about the "mini" phals.. are those just small phals or actual hybrids engineered to stay smaller?

Even if you can't give me an exact name.. just a ballpark on the genes or anything would be great, so I can add it to my book of plants.

Thanks!

[bballr4567]

Very pretty mini!

[camille1585]

The most common mini Phal that looks like yours is Phal Sogo Vivien. That may very well be what you have.

I think that there are both types: naturally compact Phals that got that way through breeding, and standard Phals that were forced to grow small via the application of chemicals that inhibit normal growth (usually containg hormones like auxins and giberillins). These chemicals are very common in the horticulture industry in general because they allows growers to produce plants with shorter flower stems and more compact growth. ( not to the extent of mini phals though)

[NatalieS]

That's incredible. I'm over in Ireland and I bought a mini phal from Ikea a few weeks ago. By the looks of it, it is the exact same kind!

[HollyMStewart]

NatalieS, that looks pretty similar! I took my photo after it was dark, so the colors are very washed out in my pic.

I figured that the major suppliers to big box stores have "typical" colors they always send.. its what I always see at each store. Randomly I will find something different, but its usually the same spectrum of plants, that is why I am hoping maybe someone has a name for it.

What makes me mad is some of these plants had tags when I bought them! But, I knew nothing of plant names then, and tossed them out. Now that I know the color of this one, I am going to look at the others of the same color at the store and see if any have a tag. I'll never know for sure, but I like having an idea. :-)

[NatalieS]

Holly, I think Camille is spot on. I googled phal sogo vivien and the flowers look identical to me. Some sites have it named as Phalaenopsis Dtps.Sogo Vivien, a cross between Doritaenopsis Sogo Alice and Phalaenopsis Zuma's Pixie. I'm going to put that on the label anyway so I know how to look after it.

Thanks Camille!

[camille1585]

Dtps used to be the name of it, but after some more mucking around with names by botanists, Doritis and Doritaenopsis have disappeared, to be all named Phals now.

[HollyMStewart]

So when will RHS catch up with all the changes? Makes it hard to identify things sometimes.

[RosieC]

I think a true Sogo Vivian has variagated leaves though (I could be wrong).

It's really pretty, I have one like it that I call "Phal NoID [Vivian]" but that's just my own name for it and I use the [] brackets to indicate that I don't really know the name (as well as using a variation of the name of the one it looks like.

Basically unless you truly know the name you can never know for sure... but at least you know what it looks like

---------- Post added at 11:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:41 AM ----------

I'm wrong about the variegated leaves, must be thinking of a different one. Still I don't think you can be sure about what it is, just that it's similar to that.

---------- Post added at 11:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 AM ----------

Ah... there is a variegated leaf version of Sogo Vivian... so I wasn't so wrong after all

[lostonthebeach]

Wow. Nice job. Very healthy looking plant.