Here's a quiz for you, Jim. Answer it correctly for an acorn. Wrong answer (guess) and I get the acorn. Anyone else can chime in but only Jim is eligible for the acorn gift.

I looked at the close-up (third picture) and want you to tell me what the plant is growing on. Not the cork, that's easy, but the dark substance that is (mostly) holding the roots against the cork. Ursula, I don't think you will see this on your plant, so there is no need to peek at yours.

I just love mysteries and challenges!

Nah, Jim I'd never call you an orchid boffin. They are those scilly scientists who actually change the names of orchids based on cellular level differences that no one (except them) will ever see or care about.

Ken, your Eurychone looks happy in my cage. I think you had it originally planted in Sphagnum before you mounted it. ( I didn't look now, honestly.... )
Looking forwards to blooms - probably next year, right?

Looks like wet Sphagnum to me but my eyes aren't as good as they used to be.

I saw wet moss and a few pieces of bark but I don't think that is what you are talking about. There seems to be some paper or cardboard holding the moss in place. I sometimes use screen for this purpose but this is an organic product. I'll have to look closer in the light tomorrow. Time now to go to this seasons first choir practice. Next week starts the beginning of the Master Gardener lecture season and I'm doing my fruit talk on Thursday night. Busy, busy, busy.

Jim

Nope, nope, nope. I would never use cardboard over my plants. Not sphagnum either, though there is a little bit there just to hold a bit of moisture while the plants acclimate to their cork mounts. Actually, they were both growing in a tiny little hanging basket with perhaps 2-3 pieces of fir bark in the basket. Ursula, I don't think (though don't know for certain unless you want to post a close-up of the plant/roots) yours was attached quite the same as Jim's.

I will give y'all a hint. It comes from some other plant I grow a lot of. But what plant and what part?

The stuff from the base of Staghorns?

Ooh,Ooh,Ooh, I feel like Horshach in Kotter's class...My hand way up in the air! I think I agree with Lin! It does look like some of the older basal plates of Staghorn fern!

Oh man. I knew the hint was too good! Good for you. This was basal fronds from a 20 year old staghorn. I kept a whole garbage bag full of the basal frond material when I separated the plant 5 years ago. The stack of basal fronds was about 12" thick! I still find uses for it.

I find that this very interesting, Ken. Fascinating use!

Yes, I used to use the elk and staghorn fibres when I was younger. I had forgotten about it.

Wow, I love recycling ... and re-using a natural substance like that is great!

Staghorns and Elkhorns are completely different plants, not even in the same family. But I know you know this, Glen. Back in the day, and that was before there were any big-box stores (other than WalMart, and they really weren't big-box), one could find "treasure" nurseries, having decades old plants that were practically unknown. That's where I got my very first staghorn fern some 40 years ago. Back then Staghorns were called Elkhorns, but I had never seen a "real" Elkhorn and knew no better. Now, since I grow both of them, I know there is a vast difference in the plants.

Those mom-and-pop nurseries, along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts, were where I started my collection of tropical plants. I found orchids, fiddle leaf ficus, rare, white bird-of-paradise, and many other wonderful plants.

Those nurseries are no more. Time, big-box stores, and hurricanes have wiped them all away.

That 20 year old staghorn became part of the family and it just killed me to separate her. But when a plant gets huge, to the tune of almost 100 lbs., well I had no choice. It took me hours to separate that plant and I ending up with 8-10 large staghorns. Most I just gave away. When I moved from the Mississippi coast in 1995, I had many specimen plants that I could not bring with me to NE Mississippi. I had no place to grow them. I just gave them to friends and to a local nursery. Hurricane Katrina wiped all that away. I don't think a single one of my plants survived. Two of my friends who had wonderful, huge sun rooms where many of my plants were housed, lost their homes, with only the concrete slabs remaining. The nursery was also completely destroyed. All that survives are a few of the small plants that I could bring with me. One was a fiddle leaf ficus, and that "mother" plant is now over 25 years old. Three plumeria that were mere small sticks when I brought them from Maui in 1985, are still with me. They, like the fiddle leaf, have to constantly be cut back just to maintain their size. All my tropical plants have to be brought inside to over-winter, so plant-size is important to me.

staghorn, Platycerium bifurcatum

Elkhorn, Polypodium grandiceps

What a great story, Ken. I wonder how the Elkhorn fern got its name? You can see the staghorn does look just like deer antlers or "stag's horns" but I don't see much resemblance to elk's horns on the other fern.

