Very cool! I really love the idea of attaching orchids and other epiphytes to potted plants. I even created a name for this... "
phorobana". Maybe somebody can come up with a better name but, in the meantime, it's better than no name!
I'd really love to go to a show dedicated entirely to phorobana. From my perspective... seeing an orchid growing on a live host is infinitely more interesting than seeing an orchid growing in a pot or on a dead mount. It's incredibly more dynamic. Well... there are a few statues that I certainly wouldn't mind seeing some orchids growing on!
It's mind-boggling to try and imagine all the different possible combinations of orchids and hosts. I think that some of my favorite combinations would probably involve hosts and orchids that bloom at the same time. Here's an example from nature...
Oncidium cebolleta. It's a living bouquet! Other really neat phorobana combinations would involve
orchids growing on cactus and other succulents.
A phorobana show would be like an orchid show, succulent show and bonsai show combined into one really awesome show!
I really like bonsais but for the longest time they seem.... incomplete. Like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without any jelly! Hopefully people will realize, sooner rather than later, that every bonsai needs at least one epiphyte.
The challenge will be trying to select the most complementary epiphyte.
I think that in some cases the epiphyte will be selected to try and accentuate the host. And in other cases the host will be chosen to accentuate the epiphyte. The best phorobanas will call to mind the idea of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.