Mounting my Enc. gracilis

[FairyInTheFlowers]

Okay, so in one of my several orders from Cloud's (I got so much from so close together I can't even remember when I got this!), I bought an Encyclia gracilis. It had three new growths, but one rotted randomly, but that is beside the point. I absolutely love mounting 'chids, and this one has just started to put out new roots, which is the perfect time to mount. My OS sells Epiweb, so I want to buy a slab and mount my Encyclia on it, the big question is which way to orientate it! It can either be with the new leads pointing upwards, or the new leads pointing downwards. I like the look of both ways, but I want your thoughts on it! Anyways, here are the pictures!

So here is the plant itself.


This is how it would look like if it is mounted with the new leads pointing upwards.



And this is it with the leads pointing downwards.



I do like the look of the downward facing more, but 'chids are usually mounted with the leads facing up. Ugh, I might end up doing what I want to anyways, but I would still like your opinion!

[Bud]

Cody, mount it perpendicular at right angles...so you let it choose whether to go upwards or downwards...just as it is pictured facing you:

[Wjs2nd]

Nice thing with downward mounts, not worrying about holding up the spikes or water in the crown.

I have absolutely no experience with mounting, so I think that you should do it the way you like - face down.

[Ray]

As the plant is growing upward in the pot, my tendency is to orient it that way on the mount, not perpendicular as you suggested.

It's going to decide its own orientation eventually anyway, so why make the plant do "back flips" right off the bat.