There seems to be a healthy amount of activity coming from the mounting forum with people wanting to try and having success with mounting orchids, which has led me to wonder what is the
main reason forum members want to mount their orchids?
Personally, if I have the option between mounting and potting, I'll put an orchid in a pot because I find it easier to take care of. Call me lazy but with 2 shade houses, 2 kids and long work hours, the less time I spend watering the better. My main reason for mounting is out of obligation. I grow a number of orchids that generally don't perform as well if at all in pots - eg twig epiphytes and other orchids that need to dry out quickly after watering and/or like a lot of air circulation around their roots. I do have some orchids which, while they may grow fine in pots, have habits that make mounting a better option eg Dockrillia (apologies for choosing CHAH over Kew, Kevin
), Dendrobium loddigesii, etc. While mounting these orchids has an aesthetic component it probably says more about the nature of the plant than wanting to mount for mountings sake.
Looking around the 'mounting' posts, a lot of people are mounting plants I'd normally pot eg Catts, Phals, Phal-type Dens etc. While I do think these orchids look great on mounts, under my conditions at least, mounting these orchids would be a lot more effort to achieve the same results I'd get in a pot. So for those who mount orchids that usually don't need it, what's your main reason for doing it. Is it purely to do with aesthetics (ie you like the look of mounts, they look more natural, pots are ugly etc)? Given how good established mounted orchids can look, I'm suspecting this is the main reason for mounting. Do mounts perform better under your conditions? Presumably people in the tropics can tie orchids to trees and forget about them. Is it the challenge?