Epidendrons grow like weeds.Dendrobiums do fine-at least the H.D kind do,outside.Masdavillas are great for condo or apartment dwellers.
I use copper bonsai wire of thinnest gauge.Alot easier than stiff nylon.The moss hides it just as good as plastic. Same for Tillandsia's.

I have a great enthusiasm now for mounted orchids, having seen them at the Orchid Show at the Huntington a couple weeks ago.

I just got a Laelia gouldiana from Andy's. I really like the idea of an orchid on a stick instead of in a pot. Plastic pots are not attractive! I just dunk the orchid, stick and all, in the lily pond to water it, and hang it back up.

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Do Epidendrums work? I was going to try my Dendrobium as well. Do you use a piece of sheet moss for added moisture? Or any kind of peat?

If we get a cold night, I will just bring them in and hang them up inside. Easier than moving pots.

I treat them like my Tillandsias; using Liquid Nails and/or (as Stanofh sez) the thin-gauge wire to attach them to pieces of the Cork Oak. Use pin hooks (for shower curtains) on the back of the cork for easy hanging.

In response to hoovb... if you have a reed-stem Epidendrum I would recommend experimenting by trying to mount one of its keikis. It's easier to mount smaller plants than larger plants... especially top heavy plants such as Epidendrums or Dendrobiums.

Regarding using the peat moss... it shouldn't be the fine potting soil type peat...it should be the coarse type that's clumped together as seen in . I add the moss by grabbing a large handful, squishing it together and flattening it out. Then I place it between the orchid and the branch.

The Santa Barbara Orchid Estate generally does not mount their orchids with moss because they feel it could encourage rot. As you can see from the orchid you purchased from Andy's Orchids, they use moss.

From my personal experience, it's fairly difficult to keep orchids mounted outdoors moist enough to have to worry about rot. Although on one occasion I did manage to. It was because I had recently divided the orchid and covered the fresh wound in moss.

I grow my orchids not in California but in Rome, Italy, but the problems are the same, hot and dry summer, cold winter.
I spray my mounted plants once a day in summer, but the slab will be dry in less than hour. To keep the roots moist for a longer period, I tried to mount on a piece of tuf (this is the most common and economic material here) with small hollow drilled in the center that I fill with water. The water will filter and keep the mount humid for a longer period. The orchids seem to like it, I can keep in this way also the Sophronitis coccinea, an orchid not recomended for our climate.
Here is one of my oncidiums

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Tomas

Hi Tomas,

Thanks for sharing that information. I've never heard of that type of material before so I did a search for it. I'm guessing that you're talking about...

Tuff (from the Italian "tufo") is a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption. Wikipedia

That's a quite innovative slow release water distribution system.

Yes, tuff, that's it, I am sorry about the mistake.

I think many other porous materials will work well too

Tomas

Tomas brought another neat method. Mounting the epiphyte on pourous rock like Lava or old course Limestone- base rock sold for sea aquariums is excellent. You could also floatg a rock with plants in a shallow ceramic tray that "wicks" the water up as the plant needs. Maidenhair ferns thrive this way for one.No soil needed-best with none. A spritzing with water every now and then helps.

I drove up to SB Orchid Estate for their sale last weekend and picked up a few goodies. Epiphyte, sounds like you like the same orchids I do. My collection is small and new, but just doubled in size over the weekend!

My vanda:
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Sobralia macrantha:
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I'm looking forward to mounting some of my new plants on rock and cork oak bark, definitely agree with HoovB about plastic pots!!

I took a few photos at the SBOE sale, nothing great, but if any of you are interested you may view them at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Santa Barbara Orchid Estate sale

This is really good stuff! I love epi's but never see any at the local nurseries.I only have an epidendrum radicans I bought on Ebay last spring, but I have some great nooks and crannies to put epidendrums. There is an orchid nursery near me in Long Beach, or Los Alamitos, alongside the 605 FWY. Does anybody know of any other sources in So Cal. Maybe Rainforest Flora? I was looking for Tillandsia when I went there and should have kept my eyes more open.

Another trial for me is this Vanda coerulea with its roots growing in the Spanish moss to get more humidity around the roots. The vanda seems to like it as the leaves are always turgid

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Kim, is your vanda hybrid suitable for outdoor growing? What is its name? And do you have another vandas outdoors?

Tomas

Ciao Tomas! My only vanda is Robert's Delight 'Pachara Pink'. I leave it outdoors except for nights when freezing temperatures are predicted, which is very rare, but did occur last January several nights running. So I brought it in at night for about a week, and hung it outside under a patio roof during the day. This plant has been my experiment to see if a vanda would survive here, and it has rebloomed for me twice, so I consider it a success, and will add more vanda to my collection. I like the coerulea and know it will do fine here. Great idea you have, with the spanish moss!
Another pic:
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Thanks for sharing the photos catkim. Santa Barbara Orchid Estate is a dangerous place for financially challenged orchid lovers.

Regarding the Vandas... one of the people there mentioned that the blue vandas are the most cold weather tolerant vandas. Yet, I don't see any in their outdoor orchid growing list.

Tomas, that's a great idea using the Spanish Moss to help provide additional moisture. I was thinking of trying a similar idea of growing Polypodium polypodioides amongst and around orchids mounted on trees.

Somewhere I have learned that Vanda Manuvadee can take temperatures down to near freezing.
Most of the large flowered vandas have V. coerulea and V. sanderiana as parents, the first being cold hardy, the second not at all. It depends on how much progeny of each has the hybrid. In any case, I think vandas will not tolerate frost.

As far as the outdoor growing list concerns, I think it is a bit too optimistic, for them the reed stem epidendrum should take temperatures of 30F, I lose them nearly every winter with temps above 32F.

Tomas

What gets me is so many experts say many of those orchids dont grow in the bay area..and i wasted time believing them until i put them outdoors and they did fine. Stanhopea is one and a beautiful Dendrobium is another, that has lime green glossy and highly segmented plump stems-it looks exotic out of bloom is another thing i like about it.In 2006 it bloomed twice in one year outdoors. Right now a Masdavallia is in bloom,a red-orange type.Laelia's lived years. A Oncidium that is a little on the rare side with a bloom that looks like a wasp to me but is called a butterfly orchid(the name i have someplace!) so far is growing slowly but truly on a piece of tree fern trunk. An Angrecum spends most of the year outdoors-i did bring it in last year in January-back out in late February. The "DARWIN" Orchid. So ,bay areans use that list posted by the SB society as a good guide-those orchids will do far better on your porch or covered patio then indoors. Especially when they are finished blooming and you dont know where to put them in the house.