The phrase "smaller variety" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to a specific type or category that is less extensive or has fewer options compared to others.
Example: "In our garden, we have a smaller variety of roses that bloom earlier in the season."
Alternatives: "lesser variety" or "narrower range."
A much smaller variety of domestic stock cannot duplicate such effects.
But you can still have one and make it behave, by pruning it every year right after it blooms or by choosing a smaller variety.
Slim Jim is a smaller variety, so doesn't need such sustained warmth to ripen, making it a more reliable cropper in our sometimes less-than-sunny climate.
This reporter had to replace his credit-card holder with a much smaller variety in order to halt questions about the large square bulge around his hip.
"The ripe fruit is an attractive vivid green colour – different from the darker coloured, smaller variety – and its thick skin can actually be used as a serving bowl for guacamole".
Mr Evans fears for the purple sandpipers which migrate to Amble, particularly the smaller variety from Norway, which would be the first to feel the pinch if food supplies ran thin.
Unsurprisingly, the smaller varieties offer the best flavour.
For farmers, much of the appeal of the smaller varieties is simple economics.
These are not trees for the postage-stamp garden, though, which is why garden centres tend to stock smaller varieties.
Judging from gardening blogs and Web sites, those fooling around with upside-down gardening are generally enthusiastic, particularly if they have planted smaller varieties of tomatoes.
It was designed for large mangoes sold in the United States, like the common red-blushed Tommy Atkins, but it is not as effective with smaller varieties of the fruit or with very ripe ones, leaving more flesh clinging to the pit.
