can anyone tell me what is a good wood to mount ghost orchids on and where I can buy it?

Hi Cecilia - I moved your thread for better exposure and for a greater number of responses. :)

Hi Cecilia, you have ghost orchids to mount? I didnt know you could buy them. I'm always looking for them in the wild down here but only to photograph. Good luck.

Once upon a time, I had a small ghost orchid which arrived mounted on a section of grape vine.

You can purchase ghost orchids from Oak Hill Gardens.

Hi Cecilia, they normally grow on Pop ash and pond apple trees. But what they grow on is not as important as where you grow it. It needs to be in a terrarium or gh with relatively hi humidity. I have gotten 2 well 3 ghost orchids from oak hill and unfortunately I killed them all because I tried to grow them like other orchids. I have had one that I got from the World Orchid Conf. and it is doing great in a terrarium. A little over a month ago it started to grow a new root and it is about a 1/2 in. long now. Oh I got it from Andy's it was well established not like the one's I got from Oak Hill. Oak hill sells them newly mounted and they are harder to grow that way. Andy doesn't list them on there website you will have to call. Swamper Glad to hear you only take pictures. The Strand needs all they can get.

Dave, I have one from Hoosier Orchids that has done nothing since I purchased it. It's kept at nearly 99% humidity in a constant breeze from a small DC fan. I water and fertilize it, it isn't dead, just not growing. Any hints?

Well Ross I have read that they like stagnant air although where I see them they get plenty of air. go figure. When I first got this one it had 3 healthy roots and promptly stop growing but as soon as spring arrived it started this new root the other are still not growing. I would put it where it get less air and a little less humidity and see what happens or it could be that the season has not arrived up north yet. Thats about it

Thanks for the help. I have about 1000 flask ghost orchids that I got from a orchid grower in Thailand. My husband is building a large terrarium to put them. It will have a grow light & water that will circulating in the bottom. I hope this will keep the humidity high enough. We did find a old dead japanese maple tree that will just fit in the terrarium. I am hoping that this will work. If the type of wood is not important it should. IT is really pretty and just fits. Wish us luck. I Think we will need it.

:yikes: 1000!!!


:goodluck:

Pop Ash, huh? So, do you think other Ash species would work as well?

:goodluck: Cecila, Please keep us (me) informed on how they do, If you plan on selling them when they get established I would love to be your first customer.:)

Royal I don't see why you couldn't use another Ash.

Thanks,
we have all of them transfered to the terrarium ans will just have to wait & see what happens.

Good luck! Keep us posted with your progress.

Cecilia, do you have any pictures of your terrarium? Its probably not finished yet but you might have some "as you go pictures'?

let me know if you want 999 polyrrhiza lindenii. i,ll take one off your hands. They do like air movement but not as much as would think.

The terrarium is finished. We have mounted all the
polyrrhiza lindenii that were big enought to mount. There are some that are very small. I'll send pictures as soon as we can get some. I am not sure if any will make it-time will tell. I will be thrilled if I can just get one to bloom. If by some miracle several make it I will be happy to sell some.

Great and now for the hard part, watering, feeding and WAITING. Good luck

Thanks

So how did it go cecilia?

I'm mounting m orchids on Teak..... I know you can't afford to use that, but i'd have thought any hardwood would have been ok.

Cecilia, who was the orchid grower that you bought the plants from in Thailand?

Oh Cecilia, I'm down on my knees. Im begging you please to come home....S&G

I know its a bit late to post these pics of my mounted Denrophylax's, but maybe my pics can help someone else. These pics are not of Dend. lindenii, but rather of its close cousins fawcetti (pics 1-3) and funali (pic 4). The fawcetti is 2 keikis that I got this past May (2008) that I mounted on a piece of cork bark and they are doing very well as you can see by all the root growth. I drilled two small holes on either side of where I wanted the keiki to go and used small zipties to sinch the plant down. The third pic gives a back view of the plant and the zipties. These keikis were much smaller and all the root growth on the back of the cork mount is new.

The funalis in pic 4 I got at the end of the summer and I mounted it on a peice of hardwood. This plant seems to be enjoying its mount as well and has 2 roots growing up the back of the mount.

I hope these mount pics help someone in the future!!

P.S. If you notice in the pics, there seem to be small green horns coming off both the fawcetti and funalis. They have bulbous tips so I think theyre buds!!!!!:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: Ill keep you all posted!!

Well done Steve. How are you caring for them?

I water them everyday and the fawcetti gets fairly bright conditions (moderate Catt light) while the funalis burnt under these conditions, even when introduced slowly. The funalis is thus grown alongside my Coryanthes, low light Stans and Phals. I think it could take brighter conditions than this but I lost too many roots to begin experimenting again. Not to mention that the folks at H&R (where I bought the plant) said to keep it in Phal light, so Im not too worried. Most of the year I fertilize all my plants quite a bit (3-4 times per month, not weakly!) but right now is the fert free season, so I have a bag of bunny poo hanging above most of the plants that are still growing so that they can get some fertilization. It's interesting that the roots of these guys dont seem to 'attach' the way most orchid roots do. They certainly are not loose but, but they are not nearly as embedded as other types. Hopefully I will be posting flower pics in a few weeks!!