Why do you mount your orchids?

[Andrew]

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?

[solay]

I have an urge to mount all orchids. I think because then I imagine them in the rain forest clinging on to trees. I like it to look like they would in nature. I plan to find a huge piece of drift wood to mount a bunch of orchids and see if maybe I can get moss and ferns to grow on it too. Brooke e-mailed me a picture of her friend that had a huge log mounted with all kinds of things. I'm going to copy her. It's so beautiful. A living sculpture.

[kmarch]

Interesting poll Andrew, and thanks for starting it.

I ticked "I get better growth/flowering on mounts than in pots." for my poll response but that's not really the reason i mount orchids. My real reason for mounting orchids wasn't listed. It is:

Because mounting them most closely recreates the way they grow in nature.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by kmarch

My real reason for mounting orchids wasn't listed. It is:

Because mounting them most closely recreates the way they grow in nature.

I was being a bit sneaky in not putting that as an answer on the poll. I find this is very commonly cited as a reason to mount. However, I'm often not sure exactly what that means or why it's important.

There's and aesthetic component to the response: 'I want it to look natural'. Even wanting to grow a plant 'true to type' probably says more about what the grower wants rather than the plant. In so far as the cultural aspect of growing them like they grow in nature, if nature knows best then it would follow that growth and flowering would be better when mounted. Certainly this is the case for many orchids. Sorry for the Australian native bias but that's mostly what I grow. The epiphytic Sarcochilus rarely grow well in a pot. Plectochilus and Rhinerrhiza are reasonably easy species to grow mounted but aren't happy potted. Same goes for Dendrobium aemulum. For orchids that grow either mounted or in bark as most epiphytes seemingly can, if growth and flowering on a mounted plant isn't as good compared to your potted plants how does nature manage hold her place as a convincing mentor in the growers mind.

There is one response that I didn't consider as part of the growing the plant naturally argument and that is "because that's how they're supposed to grow." ie it's not about how they look or whether they can be grown better. Growing on a substrate rather than in it is in the plant's nature and getting it to conform to how we want to grow it is counter-intuitive.

Can anyone expand on why nature is considered to be so influential (especially for a plant in an air conditioned apartment under shoplights tied to a 1' block of bark from a subtropical/warm temperate tree with nylon and covered in a temperate terrestrial bog moss )

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by Andrew

I was being a bit sneaky in not putting that as an answer on the poll. I find this is very commonly cited as a reason to mount.

And for good reason, because it's probably the most common and most sensible reason people have for mounting.

Originally Posted by Andrew

However, I'm often not sure exactly what that means or why it's important.

It's all about culture and conditions (which is why I chose the response I eventually did). Let me give you an example: I grow a lot of Dendrobium tetragonum. In the wild, they live along the east coast of Australia (as you probably know), and grow on tree branches, Melaluca (spelling?) or Ironwood (please correct me if I have the tree names wrong). There's a fair bit of wind there and their roots get wetted down (not really soaked for a long time, but wetted by a sudden rain) and then the wind dries them out quickly. They get fairly bright dappled light. Their canes and leaves are sticking out in the air, catching the breeze.

Because these plants grow so well in that climate, I can obtain useful cultural ips/techniques by trying to mimic those conditions, so I mount all of my plants so their canes stick out in the air, I Drench them a couple times a week then let them dry out (more in summer when the humidity is so low) and I grow them near a big tree in out back yard so they don't get any burhing direct light.

Trying to mimic the conditions under which they grow in nature has produced really good results for me. All of my flowering size tetragonums flowered for me last year and this year I have about 70 spikes on 12 plants. I'm expecting around 200 flowers on them this year.

My mounting them has very little to do with aesthetic concerns. It's all about mimicing their original environment.

I don't mean to insult your intelligence regarding Australian natives, I'm sure you know well the climate that tetragonums come from Andrew, but I did want to spell it all out for the benefit of those who do not know about a tetragonum's natural habitat.

[Brooke]

I had to choose the "easier to care for" answer because the ones I have mounted are usually the more problematic species in pot culture. It is easier for me to gauge the amount of water and when to apply on the species needing to dry out faster.

If I have a plant that limps along for a couple of years in a pot while its cousins are doing great, I mount it with instructions to grow or die, this is your last chance. Having their toes exposed usually does the trick :>)

Brooke

[made4engineering]

Shock and awe. When people first see my orchids growing on a log, it's like they had just seen a UFO. The next word they speak starts with a 'W' - wow! ... whoa! ... what!?
For me the shock is over, but the awe never ceases. It's not just seeing the orchids growing epiphytically, but the knowledge that they were made for it - born to do it. Every part of their anatomy was 'designed' for it. I love seeing the roots growing along the wood sticking tightly, and how the pseudobulbs slowly plump back up after watering. Millions of years of evolution have refined them over and over, at each turn giving rise to increasingly superior models that were better adapted to only this way of life, discarding the weak along the way and leaving only the absolute best at what they do. ... All just to end up in a pot? Not on my watch, buddy!

