Truly tiny Miniature species?
 

I'm looking for really mini miniature species, anyone have some names of these micro "monsters" lol. Also if you have any experience with them feel free to share :)

List of recommended mini miniatures: (recommendations from other members)

Acostaea costarricensis
Aerangis punctata
Angraecum distichum
Bulbophyllum gracillimum
Bulbophyllum hirundinis
Bulbophyllum moniliforme
Bulbophyllum pecten-veneris
Bulbophyllum shepherdii
Bulbophyllum vaginatum
Cattleya (Sophronitis) cernua
Cattleya (Laelia) kettieana
Cattleya (Laelia) milleri--not as tiny as some in this group but well worth the space
Cattleya (Laelia) sincorana
Dendrobium bellatulum
Dendrobium cuthbertsonii
Dendrobium jenkinsii
Dendrobium lamyaiae
Dendrobium (Epigeneium) nakaharae
Dinema (Encyclia) polybulbon--ditto on getting big
Haraella retrocalla
Lepanthes saltatrix
Lepanthes telipogoniflora
Lepanthes tsubotae
Lepanthopsis astrophora
Masdevallia mendozae
Masdevallia ‘jelly belly’
Platystele Umbellata
Pleurothallis calyptrostele
Pluerothallis leptotifolia
Pleurothallis peperomioides
Schoenorchis Fragrans


Isabelia virginalis
Isabelia (Sophronitella) violacea
Isabelia (Neolauchea) pulchella--this can grow into a large specimen over time
Meiracyllium trinasutum
Comparettia macroplectron
Tolumnia guianensis--spikes get very long but growths clump nicely
Ornithidium (Maxillaria) sophronitis
Christensonella (Maxillaria) madida
Ornithocephalus inflexus
Trichosalpinx chamaelepanthes
Restrepia striata


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Miniature species I keep/kept:
Dracula lotax (died after I got out of the hospital, of course it bloomed while I was gone)
Dendrobium moniliforme - growing like a weed lol
Liparis gibbosa (miss this one so much, died when I was in the hospital last summer :( )
Masdevallia erinacea - growing well
pleurothallis stricta (first pleurothallid I tried, learned what not to do for them lol..... :( )
Schoenorchis fragrans - growing well, 4 new leaves this year
Zootrophion atropurpureum - new but doing well
(would list the seedlings I have but they will be huge later in life lol)


I know of a few other small species (some have been on my want list for a long time), but thought getting a list with care info made would be helpful to people who are just starting out with miniature species. :)


edit: remembered another species I kept

Not really knowing what you want I'll just list a few I have experience with.
Lepanthes telipogoniflora, haraella retrocalla, Pluerothallis leptotifolia, aerangis punctata, angraecum distichum, lepanthopsis astrophora.
Those are all relatively easy to find.
Try Seattle orchids and Andy's orchids.
They both have quite a number of mini orchids.

J&L orchids specializes in small/miniature growing orchid...you might want to check out their catalog.
J&L Orchids ~ Catalog Product List

Pleurothallis calyptrostele (amazing creeping tiny leaves), Acostaea costarricensis (whole adult plants smaller than dime), Pleurothallis peperomioides, Lepanthes tsubotae, Bulbophyllum moniliforme to name just a few :-)

masdevallia erinacea, not sure how well I will do with this one. Seems touchy, but some folks here have been successful with it. It's truly tiny. The leaves are maybe an inch tall.

Masdevallia mendozae. Super touchy. I haven't killed mine yet, but I have come close. I'm hoping it will make a recovery, but I am not confident. There is a hybrid of this called masdevallia jelly belly that is supposed to be more resilient.

Schoenorchis Fragrans. Haven't bloomed it yet, but it seems happy in my terrarium. Seems to be a slow grower compared to my other miniatures, but it grows new roots well and it is very happy in a terrarium.

Haraella Retrocalla. Adorable. Small. Perfect terrarium plant.

Dendrobium Cuthbertsonii is adorable. A prolific bloomer. Just one problem, it's a pain in the neck. It seems like folks are most successful growing it under cattleya light, but for me, it's the watering that's the problem. It needs near constant moisture and the water has to be super pure and it gets almost no fert.

