I couldn't hang it from a tree in my yard. All of my trees in my yard are pines and there's too much local wildlife activity. The squirrels and raccoons would steal it.
I think us northerners might be better off building terrariums instead.
You can make it work with phals, it's just not easy to get them started. Once you figure it out though, they can be quite easy, it's just a matter of wrapping your head around leaving them alone.
Once I purchase a Phal, I don't touch it for at least a week. I like to let the medium it's in dry out as much as possible before I do anything else. Then I water without fertilizing for a couple of weeks, then I will repot if I think it's necessary and it usually is. I repot all of my phals into phalaenopsis bark that I pick up at Lowe's.
Then I water every 7 to 10 days, sometimes less often than that.
Once, I let my phals sit for a month. Totally forgot about them because my life got crazy.
They actually seemed to like this because I was rewarded with a ton of root growth. I expect I will make it a habit to ignore my phals during the holidays from now on.
I think the hard part for beginners to wrap their heads around is that phals do not need daily watering if they are potted, and in fact, daily watering and getting water into the crown by not being careful to soak only the root zone, are what cause most phals to die at the hands of beginners. They are not designed by nature for growing in pots.
In the wild, phals grow upside down from the way we pot them, so water would drain out after a good rain shower. I think the tissue at the back of the leaf is tougher and more resilient. The top of the leaf is more susceptible to bacterial issues.
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