Way to go Alice. I have some of those little guys. I use them as starters for some herbs I grow

You did good, Alice. Oh, to have been a day earlier though.

Reading that email on my phone when I was 3 hours away was hard but I was fortunate there were still some left today.

ardesia said:We have an intranet in our neighborhood and yesterday someone offered orchid pots for free. I was out of town until last evening but I called this morning and she told me the big ones were gone but there were still some small ones available. They are about 5" and look to be handmade. Great for the bag babies. I also got about a dozen little clay thumb pots; I haven't a clue what I will do with them but they were too cute to leave behind.

Oh my gosh, Alice! You have antique orchid pots! What a find and free too.

I got so excited with Alice's pots that I forgot my anticipation orchid. I got this from Sierra Vista Orchids. I chose it because the owner didn't know what it was going to look like but he showed me the parent plants and I was up for a surprise. It took me a long time to decipher the tag but it says 'Cattleya kiritsubo x Cattleya Circle of Life'. What do you get when you cross a lavender Catt with a bright red one? I am about to find out.




Daisy

Looks wonderful, Daisy!

Elaine, I would think Schoms are pretty tough customers, as long as there is no frost! We saw them growing out in the open on large boulders and high up in trees at our Ecuador trip!!

I bet it will be beautiful, Daisy.

I'm still circling it, trying to decide. I have another Laelia cross that would work up in the tree, too and I'm a little more confident in its cold tolerance. We do get the odd frost here, although not in the last couple of years.

Now to figure out how to fasten it to the branch securely.

Tie it to the tree with cut up panty hose?

What are panty hose?

do they even make those anymore?

I think they still do. Ok, how about some ugly nylon knee highs? I bought once a pack of those just to pack Charcoal for the fish tank pump

This might sound off the wall but what if you secured it with some Spanish Moss that you that glued to the tree. Over time the orchid would attach itself and the moss would disintegrate.

Spanish moss never "disintegrates", Alice. When it dies, it leaves behind almost wire-like filaments. Hopefully, if using Spanish moss, it will remain alive and the orchid and tillandsia can live happily ever after.

I've never tried to keep it alive like you do Ken. I find even the little wires eventually get soft and sort of disappear you won't be able to see anything but strings after a while. I use it a lot to tie stuff up or for top dressing containers and it pouts quickly here if it is not hanging freely in the breeze.

Well, I sure have lots of Spanish Moss. What would you use to glue it that would stick even in the wet? I've tried Liquid Nails before to glue an orchid to cork and it came undone on me..

The branch is over 18in. in diameter so I can't really see trying to tie it around that thing.

What about twine? I have some that comes in a can, with cutting blade on the top, that I got at Home Depot. It has held up the rose bush next door since last July without breaking. Comes in brown or green.

Elaine, I don't think any sort of "glue" would work. You could use twine as Carol suggests or use what I tie all my plants onto mounts with, florist wire. Florist wire is coated green and comes in several gauges. My wire generally rusts away after 6-12 months, but by then, the plants have attached themselves to the mounts.

I think the trick is using glue when it is perfectly dry to start with. I have had both good and bad luck with liquid nails. I also used the hot glue gun to attach palmetto boots to a live oak and one is still here after several years. Originally it had a brom in it, now there is only a bit of resurrection fern.

I think twine is the answer, I'll just have to tolerate it until it rots away, and as Ken says the orchid should have attached itself to the branch by then. If it hasn't, it's probably time to re-think the idea anyway.

I have a really, really old jute rug that has been coming unraveled at the edges for a while now, every time it gets vacuumed I get a couple of lengths of great quality jute . . . that's my re-purposing project!