Has Anyone Successfully Kept A Ghost Orchid? (Dendrophylax lindenii)
 

I'm a newbie but I just wanna know from my fellow members who know more than me and who have been doing this a while: Has ANYONE successfully kept the Ghost (White Frog) Orchid outside of it's natural habitat? If so would you mind posting pictures of your orchid(s)? Also, if it is nearly impossible to do so, can you please tell me why? This orchid happens to be, in my opinion, the most beautiful orchid I've ever seen!!! Thanks a bunch guys!

I'm unsure if anyone has grown it outside. I do know that there is a thread on here by a member who has successfully grown and flowered a ghost orchid. If you search for the tread there is a lot of information on why it is so difficult to grow the ghost orchid and what it's requirements are. It was a very informative thread and I don't want to leave out information by trying to paraphrase it for you.

I've tried to grow one without much success. I would like to try it again one day, but I'll have to get the proper setup before I attempt it again.

I see...thanks nikkik I'll search for the thread now. I want one of those so bad and I don't want to have to use my passport to go to South America just to see one!!!

Here's the link if anyone else is interested...fascinating!

Thanks CambriaWhat I had found aaronsaxton's post and I was simply AMAZED. Someone please get my jaw off the floor...it's over there...in the corner LOL!

Mmm... I would be careful about Aaron; I respect his horticultural ability, but in another thread where he went into detail about how to do it, and moreover, why it worked, his logic seemed a bit... flawed to me. Still, he did do what many of us consider impossible.

P.S.: Here are a couple articles you might find interesting, at any rate:

A Ghostly Pursuit
Another Ghost Story

Thanks for the links GhostHunt64! Imma check em out now! Aaron did do what we consider "impossible" though

Here is another person who is successful:
Dendrophylax lindenii - Slippertalk Orchid Forum- The best slipper orchid forum for paph, phrag and other lady slipper orchid discussion!
Tom Kalina (of Fox Valley Orchids), who is obviously an experienced grower, doesn't think that it is too difficult. I tried small seedlings in an enclosure, but it lasted only 1 year. Maybe if you have a greenhouse, it might work.

I remember someone from New Orleans growing lindenii mounted on a large conch shell hanging on a wall; I also saw the largest plant displayed on the entrance of an orchid store in South Carolina.
I have near blooming plants that I hope to bloom in a couple of years. Here are pictures of my ghost through the years. It is presently mounted on a cypress bark that came from a tree in the everglades where a dead lindenii once grew. There is a beneficial fungus that helps in making food and it can be found on old dead roots or from a bark where there is a mature lindenii.
*this orchid is protected by the Federal government so disturbing any live plant is prohibited but dead roots and bark coming from private homesteads is not.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3744/9...35f91af80b.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2869/9...7f5c3ca870.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2866/9...265bba3e83.jpg

Excellent, Bud! It looks like that your plants are well established. I looked at your old posts, and learned how you managed to grow them. So it sounds like that using the old bark (with possible associated fungi) was the key of your success.

So when they were young, you attached bunch of seedlings to a stick, and put the stick on a bed of moss on a matt of cypress bark?:
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...tml#post464920

You used live Spanish Moss, right? What kind of temp, RH, light, and watering scheme did you use for the young seedlings? Then, once they grow a big bigger, did you move it to the current mount?