Do you fertilize them? I've sprayed mine with orchid fert a few times, but it doesn't seem to make much difference to the plant.

I don't know where that name came from, Elaine. Perhaps the "namer" (is that a word?) had never seen an elk horn............ The picture is not a very good one, but those fronds are wavy and forked, but not as forked as the staghorn and they don't fork until the fronds grow large.

Since I have hundreds of tropical plants (how about 500+ ) and am watering and fertilizing all the time, my staghorn and elkhorn ferns get fertilized along with the rest. I am using diluted fertilizer though, no more than 1/2 strength (weakly - weekly). I don't fertilize them in the fall or winter months.

I was inspired to add something about the Staghorn I used to grow…..what a fun plant that was!
http://garden.org/thread/view_...

Fun and huge, Ursula.

Ken, It seems many of us grow the same plants. :greengrin:

I only have a small Common Staghorn Fern (Platycerium bifurcatum) but I've seen some real giants here in Florida over the years. I'm acquainted with an elderly couple who used to have a Staghorn so large that it required very thick, heavy chains to hang it in their oak tree. They would just throw a blanket over it during the cold of winter and it always amazed me that it survived since we do have prolonged freezes at times. Next time I see them I will have to try and remember to ask if they still have that monster plant. There are a few biggies at our little botanical gardens here in town but I guess the area must has a little microclimate with all the trees to offer protection during the winter ... or else the Staghorn Fern is a lot hardier than I realized. I bring my little one into the screened porch during cold weather.

Ursula: Wow, that is a beauty! I'm sure that nursery appreciated the donation of that one!

I wonder, have ya'll ever had issues with ants taking over your staghorn? I went to move my little one a couple of days ago and hundreds of little black ants came running out from beneath the basal cone thing and last year when working at our botanical gardens some of us were cleaning up an area around one of the large ferns and visitors began asking about the plant as they'd never seen one before and one of the kids went up to feel one of the "horns" and thousands of ants started streaming out! That particular plant was attached to the top and sides of a huge wooden boxlike structure so I'm assuming the rotted wood became a nesting place for the ants but my small plant is not on wood but just sitting in a wire basket ... I guess maybe the ants just find it a good place to nest? I've heard that cinnamon is an ant deterrent so I'm going to sprinkle a bit of ground cinnamon around to see if the ants will move on.

I also grow the Elkhorn Fern; bought this one a number of years ago as a small plant in a little 3" pot and it's done very well for me. I see that Polypodium grandiceps is now considered a synonym: Elkhorn Fern (Microsorum punctatum) and it's odd, in the database it shows a dwarf variety with the cultivar name of 'Grandiceps': Dwarf Elkhorn Fern (Microsorum punctatum 'Grandiceps') and I thought that was a species name.

This is my Elkhorn Fern:

Nice looking Elkhorn, Lin.

I have ants all the time in my large staghorns. They don't seem to both the plants and they are not the stinging/biting kind. My staghorns are all outside from April through October. The ants seem to love the staghorn ferns. I have never tried cinnamon but it is certainly worth a try. I just either sprinkle a little Orthene behind those basal fronds or mix that powder with water (2 tbs. in a quart) and spray that so that it will get behind the basal fronds where the ants take up residence. In 24 hours (or less) there is not an ant to be found. Ants will either leave very quickly or the Orthene kills them.

Staghorns will take a light freeze as long as it is brief, only a few hours at most. The 'Netherlands' variety will take cold weather even better. That's all I grow now.