Definitely not for everyone!
But - is it for anyone?
Regards - Nancy

Yawn... ;~)

Remember the tree rat mount that I posted last year?
I think that it was for the pleasure of MrBreeze!
{{gwi:135112}}

Now...that's a mount! ;~)

Scott

That is sick.

Tree rat? Very twisted! It just goes to show that anything can be a mount for an orchid!

I probably wouldn't have chosen a glazed cow, but then, I probably wouldn't have used a "tree rat", either! I should start slow... with wooden mounts, probably!

Actually you should not start at all unless you have a beautiful, fully automated glasshouse or you live in the tropics. I'll keep saying, do not put anything on a mount unless it grows best that way.

At the local show (last week) out of 150 plants in a display only one was on a mount. Dockrillia Jiggi (it is best grown on a mount) but the flowers folded after only two days in that dreadful shopping centre air.

Wow...I'm not sure which is prettier, the cow or the dead squirrel :)

Seriously though, while I realize everyone has different aesthetic tastes, that has to be the ugliest piece of home decor I've seen in a long time.

I have to agree that is the ugliest thing and would not be seen in my house. The cow also takes up way too much "plant space". That said, looking at the photo I have to wonder if the plants are truly mounted to it...The roots do not look like they have adhered well at all and the string used to tie it on is still visible.

Larissa

Oh my, a rancher's wife here......but that is one strange looking ceramic! And Scott the animal lover in me (Yes, I have read all the threads on the destruction these little guys do and I'm thankful that we don't have them here!) cringes at your 'mount'.

Having fun with our orchids is OK in my book, whatever pleases the discerning eye.

My first thought was... what would possess someone to use that particular piece as a mount? I think it's rather ugly, too, as home decor goes. Cows and orchids just don't go together... there's no connection. But, there's no accounting for taste.

As far as the other mount goes... wouldn't the skin or fur rot after time? Even after taxidermy?

The greenhouse will be up by next year, so I still have time to research mounts and mounting.

The squirrel mount, to me, looks like a good use for a dead squirrel (unless you have a good sauce piquant recipe).
Arthur, it's funny what you said about mounts - every time I send plants to a show or bring them to a meeting, I notice that none of them are in pots! This is not the tropics, but we do have dual benefits of delightful heat and humidity.
So long as they are heat-loving or heat-tolerant, everything seems to do better on a mount here. 2" of rain/day for 3 months? Liquid orchid in a pot::happy orchid on a mount.
To stray off topic, I saw an "objet d'art" in a local flea market/antique emporium: taxidermed armadillo on its back (the way we always see 'em on the roads) holding a beer bottle - now, isn't that nice? It occurred to me at the time that it might make a delightful hanging orchid container. Doesn't have the quite the punch of the squirrel, but...
Regards - Nancy

Arthurm - I'd have to disagree with you. You don't need a greenhouse to grow mounts. I've always grown in an apartment and they have done wonderfully. Just take a bit more water than potted plants.

I excluded the tropics. (places with lots of humidity, heat, rain etc etc ). In an Apartment,of course you can, but what about if you want to go away on hols. for a month or so. Who is going to do all that misting. Who is going to remember all those complicated watering routines?

I can remember coming home after month of leaving my orchids in the tender care of my children. It was bad, but it would have been worse if they were all on mounts.

In the non-tropics and if you do not have an automated glasshouse forget about mounts unless the plant grows best on a mount.

This is like attacking motherhood.

I only have a few mounts and when I go out of town I have a friend that stays at our place to take of the dogs. I leave a big pot of water out and have her dunk them every day or so and they come through fine. In my old apartment I had many dendrobiums on mounts that kept out on the fire escape in the summer. They got water dumped on them when there were no thunderstorms and in the winter they hung in a sunny window with nothing more that one watering a week since there were dormant during that time. Got amazing blooms from them every spring. Winters here get into the teens and summers in the 80's and 90's. I would recommend mounteds to anyone!

Sigh!!! newbies reading this forum would think that mounting is the way to go.

I've been to NYC in the Autumn. Arrived there and it was hot and sticky. Just the ticket for a mounted orchid. But what happens in winter when you are heating up dry arctic air?

AND it doesn't matter how you grow them if you only have a few orchids but there comes a point when maintenance does become a factor. Space is also a factor when you have a thousand or so. You can cram more orchids into a given space when they are in pots compared to a lot of higgly piggly mounts.

Still doing my treasurers bit from the orchid show last week, Have to sort out 600 sales tags and pay the members. As far as i can remember all except one plant sold were in pots. The one was a "vanda" sold bare root, but that story is in another thread.

