One of the reasons I like epiphytes is they are not fussy and will grow together well. The big stem is the bottom of my huge Anthurium cupulispathum. I have a vanilla orchid growing on it, an Epipremnum Neon, a Philodendron brandiatum a Monstera Cebu Blue and a young Epipremnum pinnatum. All one happy family. The big anthurium is actually attached to a tree.

Have you ever used another living plant as an orchid mount? Palm trees I think will work well too

Depends what kind of Palm. Royal palm no, Dwarf Canary Island Date Palm, yes!
Live Oak, yes.
Pine tree, no.
Cypress tree, yes.
Sassafras tree, yes.


On this same pool side Date Palm, I also had a Rhyncholaelia glauca and a Laelia anceps mounted to it.
You can see the anceps above and to the left.

Nice, Bill! I so far have only mounted orchids in the GH to coir covered totems. But I do have some palms....I have this medium sized Spindle Palm that I have some bromeliads on already, I am thinking about putting some orchids in the old leaf troughs.


I already have several aroids growing up the trunks of my Caryota palms, they are rough surface so I think the right orchid would grab on. And the Anthuriums I mounted up in the Bauhinia trees are doing so well, I want to do some orchids.

I need to reduce the number of plants I have hanging on pots, this could be a Spring project

I wish you much success!

Thanks! I'll post photos when I do it

I was just thinking about your thread Gina and I wanted to add this point that everyone might want to consider.

In my 9 years in Florida, it was all the rage to mount orchids among the Floridians, especially the "snow birds", the seasonal residents. They had this crazy idea that if you tied an orchid to a tree that somehow Mother Nature would take care of them.
When they would ask me what orchids could be mounted to trees, the most common plants mentioned were Phalaenopsis, Vandas and Dendrobiums by them. Imagine 30'+ Royal Palms with naked trunks hosting Phalaenopsis plants!! They had no concern about sun exposure. They had no idea that a Phalaenopsis would cook in the Florida heat in full sun. How are you going to water it I would ask? Oh my sprinkler system will water them. I asked whether or not the sprinkler system would reach them. They had no clue about what I was talking about.
They generally disregarded the cultural needs of the orchid. No thought about light, shade, watering, seasonal differences. It was just tree + orchid= Flowers. Overly simplified orchid growing. They travelled around Naples Florida, saw orchids everywhere and never had a hint about what they were really seeing. AND THEN they would be shocked when the plants would die. How they would head north for six months and return to find most of them dead. They were flabbergasted. The orchids they were sold MUST have been defective. Otherwise they would have survived if not for the defective aspect.
But anyone CAN grow orchids mounted to garden plants in appropriate climates but you have to match the orchid to its preferred conditions. Cattleyas in 3-4 hours of sun, Phalaenopsis in shade, Oncidium is dappled shade with more moisture, etc. it is never so simple as tree + orchid= success!!

Yes, but down the road, when the tree has outgrown it's space and has to be removed, good luck trying to rescue the orchid.

I know a lot of people here are clueless. Its a function of living amid a lot of 'plenty' and what is usual to us is unusual to others, ESPECIALLY down South, The So FL people take for granted all the lovely tropical plants they have that grow so very easily, that others, even other Floridians further north, have to struggle with. I imagine orchids are the same.

I have been growing stuff long enough that I think I can manage to find places for this stuff that are good places as far as light, and I will be using moss pads and even tree fern pieces too. The plants that I have already put on the coir wrapped totems are very happy. And I make certain all my plants are watered!!!!

This is such a wonderful thread, I wish I could add to this. Besides observing epiphytic growth in nature mainly in South America there is one picture which sticks in my mind: Years ago, walking around in Bangkok, Dendrobiums were mounted on to the trunks of trees along some of the major streets. It must have been done fairly recently, as they had not totally taken off yet.

I have a few Lowes NOID sends I am going to do that with!