AWANDA! Nice to see you post and should have known that you would jump on that Dischidia Pectinoides! I believe I saw them at MVG's when we were there last. I, however, resisted the temptation! Ming- Don't forget to go to Aridlands. Worth the trip- no staps tho', but lots of other cool stuff and the people there are very friendly and helpful. Susie

I don't know, Dee...I'm a little leary to try it again. It's such a beauty that I really DO want to grow it, but it puts me in a funk to keep failing... Are you growing it? Of course, you Floridians have an advantage with the perfectly humidified conditions (great for plants, awful for me!) I guess I'll give it some thought... When I got the first one, I left it in CBFM's mix, but then it started to decline so I put it in my mix. Didn't help... Oh, how I hated to see those cute balloon leaves dehydrate!! **sigh** If someone from my northern climate can give me some real advice on this Dischidia, I'll sure take Dee up on her offer!!! Denise in Omaha

The original cut end of the mother plant is in coconut chips and the rest is suspended from a wire. I have taken a clipping and placed in directly on cork bark (no substrate)in my pumilio tank. It is rooting into the cork. I have no special air flow besides the daily opening of the terrarium/vivarium every day to mist. I think the key might be to mount them without any type of substrate, so that they do not have the opportunity to stay wet. My problem in the past was always rotting. I do not use any fertilizer, only r/o water. Maybe try a very diluted orchid mix? Speaking of ant plants, I have managed to keep my Lecanopteris alive for a year as well! How have you been Homer?

I was super happy when Myrmecodia beccarii survived its first winter outside. It got down to at least 32F. Unfortunately, it only put out two new leaves this summer. But it didn't lose many so that's a good thing. It's mounted on a wooden plank that's covered with a fairly thin layer of New Zealand Sphagnum. During summer I water it at night but it dries out during the day. It probably wants more moisture but it's always safer to err on the side of too much drainage. I also have Dischidia major. It's mounted just like the M. beccarii. It's grown really great this summer. This will be the first winter that I'll test it outside. What I plan on doing with all of my "test" Hoyas/Dischidias is cutting off all their new growth which I'll propagate inside the house in clear storage bins covered in clear plastic by the windows. In previous years the new growth would get killed by the cold and this would open the door for miniature monsters to rush in and kill the plant. Not sure if this Dischidia is really an ant plant... I've had quite a bit of success with Myrmecophilas. Because they are CAM orchids I don't use any moss when I attach them to boards. Plus, I try and give them as much full sun as possible. Pachycentria glauca did pretty great during the summer...but it really didn't like my fall decrease in watering frequency. It didn't help that mine were just recently established cuttings. I'd like to try growing them from seed to see if there's any drought tolerance variation between the seedlings. I also tried an ant fern...it made a bit of growth during summer but then deteriorated during winter. It made it to spring but didn't have any energy left to hold on for summer. So it wasn't the cold that killed it...it was a lack of warmth. It might have survived in the warmest spot in my garden.