[mdomingz]

I'm into a more hanging and mounted kind of feel for quite a while now. It includes mormodes, gongoras, catasetums, brassavolas, so everything hanging or mounted is ideal for me. Yes, it does take me a little longer to water but the kick i get out of the site of my hanging plants is AWESOME

manuel
panama

[Hummer344]

For ease of care I pot mine. I have one "orchid on a stick" which has to be tended to everyday. My other orchids I water once a week(more if its hot). It doesn't matter what mother nature intended plants to do, I want a fairly easy garden at home. LOL

[Orchidementia]

Originally Posted by Hummer344

For ease of care I pot mine. I have one "orchid on a stick" which has to be tended to everyday. My other orchids I water once a week(more if its hot). It doesn't matter what mother nature intended plants to do, I want a fairly easy garden at home. LOL

I live in an apartment, or as the complex calls it, a "towne home." I simply don't have what it takes - an outdoor water faucet, a hose and a large outdoor area - to maintain many mounted orchids. I do have one that is minimally 'on a stick' - more a net pot, really but Andy's calls it 'on a stick' - and it needs to watered about as often as my fuchsias, so caring for it isn't much of an ordeal (plus I adore the plant). If I could, I'd love to try mounting some, mostly because they look so beautiful that way (made4engineering's comes to mind, along with many, many others!).

[Ellen]

Made4engineering put it very eloquently, and what he said is exactly my reason for mounting orchids. I have to say that I grow most of my catts in pots because they seem to do well that way and would take up an excessive amount of wall space if mounted. I prefer to leave the wall for those orchids that really want and need to be mounted. There's something extremely satisfying about watching orchid roots grow and grab onto a piece of cork or branch. Whenever I mount a potted orchid, I feel like I'm releasing its roots from prison. I have a greenhouse, so it's no more work watering a wall of mounted plants than a bench of potted ones, but I understand that it's not so easy when growing plants in the house.

[Aleksa]

Originally Posted by made4engineering

Shock and awe. When people first see my orchids growing on a log, it's like they had just seen a UFO. The next word they speak starts with a 'W' - wow! ... whoa! ... what!?
For me the shock is over, but the awe never ceases. It's not just seeing the orchids growing epiphytically, but the knowledge that they were made for it - born to do it. Every part of their anatomy was 'designed' for it. I love seeing the roots growing along the wood sticking tightly, and how the pseudobulbs slowly plump back up after watering. Millions of years of evolution have refined them over and over, at each turn giving rise to increasingly superior models that were better adapted to only this way of life, discarding the weak along the way and leaving only the absolute best at what they do. ... All just to end up in a pot? Not on my watch, buddy!

Oh, I believe this is the best reason I have ever heard... The same thing here!

[epiphyte]

Here are some of the main reasons I grow all of my epiphytic orchids on mounts.

- Aesthetics, I really love seeing orchid roots cling to bark and occasionally to rock. Also, an orchid on a tree integrates more seamlessly into a landscape than an orchid in a pot does.
- It's more likely that an orchid will die due to over-watering, and it's not easy to over-water mounted orchids.
- Less maintenance, I don't have to worry about repotting and watering is easy because I have an overhead misting system.
- Slugs, mealybugs and other pests can hide in pots but it's harder for them to hide on mounts.

[Andrew]

A fair point Kevin and nature does influence the way I mount. As one of the most obvious examples, when I mounted some Sarcochilus australis earlier this year (reputedly difficult to grow) I attached them to a live prickly current bush (a natural host) and grew them in a breezy position in the hope that this more natural setup would maximise my chance of success. I guess instead of truly growing this species, it's probably more accurate to say it grows in my backyard .

[snowballsarebad]

My main reason: Pots are taking up too much space on my benches and if I want more orchids, they are going to have to hang!

[articuno75]

I have one mounted orchid. It's my first and definitely not the last. I like the look. So natural. Potted is easier, but mounted is beautiful.

[FLaCo]

I feel it is easier to gauge what they need when they are mounted. My coollection is basically half and half...but the more I mount the more I want to mount. See the growth of roots along with the growth of leaves is equally satisfying. I love the way they cling to the tree bark...it really does amaze me.

[Anton]

Well it is as simple as doing your research, which I assume everyone does on the orchids they have or want to get to know how they grow in the wild.

If they are Epiphytes (grow on a host plant), then they will prefer to be mounted, but some Lithophytes (grow on rocks, fallen tree stumps) can be mounted on flat surfaces to imitate their natural surrounds.

Epiphytic orchids have "air-roots" which are accustomed to drying out in between periods of rain. These orchids need an open medium in which to grow and the roots should be allowed to become moderately dry between waterings. Cattleyas, vandas, phalaenopsis, and dendrobiums are common examples.

Examples of lithophytes include several Paphiopedilum orchids, the pitcher plant Nepenthes campanulata, and several Utricularia species.

Hope this helps shed some light on it.

Message here is research your orchids so that you can give them as close to natural conditions as possible.

Far too many people buy orchids "because they look good" without knowing their culture and wonder why they have problems with them.