Miniature Orchid: Haraella retrocalla, Mounted, Adult Size

I bought this little guy about a year ago and had it in a seashell stuffed with moss by a fountain. He wasn't very happy there though getting misted. I decided to wrap him with a bunch of sphagnum moss onto a piece of burl wood with rough bark and place with other orchids under a grow light. That was when he really started to grow and just tonight I discovered the little dickens had put out the cutest yellow flower about the size of my middle fingernail lol! Soooo cute!Orchids are fussy. If they don't get enough moisture, too much moisture, not enough light, too much light etc they just might not bloom for you. I never gave up hope I'd get a flower and now will make extra sure to keep my conditions stable. Fertilize weekly weakly using rain water, mist every other day to wet the moss and roots during the heated indoors dry Winter months, make sure to keep the light levels similar. Many orchids need a drop in temperature in the Fall coupled with shorter periods of light to signal it's time to bloom. They need cycles of light and dark, like to 'go to bed' at night without artificial light shining on them.My orchid arrived in great shape, healthy plant, but probably should have transferred him over to his permanent tree bark home earlier and also made the mistake of using well water with heavy minerals. The white blotches on some leaves are calcium deposits - orchids need rain water!

Nice plant ,love it.

My retrocalla arrived in great shape. I will say, the sphagnum moss on these minis(like with most orchid growers that use sphagnum) is very tightly packed. I recommend unpacking and re-mounting to give your roots proper aeration. I planted mine in an orchidbox* terrarium and it is doing amazing. I use 13-3-15 fertilizer every Friday and spray it with distilled two-three times a week. The photos below are after 2 months in the terrarium. New aerial roots and leaves already out.

When it came to me the leaves were not even green but i thought I'd try to save it. Followed the directions to a T. Even gathering rain water from outside. Had it hiding between all my other orchids so it would still get some light. Nothing. No spike no nothing. Now it's dead. The plant is very tiny and doesn't even look like what you order. It's on a plain board with fishing line and mos wrapped around it. The roots all rotted out.

The media could not be loaded. I love this little orchid so much! This little orchid is so healthy it flowerd twice this year for me.

This is very very small orchid. And apparently, extremely sensitive to less than perfect humidity conditions. Mine was healthy enough when it arrived, nicely packaged (did I mention that it was small?) but it started withering even though I cared for it as instructed. I even placed it into a makeshift terrarium hoping to reverse the wilting trend. I’m still debating when to give up and toss it out. Disappointed. I gave two stars rather than one because of how well it was prepared for shipping.

I believe the orchad will be beautiful when it blooms. However, the mounting is not what was pictured in the ad. It is tied to a small square of unfinished wood with a tony hole at the top. I have now ordered and paid for an actual piece of wood to remount on my own.