Where do you find your mounts?

[Papillon24601]

The park? The beach? The flea market? ....and go!

[estación seca]

Experiment with local wood. Anything that decays rapidly isn't such a good idea.

A lot of people here use skeletons from cholla cactus (Cylndropuntia spp.) It lasts forever. For things that need lots of water, they stuff the central channel with moss. Scroll to the bottom of the page:
Rancho Lobos Dead Cactus Wood Production

[AnonYMouse]

The reptile section of the pet store. They have cork, mopani and grapewood pieces.

[Pattywack]

I use wood from my own trees, bake it in the oven to kill off any nasties. I also buy from Petsmart if they have a nice piece of cork. I live close enough to Al's Orchids that I visit frequently and he has cork, tree fern mounts and cork rounds.

[Orchid Whisperer]

I have mounts made of "found" wood including grapevine, Wisteria, and pine heartwood, most of these from my own yard. The pine heartwood is especially rot-resistant.

[Leafmite]

I buy mounts at Pet stores and use large rocks I find in my lava rock bag. That Chestnut tree always tempts me but it has not dropped so much as a twig and the parent tree died of American Chestnut blight so I dare not cut it. The wood would make long-lasting, beautiful mounts. At least, if the blight wins, it won't be a total loss.

[Fishkeeper]

Woodland areas relatively close to roads are a good place to look for deer bones.

[fooferdoggie]

I have been getting it from this seller. I am a woodworker but never have access to wood thats practical. though if I bought some ipe and roughed it up it would be a permanent mount.
glassboxtropicals | eBay

[bil]

Aquarium stores sell a rot resistant wood that looks great for table mounts.

I like using forked branches best of all. If anyone here is felling acebuche (wild olive, a very hard wood) I usualy go and scrounge the bits they don't wannt, and we have some orange trees which need pruniing, and I hack some nice, large mounts out of those as wel as smalller ones.

One concern I have is how log those will last. It is quite feasible to varnish the mounts to make them last longer. Start with varnish diluted with thinners so it penetrates well, then give it a couple of coats of normal. I shall be going to a chandler's to get varnish suitable for sea going vessels.
Now, the question is, how do you rescue a mount which is coming apart, and you don't want to strip the roots off te mount and set the plant back.
When that happens here, I have a cunning plan. I will get some stainless steel wire/rod 3mm or maybe less. I want it strong enough to take the weight without being intrusive,

Take two lengths of wire and from one end, wind braided fishing line tightly around the wires so they are parallel and straight, not twisted.
That end becomes the hook to hang it. You can bend a nice hook by taking two heavy rods, about 15mm diam and welding them together so there is a 4mm gap between them so that the wound wires fit between easily. Clamp the rods in the vice, put the end just between the rods and wind it round, and then just neaten up the hoook. Continue the winding downwards until you reach the point where you want the rods to diverge. Tie off the line and run superglue down the saft so the the line is bonded into a solid mass.
Bend the wires/rods at a right angle, then pull them apart in a 'V' then bend them again so that the hold the mount. They can be tied to the mount wth more braided line, which is practically invisible.

This technique requires no welding or painting and the wire frame should last for ever. As you can imagine, you acan adjust the design to fit almost anything, and you can include a bit of branch/cork too if you wish.

[Dollythehun]

If anyone wants grapevine, I can send them some.