Nancy, aren't you in the deep south where it is always hot and humid? At least it is in the films.

Yea, it's very dry in the winter. I run a humidifier during the winter. Helps the orchids, other plants and the people! Just one humidifier in the living room keeps the humidity around 30%. Doesn't seem to bother the orchids at all. Plus, they are inside with the AC on all summer. My collection is only 25 strong though. It's all the space I have!

I only have 6 orchids at present, am home all the time, and have the capacity to humidify in winter. I've been thinking of trying a vanda... and a mount, perhaps a Den of some type.

I figure that if people in Wisconsin can grow vandas, and people in apartments can grow mounts, I probably can, too.

Of course, I'll have to find just the right dead animal for the mount... lol!

"Nancy, aren't you in the deep south where it is always hot and humid? At least it is in the films."
Well, it isn't *always* hot/humid; it snowed February 7, 1988! I can tell you the dates of the other snows, if you wish, going back (next) to 1972...
In this climate, I think it goes beyond what is 'better' - if you grow outside, and have your orchids in pots, you will lose lots/most/maybe all of them if we get a particularly long stretch of wet weather. To all kinds of fungus, rots, etc. So, actually, some orchid growers here do have greenhouses, but (like other places, I suppose) it is with an eye to climate 'control' - humidity is definitely not one of our problems, though.
Many of the hot-growers DO like to grow on a mount, as they do in the tropical forests. Though one of the more interesting mounts I've seen was a Max. uncata on a concrete slab. No moss, no nothing else. And it was a happy plant.
I'm still convinced that the key to growing on a mount in my area is to avoid sphagnum moss at all costs. Liquid Satan!
Cheers - Nancy

My vote is for dead squirrel mount (a tribe in New Zealand uses skulls for honey and i hear it's premium stuff)

How ever that cow is evil i tell you! it looks like the marking are some thing out of the necronomicon 0_o

Gaston

It depends on what is in the pots and the general rule is the wetter and warmer the climate the more arid the mix.

As for snowing it sleeted here for about five minutes one year and the local papers had banner headlines "Snow in Sydney".

Anyway, it all comes down to where the postor and the postee live and some interpretation is always needed.

Has anyone got an advance on the dead squirrel mount. All i use is boring bits of tree-fern or weathered hard-wood fence palings.

We have plenty of "tree rats" in my area, but the types of wood I've seen used for mounts is in short supply!

Are there any types of wood that absolutely CAN'T be used to mount plants? Assuming the wood is aged and clean, that is.

The only things I have at the moment are a few pieces of cedar board, but there are oak, sycamore, willow, walnut, pine, hickory, osage, and a plethora of other native trees, and the woods are full of interesting shaped branches and logs with knots and nooks...

I wonder if deer antler could be used? Sheds are all over the floor of the woods... old fence posts and barn wood can be found, as well.

Well, I can see why we are all tempted by the cow!
Stuff to use as mounts - check out your local pet store (believe it or not) for both slabs of cork and pieces of gnarly, twisted grapevine. Apparently some people use these things in critter habitats (what are they thinking?). Also, our local pet store has fairly large (11 liter) sacks of coconut husk chips for less than $10 - twice as much product for about the price I paid at a local orchid show.
I've bought sacks of chopped bark for my iguana, found that she wanted to eat it, so ended up using it for orchids (waste not).
FWIW, the chunks of grapevine are generally large enough to cut apart into 4-8 mounts, and orchids love this stuff.
Regards - Nancy

I've had mounts for 4 years now and only this year decided to see how they do outside in the spring/summer/early fall. They DO require daily spraying and only occasionally do I skip a day which doesn't seem to bother them. I have mounted 7 of them on various hunks or branch pieces of Virginia Red Cedar against overheard recommendations not to use cedar ! I stripped off all the flaky outer bark before using them. They ALL have attached quickly to the cedar pieces. I did 1 on a piece of grapevine and it's doing alright but has yet to attach to it. The other 3 are on as-bought mounts from Andy's.

Andy's ; Haraella odorata, Den. antennatum, Den. chrysotoxum
My mounts on cedar; B. nodosa var. guatemala, Neostylis Lou Sneary 'Lynette' (see Orchid Gallery pix), Dinema polybulbon, P. equestris 'Hana Nguyen' AM/AOS, Den. bigibbum var. compactum, Den. crumenatum, Den. White Bota and one on grapevine = B. martiana.

It IS natural, DOES work, and IS extra work so know what you're getting into and do it, or not ! If you're doing good or screwing up, they'll tell you, listen and watch CLOSELY !! If you chicken out or they tell you that they're NOT happy you can ALWAYS unmount and pot them up again !

