FORM does not follow FUNCTION here!
 

i am an artist....I try to make everything around me as pure and smoothe to my vision as possible...I cant help it!

I work for years to make my orchids follow the 'ideal' urn shape, as if it were a bouquet, or a painting....hmmm

some plants easily follow my direction, others are contrary...it just helps, when you have bench plants, or even hanging plants, to maximize space....

some examples of success and some needing work, lol

Attachment 134205
perfection and grace, but I will have to stake those blooms when they come

Attachment 134206
now this one is a nightmare of shape, splayed out in every direction....and that new growth will break if I do much to it

Attachment 134207
an older plant doing well

Attachment 134208
this big dendrobium will get some 'pruning' later this year, after it is done blooming

Attachment 134209
probably two cuts on it, taking those old canes off and the 'baby canes' off too

not that I need more, its just the one perfect one that I seek, lol

is there anyone else this picky??

Yes, but not necessarily about shape. I'm try to recover from perfectionism. It's hard for me to accept failures.

A plant is a living thing. It will try to maximize its health and well-being. It does not want its feet bound to fit in a tiny shoe. For some orchids, forcing them to meet a particular aesthetic may kill them - or make them even more contrary. You are not likely to make your children conform to a preconception, why try to do that to your orchids? Accept them for their own unique beauty and charm.

I prefer my orchids to free-form except when the roots go straight up (I am looking at you, C. aclandiae!). I try to soften roots and get them to go down but sometimes that doesn't happen so I leave them be.

Nice to know you artist! I am an artist as well! Anyway, I like the accidental, the "flash" of seeing something, and I capture that "flash moment" in my art (I am an animal sculptor). I actually like to have my plants as close to "nature" as they can get, and I would not like to think of confining them by stakes and spikes. I let my phals tumble and cascade, same with other long spike plants and so on.

I don't know. There are many kinds of artists, and many kinds of ways to "train." orchids.