I just finished mounting a half dozen orchids. All are compact or subcompact, which, because of their smaller size, makes them better candidates for mounting. All six were different varieties and I used six different type wood mounts. Today has been dreary - totally cloudy, windy, and cold. The "break" in the greenhouse for an hour raised my spirits. It is snowing and icing 50 miles north of me. Hopefully, there won't be any of that stuff happening here.

What types of wood mounts did you use? Can you give pictures? I'm infatuated with mounting! (that sounds a little strange now that I re-read it, but you know what I mean)

You have a keen interest in mounting..........

I have cedar, cypress and cypress knee, oak, driftwood, heart-pine, and woods I have no earthly idea what they are. I use a lot of cork (probably the best of ALL mounting materials.

Good one, Kate. I use cork every time now. Its pretty, light, durable and so easy to cut, or sometimes I just break it along the natural grooves for a nice rustic look.

Tropiflora usually has lots. I buy a big slab about once a year and just use hunks of it until it's gone. See if they have a pallet of it and they might let you pick out your own piece. Last year I got a lovely one for $24 and got 11 mounts from it. They sell it by weight.

Elaine/Kate, generally speaking you would be correct about the lightness of cork. But I have some slabs that are really heavy - 4" thick and very dense. These must have come from very old Portuguese cork trees. This particular cork could easily carry 25 lbs. and probably twice that. Standard cork slabs are 1.5-2" thick.

Hmm, interesting! I have never see those fat Cork slabs around here.

I will take pictures and you'll see the vast difference, Ursula. This is the first time in all the years of buying cork slabs, that I have ever had anything like these.

I have a program to present to a local Garden Club this AM (30 members) and will get those pictures taken when I return home.

Yup, I got a really gnarly slab at Tropiflora this last time and part of it is nearly 3in. thick. Nice deep fissures in that part for orchids to get their roots into. There's a pic of it from a while back on here. I'll go looking or post another when I get home.

Here are some pictures of three slabs of cork. The thinnest one averages 1.5" thick, one averages 2" thick, and the other goes up to 4.5" thick. It is a little hard to get good pictures since none of the slabs are "squared" on the edges. The "standard" thickness one weighs approximately 2.5 lbs. and that extra-thick, extra-dense one weighs in at over 6 lbs. They are both about the same size, 10"x14". The more moss/lichen covered that outside surface is, the better I like it. You can easily see that there is a "smooth" side and the "rough" outside. I think y'all would want to utilize that outside surface to mount to.

This is a mount!! It is taller than me and the lindleyi has grown down to almost cover the bottom.

Impressive!!

Jim

it is!!
Ken, that fat cork looks great!! thanks for the pictures.

I'm envious of all that cork!

Now that's a mount, Melissa!

Melissa.....oh...my....goodness......that is FABULOUS!!!!

Ken, you might be on to something with your preference to lichen. I have two nature preserves near me that I hike all the time, and there are TONS of native Encyclia tampensis orchids all over the place in these preserves if you look closely...and I've noticed that the ones growing with lichen all over them have fatter bulbs and larger, healthier colonies than the ones without. Ponderous. I should try to get some pictures. It's really thrilling seeing orchids growing naturally in their environment.

I never really considered that the lichen and moss might actually have a symbiotic relationship with my orchids, staghorns, tillandsia, and/or bromeliads that I mount. I just sort of thought, well, if the wood makes a good host to lichen and or moss, it ought to make a good host to my plants.

When I order my batches of cork slabs from the importer, I always tell them to pick out those that are loaded with lichen and/or moss. I think they probably believe I am some of sort weird fellow, wanting slabs of cork with "imperfect" surfaces. But for me the thicker, the more gnarly, the more lichen/moss loaded the slabs are the better.

moss


lichen

I really like the way you think, Ken. Lichens are a duality of organisms...a symbiosis between nitrogen fixing bacteria and a fungus. Perhaps the orchids are capitalizing on the nitrogen fixing properties of the lichen.

Surely not just perhaps, Kate.
I happily spend hours looking at Mosses, Clubmosses, Lichen and Wildflowers including Orchids at our place in Pennsy. I have seen it a few times - we have very rocky, poor soil on some of the slopes. If for any reason the ground was turned over, one saw stunted Wildflowers and Lichen ( mainly Cladonias) making their appearance. Through the years the soil becomes slowly enriched and that is when we see Spiranthes cernua, a local Orchid popping up. Many times we see Cladonia cristatella, those pretty little red-tipped Lichen right nearby the Spiranthes.

You have read along in this thread? Elaine participated here, but perhaps others might find it interesting also.

Ursula for sharing! I would never, ever leave Florida for anything, but sometimes I long for the excitement of hiking up north where I used to live...at the dawn of spring searching for trilliums and morels and seeing all the beautiful moss and lichens on the rocks and trees. I will head over to that thread now!