Phalaenopsis japonica
 

Phalaenopsis japonica formerly Sedirea japonica, one of the cool growing phalaenopsis species so I grow it outside. Mine is a dwarf version with rounded leaves

I love the Minmaru variety - flowers as big as the typical form, on a diminutive plant. Beautifully grown.

Thank you, Roberta

I didn't even know they can be even smaller. super cute!

terrific- i have been searching for this plant ever since i bought one from Marlows and it was NOT correctly labelled...grrr

this one is adorable

I think Seed Engei sells the Minmaru form ... and some of those are variegated. I don't know which shows they go to, they're cut back. Tarzane Group had them for awhile, sold out at the moment but likely to get them again.

I think Seed Engei and also Peter Lin at Diamond Orchids routinely have the minmaru form. The variegated ones are hard to come by, but from time to time a batch shows up. This past winter Satomi at SE had a batch and if you are on her neofinetia mailing list you will find out about these batches! (pricing is reasonable off her list, but once the minmaru shima hits ebay watch out!)

Any tips to get Minmaru to bloom? Mine has grown a few leaves but no flowers yet. I've had it for over a year.

What are your growing conditions? Do you live where it could be grown outside? Or if you're growing it indoors, what about light and temperature? Is it mounted or potted?

I have two, the blooming size one got a cool winter drier winter (it sat on a cold windowsill, probably temps to 50 degrees at night, watered every 14 days, then it bloomed in April. The other one got treated the same but is probably just too small to bloom.

I don't have the Minmaru form, just the standard Sedirea japonica. I don't dry it out, but it does get pretty cold (winter nights down to 40 deg F quite often, occasionally a few degrees cooler for short times) and it is in spike now, probably will bloom i the next month or so. It's mounted, so it does dry out after watering, but no different than what happens at warmer times of year. As with many other orchids that have "dry winter rest" prescribed, I observe that cold does the job of inspiring blooming even without the "dry" part. When growing indoors, "dry" is a lot easier to achieve, and "cold" likely less so. but the combination works.

Calling it a "Phalaenopsis" doesn't mean that it grows like one...the reclassification may make sense at the DNA level, but muddies the water when attempting to understand the plant.

It's growing on a bright windowsill indoors. It got the cooler temperatures in winter and is now very warm. It has about 5 sets of leaves. My standard japonica has not bloomed either but is also growing very well in the same location.

Potted or mounted? Next winter, maybe keep both a bit drier (not bone dry) Worth a try, sounds like both plants are growing well.