Miniature Dendrobiums

[gardenguysorchids]

Is there such a thing as miniature dendrobium?. I work as floral design manager for an up-scale grocery store. The supplier of our orchids sent the "mini dens" to us and we sold out quickly. He says they are minis and that they normally bloom August -November. Plants are small 4 to 6 inches at the most .Spikes appear on almost every growth and are about 6 inches with 5 to 6 buds/blooms per stem. Our supplier is a very reputable grower and I have no reason to dout him. I just never heard of mini dens before.

[Scrubber]

They could well be Den. compactum x Den biggibum or something similar.
A hardware chain down here in Oz were selling the above as tiny plants. I bought one in November 2008 and it flowered for me this June and it is still a tiny plant.
Mine has pretty little (25-30mm) mauve flowers of the biggibum shape.
I have another similar plant with bigibbum and fantasyland in it's family.

Scrubber

[walingwaling]

oh, there is plenty of mini species or hybrids even, just google.

[Janet]

I think I have the remnants of one of those I got at a garden store over 10 years ago. Goodness time flies!! They came in purple, white, and white with purple throat and sold for something like $6 and I've not seen them for sale since. I don't remember their being identified, yet I think somehow I remember figuring out or having someone tell me that they were a cross between biggibum and compactum--that sounds familiar.

[maggs]

Hi I am posting a picture of what I believe to be a minature dendrobium, is this one? I got a few orchid cuttings but this one had sort of died down (or so I thought) but I planted the little piece in a dried coconut husk and kept checking it, eventually I saw it growing and when I thought that it was big enough I put it in this pot just watered every two days or so put orchid food, and next thing I know it was thriving and then one day i noticed a flower spike so this is it now, I searched the internet to see if it was a minature and the name I got a few like "minature biggibum" and other names, any suggestions?

[catttan]

I agree with Scrubber - most probably bigibbum or compactum hybrids or with affine thrown in. These are all of Australian origin.
However some S E Asian species qualify for mini status too eg. Den bellatulum, lindleyi, christyanum. I have a Formosae-type hybrid of Den Frosty Dawn x bellatulum which has just bloomed while still in the thumb pot.

[123orchids]

Do you have some pictures Bill?

[Magnus A]

I would say that it is probably a complex hybrid of some of the suggested species suggested above! Very unlikely that it is a primary hybrid as those can be sold for much more money.

[pavel]

These (biggibum x compactum hybrids) used to be very common in the BBSs and very cheap ($5-10 ... down to a dollar or two if you caught them after they were done blooming) around 15yrs ago or so. (Heavens to Betsy I'm getting OLD!) Then they sort of disappeared. Guessing the market got glutted and so vendors moved on to newer merchandise. Occasionally I see one of these now but still not with anything close to the frequency I used to. Still have one of the plants I had picked up way back then.

And as for the general topic of minidens -- there are some very tiny species out there. For example, Den oligophyllum only gets a couple inches tall and there are dens far smaller than that.

[King Kjeldz]

yep i have one of these minis..they branch lead like whoa and becaus biggibum is in their lineage the do better wen they dry out after flowering for about 3 m months den the new growth starts..pretty little things...i love the mini phals too from the 'Zuma" line