Ken, if we buy it, we can grow Spanish moss here, for the short term. I still have some dead stuff on an orchid mounted to my lemon tree. It did bloom for me for a couple of years, before giving up. I just think that for this application the moss detracts from the Staghorn. As Heath said "less is more"

Carol, to be honest, I don't know. Certainly it will grow short-term for you but your conditions, though way milder than mine, are drier. Your mild climate is a plus but the dryness is a minus.

Spanish moss basically requires the same care that the bulk of my tropical plants require. It does best in bright light (this moss can take quite a bit of sun but does best under a tree canopy so that it gets early morning or late afternoon sun). Needless to say, it will do best with good humidity, which means you would need to spray it with a hose when you spray-water the rest of your tropicals, just so you keep the humidity up. Even with my pretty much constant high humidity, I still spray my moss when I water all my other plants. Heck, I even fertilize my moss when I am doing so with the other plants. That's all water-soluble fertilizing via a hose-end applicator.

Trying to cultivate Spanish moss seems odd to me. I have gobs of it everywhere.

Jim

but we are not using our noggins like Ken is, he makes $ on what we take to the dump. I do admit his looks prettier, because of all his fertilization. Mine is droopy today from all this rain.

I like the way Spanish moss looks on ken's orchids. I even took his idea back in November and put some of it around the roots of my vandas

I know you do, Jim. Go 100 miles south, and we have lots of it as well. Along the coastal counties, there is as much as you'll see anywhere. You just won't find it up here in NE Mississippi.

I don't make anything on the Spanish moss. I give it away with plants or to anyone who comes by and wants some. I actually started growing it simply because I was told I could not do so. I took it as a challenge. I don't think I could easily separate my Vanda's roots from the mass of moss that has grown around those two plants and their roots. I have a feeling that those Vanda would not be happy if I did so. They seem to like the symbiosis that has been in place for the last three years.

I have some Spanish Moss that I picked up years ago as a small plant. Being from Chicago and then SoCal, never saw much and thought it was neat. I use it as a shade now from the mid afternoon on an arbor where I have hanging orchids. I just water it along with everything else.And it flowers. Nobody told me I couldn't

That's a nice strand of Spanish moss, Ted. All mine are in bloom. Some strands have dozens of flowers.

Thanx Ken, there's all kind of little green blooms in there

OK, all this talk of Spanish Moss blooming, I had to go outside and check mine. Yep, they bloom. Go figure, I never noticed that before.

That's why you need us folks from NE Mississippi, where moss doesn't even grow, to tell you about such things.

I felt EXACTLY the same way Ibis! If it weren't for Ken, I still wouldn't know!

I have a lot of time on my hands right now. All I'm doing is icing down my nose for 20 minutes every hr. My wife won't even let me go outdoors. It is a hot, humid, beautiful day.

What happened to your nose, Ken?

A melanoma was excised this morning. I look like I was on the losing-end of a fight.

I hope it heals quickly, Ken.

Jim

Well no wonder Kathy wants you out of the sun! Feel better soon.

Thank y'all. Just getting old.

Oh, and wear your hat from now on, Ken. I keep a hat right beside every door so that I have no excuse to forget to put it on.

But then, I am a redhead living in Florida - truly an "endangered species".