When buying, do you limit what you will purchase based on size/age? Seedling, Near Blooming Size, Blooming size, Species. I mostly look for blooming size. But if it is a plant I have been hunting, I may pull the trigger on NBS. I have only bought three plants of species size and those were purchased at local shows.

I usually buy a mix of in bloom or NBS. To support local breeders who only have seedling size I'll buy a couple and try not to kill them.

I haven't done too much Orchid shopping lately, but blooming size is definitely preferred. After all I would like to see blooms still in my life time.
At shows or walking through a greenhouse, I would pick interesting species and hybrids.

BS blooming size is always preferred by me. I always think that in the worse case scenario, I am within 2 grow cycles from seeing flowers, if not sooner!
NBS is a very misapplied term in my experience especially buying on line!!! People tend to exaggerate and use NBS way too much. BUT in person, with enough experience, you should be able to tell whether or not something is BS or NBS or just plain "BS"!!! 🐂🐄🐂

At the moment I am very confident let's say with Phalaenopsis. I know that I am doing well with those and 'those babies' are going to bloom for me quickly!
Take Bulbophyllums. They are growing well for me too, but I am anxiously waiting to see blooms because I lack sufficient experience to be more confident in my predictions.
A great many people choose the larger plant on a sales table, and that often works. Honestly I don't!!! I look for the plant with the thickest leaves, the Cattleya putting out loads of roots and multiple growths at the same time!! I feel that those babies are just itching to grow well if given good culture! Or I by plants with rounder leaves, thicker bulbs, etc. Many people believe that to be a sign of polyploidy, and that is a killer notion in picking the better plants. And I agree!!

Oh oh, I forgot this. When it comes to species I don't think that "species sized plants deserve a category Ted. Sticking with Cattleyas, I have had Cattleya skinneri, Cattleya bowringiana bloom in 3" pots with smaller growths. But with Catts, I love those plants with thicker pseudobulbs, thicker, rounder leaves, fabulous roots, etc.!!!! I just think that those plants, regardless of genera are just looking to bust out and to grow very well.
With bowringiana, as it grows bigger and bigger it makes more growths and more flowers. So technically a 3", 4", or 8" pot are blooming sized plants.

Perhaps Ted means "specimen" size rather than species? A specimen-sized plant of most Cyms I'm interested in would either cost a small fortune or probably be too big to easily move. For the large species I simply don't let them get to specimen size (it would be impossible for me to shift a tracyanum or lowianum by myself in a 12" pot).

I don't limit myself to particular sizes. Often I just have to take what I can get, particularly with certain Cym hybrids - if you don't buy them when they're sold as seedlings (about 12 months out of flask), you probably won't be able to get them later.

I have everything from recently deflasked seedlings to established plants. Most of the time I don't buy flowering-size plants, though, usually because they're simply not available (or occasionally because it's more than I'm willing to pay, like the $200+ that flowering seidenfadenii can sell for).

Thanx all, just curious. And yes I have seen species and specimen used interchangeably.
Should have mentioned both

Ted5310 said:And yes I have seen species and specimen used interchangeably.

Thanks Ted. In that case, I would be cautious about anyone using "species" as an indicator of size, as it suggests that they don't know what they're talking about.

Species has nothing to do with size; it is a group of plants, found in nature, that reproduce after their kind/come true from seed.

A specimen plant, however, is usually a large example of a particular plant - often grown to that size to demonstrate what a mature plant looks like and/or for show purposes.

A more understandable mistake I see quite often is to refer to a single-growth clone as a "seedling" (it is not, but it is still a young plant and indistinguishable from a true seedling at that size).

The one that gets my goat, though, is the use of "specie". The word does not exist! "Species" is both singular and plural. The baffling thing about it is that many other words in English follow the same pattern (they are used as both the singular and plural - fish, sheep, pants, jeans, scissors, fruit, etc.), but for some reason this one trips people up!