I used a busted apart pieces from my old trellis that my rose bush used to be on. I used the pieces of that with moss for my small bulbo macranthum, and schomburgkia. then i also just recently mounted my phal's with the wood tunnel piece that my tortoise had out grown and did not like. You can get those pieces for them at pet smart my piece was 12.00. Good luck.

I ventured into orchid mounts this summer and used what I had on hand, which included cork bark (from the local pet store), mopani (ditto), grape "stumps" (from the arbor I was thinning out), and maple deadwood (from a half rotted branch that came down last winter). So far my orchids are growing on all of them, although the Den. aggregatum that's on the mopani does not seem to be doing as well as the phals on cork or the Catts on the grape stumps.

I've also stockpiled some interesting stuff for this winter, such as locust bark (thick and ridgy, don't know about rot resistance), willow limbs (thought they looked interesting, never thought about the salicylic acid bonus), and a couple of limbs from the osage orange I trimmed back.

Catherine

Might be old wive's (my late mom) tale but another bonus of willow is growth/prop/root hormones.

I would love to see the ones mounted in wine corks. That sounds fascinating! Where can I go on the board to see pictures?

---------- Post added at 10:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:20 AM ----------

Might be something to that. I have heard you can make rooting hormone by soaking willow branches, but I have not yet had the opportunity to try it.

The salicylic acid in willow bark (and aspirin) is an NSAID and also acts and a rooting hormone for plants. Haven't tried it yet, but I know that people have used it with some success to root rose cuttings.

I'm in the process of mounting new orchids that I bought, so will be trying out the "oddball" wood I have stockpiled. The plants I mounted earlier this fall are growing roots and starting to attach to the mounts including the Catt schilleriana on grapewood and the Aerangis citrata on cork.

Catherine

I love tortoises! What kind?

---------- Post added at 02:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:33 PM ----------

I read somewhere that if you simmer and soak willow twigs in water you can make rooting a hormone.

Hey JC!

I grow many Cattleya alliance and some Vandaceous orchids in pots or net pots with wine corks. They love it! The only preparation is that I do rinse them well before I use them.

The corks last a long time, and I get really good root survival. I have been told that corks can suddenly break down, but I have seen no signs of this so far. One Cattleya I have is 3 years growing on the same corks, I will re-pot in the summer, but only because the plant has out-grown the pot.

The locust and osage orange should do well: black locust and osage orange are both very hard, durable woods that are wonderfully rot resistant. Locust trees themselves are prone to certain borer beetles, but I would think the wood itself, once cut, would be ok.

The locust posts in my admittedly swampy pasture are just starting to rot out after more than 20 years in the ground, and I suspect the osage orange is about the same. It will be interesting to see how it works for the orchids. I agree on the hardness--osage orange dulls tools faster than about any other wood I've cut, including oak.

The medicinal use of willow involves making a decoction of the bark, so I'm not sure that much if any of the active compounds would be present in the wood. It may be present in the leaves, so something worth pursuing come spring. Birch has the same compound to a lesser extent (along with wintergreen oils in sweet birch) so it might be worth trying as well....

Honeysuckle stumps are a bust--way too soft and rot quickly, but I've noticed that rose stumps (Rosa multiflora is an invasive weed here) seem to hold up pretty well--at least the ones I've grubbed up out of the pasture over the years seem to be the last things to rot in the brush pile.

Looks like I'm going to have to do some experimenting when I mount my plants (grin).

Catherine