3.25" wide (at the top) x 3.75" tall square Waterdance pots.
Lightweight, durable, and relatively inexpensive. Here at the Orchids for the People nursery, this is our go-to pot for "4inch" plants!The advantage these pots have is the bottom. Instead of drain holes, these pots simply have a screen over the bottom. This allows air to easily circulate and penetrate the pots from the bottom and oxygenate the roots.
Not only that, it also eliminates water pooling in the bottom of the pot eliminating the biggest source of root rot. In addition, any fine, decomposing potting medium falls right out the bottom, eliminating the accumulation of anaerobic "mud" in the bottom of the pot. Plus, these pots have "feet" at each corner which raise the bottom of the pot up off the table allowing for even better air circulation around the bottom of the pot.
When used with our long-strand coconut fiber, we think it is one of the best ways to grow orchids!
Large, well-established blooming size plant in a 3.25" pot.
The coconut cream pie orchid! With some orchids, they're fragrant but it's a stretch to call them "chocolate" or "vanilla". With this plant, it smells like there is a pie in the oven!
This plant is one of our favorites. It grows fast and flowers well when treated nicely. The flowers are small (1.5" across) but a plant in a 6" pot may have 100 or more at the same time.
Care: Cool to warm climate, bright indirect light, let dry out between light waterings in winter.
Brassocattleya Valencia Beauty (Brassavola nodosa x Cattleya Interglossa). Well-established seedlings in 2.25" pots. 2 years from flowering size.This is a remake of Brassocattleya Valencia Beauty using 2 great, large-flowered parents. Pictured are each of the parent plants, and 2 sibling plants. These are seed grown. There will be variations from plant to plant. Care: Bright indirect light, cool-warm temps, regular watering and fertilizer spring-fall, and let dry between light waterings in the winter.
Blooming size 3 plant bare-root divisions. Please note: the plants will not be blooming upon arrival, the photo shows what to expect as far as plant/division size.
Looking to fill that tiny space in your greenhouse? Are you a mini junkie (like me!)? Here is a great one!
Each plant is the size of a quarter with tightly overlapping leaves that grow in a single plane to produce what looks like a tiny palm frond. The plants are connected with a 1” long rhizome to form a branching string of plants.
And it has flowers that are as large as the plant itself! Beautiful light pink, crystalline flowers with markings that differ from plant to plant. Flowers for us randomly throughout the year with long-lasting flowers. 2-4 flowers per spike.
These plants need little to no potting media. We throw them in empty baskets, string them through our “wire walls” where we hang our mounted plants, etc. Great for mounting, the parent species both grow on twigs in the wild. Usually, one plant has what looks like a precarious hold on a tiny branch and the rest of the plants are dangling in free space!
Care: These plants like bright-very bright light and intermediate to hot temps. Water often spring-fall and let them dry out between waterings in the winter.
Well-established blooming size plant in a 2.25" pot.
These plants are often called Grass Orchids (because of the leaves) or Fox Tail Orchids (because of the inflorescence). I like these tiny plants for a number of reasons. They are easy to grow and get large, for a miniature, fast. A specimen-size plant fits easily in a 4" pot. Our specimen-size plant produces hundreds of tiny arching inflorescences in flower at the same time! That's thousands of tiny flowers open at the same time!
Care tip: These plants should never dry out completely.
Well-established near-blooming size seedlings in 2.25" pot pr mounted on madrone wood!Epidendrum fimbriatum is a very small (12-18"), cool growing species from the Andes region of South America. Once mature this plant produces little white flowers with purple dots year round.
Care: cold-intermediate temps, indirect light, high humidity, and lots of airflow.
Dendrobium (speciosum x tetragonum) x D tetragonum: Blooming size in 3.25" pot
We remade this beautiful hybrid a couple of years ago and have been very happy with the results. These plants started blooming at a really small size and have remained compact (the new canes are currently 4-6" long). And the stems are square! D. tetragonum (one of the parents) has slender, square stems but these are big blocky square stems.The star-shaped flowers are yellow with beautiful red markings on the sepals, petals, and lip. The number of markings vary from plant to plant. Plus, the flowers are huge for the size of the plant! The first time they flowered each spike had 2 flowers and this time around they had 4 so chances are the flower count will continue to go up as the plants mature. Care: Bright indirect light, moist and warm in the summer, cool and drier in the winter.
This is one of the bigger-flowered Dendrochilum species. Each long, gracefully arching inflorescence produce up to 30 flowers each. This plant is quite a site when it reaches even close to specimen size when blooming! Generally blooms late winter-spring.
Care: intermediate-warm temps, bright indirect light, and plenty of water year-round.
Well-established, near-blooming size seedlings in 3" net pot, approximately 12-24 months from blooming.This plant produces beautiful long (over 12"), fleshy, folded, pendant blue-green leaves. The large flowers have a white lip and yellow-green petals. There are usually 3-5 flowers per stem and they are fragrant (citrus/jasmine smell), especially at night. Usually flowers anytime a leaf matures, which can happen multiple times a year. Prefers to be mounted or in a hanging basket.Care: Prefers cool-intermediate temps and bright indirect light. Regular watering and light feeding year-round, with a short dry period in between waterings.
Bulbophyllum dentiferum. These are fast-growing intermediate-hot climate orchids. They prefer partial shade and plenty of water year round. Plant produces a 6-8" spike with an umbel of 10-20 flowers. The flowers have a white background with purple spots on the petals, sepals, and lip! This plant does well in pots, baskets or mounted.
Well-established blooming size plant in a 2" pot.
Dendrochilums are often called 'grass orchids' for their leaves or 'fox tail orchids' for their beautiful displays of long, many-flowered spikes. D steophyllum is a medium-small (6" tall) sized Dendrochilum with spikes that will carry 40-50 white flowers. They tend to bloom multiple times a year, summer-winter.Care: Cool-warm temps, indirect light, and regular watering, and light feeding year-round.
Dracula roezlii ('Beta' x 'Cow Hollow'). Well-established, blooming-size plant in a 3" net pot. This is one of the very best clones of this species. I only have a few of these so when these are gone I won't have any more until 2023.This is one of the most sought-after Dracula species! It's one of just a few species of "black orchids". In reality, they are not black, they just have so much purple pigment in the flowers that they appear black. Photos don't do them justice because they always look more purple in the pic than they do in person.This species will produce up to 2-5 flowers in succession on each spike. Flowers are over 5-6" tip to tail! Beautiful color, shape, and size!These plants are wonderful to own if you can give them what they want. Dracula culture is simple; cool, moist, and shady. Minimum low temp of 46° F and a high of around 85°. Anything over 80°, keep the plant really wet. We like to water them morning and evening at least a couple of times a week in the summer. Folks with greenhouses that have swamp coolers grow them directly in front of the cooler. We give our plants lots of light in the winter and lots of shade in the summer.