Chryss

Of course it works, but all that maintenance!!!!
Some of those listed might be best on a mount e.g. B. nodosa. Then there are mounts and mounts. Dinema polybulbon can be grown into a specimen and it is best grown on as flat mount as seen at one recent show where the AOC Judging panel gave a beautifully grown plant Reserve Champion.

This is one little aspect that is not mentioned and that is whether the mount should lie flat on a bench or be inclined vertically or at an angle.

Generally creepers such as Bulbophyllum shepherdii should be on a mount, but for many i can discern absolutely no difference so the Tolumnia hybrids that are grown mounted seem to perform exactly the same grown as those grown in pots.

Some, such as Den. bigibbum var. compactum might in some cases be best on a mount depending on the growth habit. I have two, one defies the name and is a large plant grown in a pot while the other is very dwarf, makes multiple leads and i think i'll put in on a mount. The other twenty or so plants of Den. bigibbum are grown under-potted.

In my area, there are wild grapevines all over the place! I normally collect it to make wreaths and other crafty things, but I could just as easily cut the larger pieces for mounts.

The huge sycamore trees we have are the type with the peeling paperbark... once peeled, the wood is very smooth. The branches are very interesting, and some are gnarled and have really cool twisted shapes. I can picture a small orchid mounted in/on a crook in a branch...

Some very good ideas here, in this thread... thanks for sharing!

I'm not quite ready to mount an orchid, but I am glad to have the knowledge ahead of time! I think that the best time for me to obtain, or to try my own mount, would be spring... I think it's too late in the season, already. Or am I completely wrong? When is the best time to mount... right as growth is beginning? Is there a proper time? I'm sure there must be...

The time to mount is the same as for repotting, during an active growth period.

Any kind of fruit wood that is aged enough to remove the bark works well for mounting.

Well I'm in possession of exactly one mount, so this likely is not very exemplary, especially since I came by this plant (Phal parishii) quite by accident. Or should I say stupidity? I have absolutely no good conditions for a mount. The air is bone-dry and my windows face south. So quite truthfully I thought the plant was a goner when I hung it up there. Especially with the Nr. 13 it had gotten from it's original grower. Instead it flourishes. Two leaves and three new roots this year. I mist it daily once or thrice and occassionally soak the entire thing for a night in water with some orchid-food. I have no idea why that works or how. Perhaps I simply got an especially hardy plant or it actually does like how it's being treated, but I can say that for me at least keeping a mount in a flat works.:)

Thanks, Richard... I wanted to be sure. I'll have to keep my eyes open for any apple or cherry wood, or even crab apple... I think we have some of those on the property.

Some plants just seem to defy nature, and grow where you'd least expect... I have a bulb growing on a north windowsill, and though it should need a lot more light, it's growing wonderfully! It's healthy, and the leaves are huge! Go figure!

On the other hand, I'd like to have better conditions before I try a mounted orchid... I'd like to keep my mortality rate as low s I can!

Nahala, Phal. parishii is one of those that is best grown on a mount. Apart from keeping it alive, has it flowered for you?

Now, this is a mount I like a lot better than the cow!

I've occasionally come across orchids growing in large seashells, and they always look so nice. I'm assuming any shells used are soaked or something, to remove sea salts first... they are attractive, though.

Here is a link that might be useful: Conch Shell Mount

@arthurm: I've had that mount since January and it is a young plant, meaning not-blooming-sized. So I'm guessing I'll have to wait and see if it will bloom. My celebensis though is already working on it's first spike. That one's hanging, in it's pot mind, right beside the parishii. Same treatment too, although it get's watered more often.

Hi, I am new to orchids as of this summer. I have already aquired 11 of them. I love them. One question for someone, I just got a baby Phal and it was sent bare rooted. I planted it in a 2 1/2 pot. Is that too big? I know nothing about mounting them so I did that. Did I make a mistake??

Jo

Jo,

For potting phals you want to put them in a pot that is just big enough to fit the roots. If the ratio of medium to root mass is too great, you may end up with root rot because the medium does not dry out fast enough.

Since you are newbie I would not recommend mounting your orchid, especially since it's a seedling (baby). Seedlings are hard enough to take care of (they can go downhill very quickly if they're unhappy), so experimenting with a new way of growing on a baby isn't recommended. If you want to try mounting a plant, take a nice big adult. That way if it starts acting up you have time to repot and save it. Remember though, as Arthur mentioned, mounts are a lot more work, but it can be fun.

That cow mount has to be about the tackiest thing I have ever seen.

Yes... not my idea of classy decorating, to be sure! But, to each his own, I suppose. Thankfully, you don't see items like that every day!