Platystele Umbellata is the newest addition to my miniatures in my terrarium. Its flowers look like tiny raspberries. Supposedly easy to grow in a terrarium, I'll have to get back to you on that though as I just got this one.

The lepanthes and lepanthopsis seem to be the easiest to grow and bloom for me. You stick them in a terrarium environment, keep their temp at around roughly 70 degrees (it can swing five degrees either direction, no biggie) and keep the humidity roughly around 80% and they just grow and bloom. I water them with tap water. I do not fertilize. They get about 8 hours of light from the fixture in my terrarium. I grow them mounted on cork in my terrarium.

Lepanthes Saltatrix is my favorite. The flowers are big enough to see and are a creamy yellow with a pink lip. They're beautiful. The leaves are a bright green with dark green veins. Visually striking. Probably my favorite plant in my terrarium so far. I've seen pics of this one growing in a carpet in a gladware container on top of damp paper towels. That's pretty resilient if you ask me!

I'll also second the recommendation for lepanthopsis astrophora. Mine just bloomed and I love this little guy. It has a zillion spikes. The flowers are super small, but they are this bright purple, so they really stand out. Great plant!

Last plant I would recommend, is dracula lotax. Supposedly this is the easiest of the draculas to grow. I have not had the best luck with it, because I am not good at remembering to water plants that aren't in a glass box. Dracula Lotax is the reason I set up a terrarium. Dracula Lotax isn't exactly a miniature. The flowers are teeny, but the plant is the largest one in my terrarium. The leaves are about the same size as a blade of grass and they grow quite long. Mine has 3 inch long leaves. The biggest problem with this one is that it needs good humidity to bloom. The spikes will fail if it's too warm or too dry.

I mist my terrarium with distilled water every morning just before the lights come on. I water the plants by soaking them in a teeny cup of tap water when I notice that the moss on the mounts isn't spongey anymore. I check for this every morning before I mist, other than this, I don't do much with it. I leave the stuff in the box. The box maintains the humidity at around 80%. The lights are on a timer. I have a water feature that trickles water down the back of the terrarium to help keep the temp below 75 degrees in the summer. It was a cheap way to keep the terrarium cool.

If you want more info on mini miniatures, search the forum for TommyMiami's hygrolon cylinder. That and Ordphien's Nightstand Lantern (another thread you can search for) inspired my choices for my terrarium.

Happy Growing!

[SIZE="1"]@Ordphien: I'm interested in anything unusual or small , thanks for the list of species! I'm slowly compiling a list for myself and also for anyone else to access to see what species are really small and what other members recommend :) .

I've been buying from seattle orchids for a few years, still haven't purchased from Andy's yet.


@katrina: Thanks for the link! I'm always looking to add new sellers to my huge list lol (most of my bookmarks are orchid related and that would be about 200+ :rofl: ).


@TOMMYMIAMI: drooling at the pics of those species! I've been avoiding B. moniliforme for a while, since my warm/intermediate setup still need some more live moss. Have a very small pleurocarp moss that is taking it's sweet time, but need to some other species to add to the mix. Use to have live sphagnum from chile, purple sphagnum, and wiry sphagnum mosses but only the wiry one survives from a few little strands that are slowly growing back. (the other species died while I was sick).


@Paul: I'm getting myself a copy :)


@RandomGemini: that's a lot of info! Thanks :biggrin: Platystele Umbellata is a new one to me, keep us updated on how it does.

I bought it because my husband never takes an interest in my orchids and when I was looking at pictures of it he actually commented that he thought it was pretty. I hope I can grow it! I would love for him to get some enjoyment from my hobby too!

Thought I'd share a peak of my little warm/intermediate orchidarium, a few of my small and young plants that spend the year outside have been added in for winter. I customized the original insert to make it easier for orchid roots to grip onto.

http://i.imgur.com/H4WPJDQ.jpg

Nice! What kind of temps and humidity are you maintaining in there and what are you using for substrate?