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At Isle of Portland orchids we grow a significant proportion of our collection on cork mounts. We find mounting is particularly successful with miniaiture orchids but suits a wide range of species and provides a straight forward way to grow orchids to their best.
In this article we will consider orchids species that do well mounted and describe in detail the ways we grow our mounted plants both in our greenhouses and indoors. Our methods our not the only ones that work but will hopefully give you some ideas.
We have a separate article on how we mount our orchids here
Orchids that succeed mounted: Below we will give some examples of mounted orchids in our collection and discuss the advantages of growing on cork bark.
The first group of orchids that we always grow mounted are the mini-miniatures (photos above show trisetella cordeliae, Lepanthopsis astrophora and Trisetells hoeijeri) these wonderful orchids have tiny leaves (up to 10mm long) but really impressive flowers. We have tried all of these species in pots but find that the orchids are quickly outcompeted by moss that eventually kills the orchid. Grown mounted we find that plants tend to get colonised by a much slower growing dwarf moss that is less of a problem - although moss is still the most common cause for having to remount plants. Another advantage with mounting these tiny miniatures is that the whole of the plant can be enjoyed along with the flowers - really beautiful things I am sure you agree - although this holds true for all mounted orchids. The moss that appears on these mounts is all natural - we never add moss when we mount - as a result of our frequent watering, daily or twice daily, but more of this in our culture section.
The secong group of orchids that love to be mounted are the small leaved orchids that like to scrample about. A perfect example is the genus Barbosella and the three species above are Barbosella australis, barbosella handroi and Barbosella dusenii. In each case the plants has spread all around its cork mount to make a lovely specimen plant. This brings us to another of the great advantages of mounting orchids - the time that plants can be left on a mount. We find that orchids in pots can rarely stay in the same pot for more that two or three years before the compost breaks down and plants need repotting. Orchids on cork mounts can often stay on the same mount for upwards of ten years (the Basosella handroi here was on that mount for 20 years to reach specimen size) This reflects our observations of orchids in the wild which of course are not 'repotted' at all. Almost all epiphytic orchids live on live tree trunks and branches which of course do not decay so providing a perfect place for roots indefinately. We use cork for our mounts precisely because of its longevity without rotting.
The third group of orchids we love to grow mounted is small to medium sized orchids such as masdevallias. (Here we have our plants of Masdevallia zahlbruckneri, Masdevallia ludibundella, Masdevallia venezuelana and Masdevallia decumana. These orchids will grow successfully in pots, and we grow them in pots as well as mounted, but we just love the way they present themselves when grown mounted.
A fourth group of orchids we grow mounted are those that we fing difficult to grow in pots as they like conditions to be dry around their roots. These include Barkerias, that are large orchids that really resent compost around their roots, and many miniature members of the Vanda family such as Cleisostoma crassifolia and Trichoglottis pusilla shown here.
Despite identifyimng four distinct groups of orchids we love to grow mounted, the truth is we like to grow almost anything mounted, so lets look at how we grow them.
Whether we are growing mounted orchids in our greenhouses or indoors we start by hanging weldmesh panels to hang the plants on. It is amazing how many plants can be fitted into a small area this way (another advantage of growing mounted plants). It is worth remembering that a vertical mesh provides a range of growing conditions with plants low down being naturally cooler, more shaded and wetter than plants near the top.
For example we grow our Barkerias that like it warm, bright and dryish at the top of the mesh and Lepanthopsis at the bottom of the mesh where they wont suffer heat stress on hot summer days.
Indoors we have adapted an IKEA display cabinet by: 1. Removing the glass shelves 2. Adding grow lights on a batten down the centre of the doorway 3. Drillimng holes in the top and suspending galvanised 50mm weldmesh pannels and 4. Using a sheet of pond liner at the bottom to catch drips and allow easy cleaning.
As you can see, our indoor orchids in a north facing room have supplementary light from grow lights and mounted orchids are similar to potted orchids in their light needs.
Watering - As I have said we generally water daily in the greenhouse. As we have a lot of plants we water using an inline pump from our 1000litre water tank in the greenhouse. We collect rainwater off the greenhouse and then add plant food to give a conductivity reading (on our conductivity metre) of around 350-500micro-seimens. During the summer we feed most waterings at nearer 500 micro-seimens, in the winter we feed infrequently at 350micro-seimens.
We do not always water once daily. In really warm summer weather we water in the morning and the evening for mounted plants. In the autumn/winter we often drop to watering every two days as plants are slow to dry out unless it is really sunny, or the heating is working hard (both rare on Portland)
For our indoor plants we water with a pump sprayer and generally water every other day. In our experience warm tropical forests are much dryer than cool tropical forests (cloud forests) and orchids from warmer forests tend to have much larger root systems and not need as much water as cool orchids.
As with all orchids it is well worth researching all you can about the natural habitat of orchids you are growing mounted. A good example is Cattleya coccinea which we photographed growing on misty windy ridges in Coastal Cloud Forest in Brazil. The open habitat is a reminder that it needs good light. The moss on the trunk shows that it enjoys plenty of moisture and the cool climate shows that it likes cool temperatures. We are looking forward to deflasking seedlings of this lovely species in 2025 and establishing them on cork mounts. Good luck growing your own mounted orchids.
Do check out our article on how we mount our orchids here
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