What neet pictures . It would be so great to be able to see them growing in nature. Linda

I have over 1,000 orchids, all except the Cymbidiums, a few species in moss and a few Australian Dendrobiums are mounted. A friend of mine has 1,000 plus in pots, he started repotting 1 month ago, he is only half way through as we speak. I don't have a repotting bench, no montains of bark new and old and have not repotted an orchid since Jan 2,000 when I cut myself badly wrestling a pot bound D speciosum out of a pot with a sharp tool of sorts. I decided at that time that there will be no more repotting, 90% are mounted, the rest are in rock. I never regretted that decision. I even have some Cymbidiums mounted as an experiment and they are doing fine. I would like to substitute the words 'Bare root growing' for 'mounting'. Since they are not parasitic, an epiphytic orchid derives only one thing from its host. A place to live and support so it does not fall to the forest floor in a storm. If you reduce the purpose of mounts to that, it opens all kinds of new possibilities. The plants don't care if they grow on a piece of wood that looks like a branch or pieces of wood that have been cut and reassembled to look like a basket. They grow equally well in an empty plastic basket or for that mater an empty plastic pot. They will grow on an old fridge or a car on blocks with the hood up, they just need support. To prove my point (occasionally I give talks) I have a vigorous catt growing in a suspended old tennis shoe. 5 new leads at this time, should have 5 bunches of purple flowers this fall. Blc Seach Urchin to be exact, but it would work for all of them. I took a bunched up Catt, ran some wires through its root ball and hung it up. That plant is growing on NOTHING. The whole point of this is that the plants don't care what they grow on as long as they are supported. Water, light, temp, food, air movement etc is what makes a sucessful plant. You can let your imagination run wild and mount them on anything that blows your skirts up. List of my favorite mounts: Branches and other pieces of wood with character Wooden baskets Plastic baskets Empty pots with holes drilled in the sides so roots can come out Rocks, lava rocks look really great Trees Houses, nail a few plants to the eves, wooden window frames, etc Fences I don't have cars on blocks with the hood up but they would look a lot better with some Cattleys all over them. 1,000 Orchids 'Missing in Action' sounds about right. Nick

I have all the orchids together assigned a number. The number gets an * in front if it is gone for any reason and I don't reuse the number. I have a column for a species/hybrid indicator. The genus, the species, the whole tag contents, flower picture ID, plant picture ID, OrchidSpecies.com page ID, a collection/excess/for-sale indicator and what it is potted in. All that is sliced and diced and sorted with notes, which are separate files, depending on if the relate to the species or the specific plant. Printed lists are: one line per species (I take to buying opportunities so I don't get more), plants that need a flower picture, plants that need a plant picture. And of course the web plant list and individual plant web pages. I am still filling in the pictures. I had a lot of plants before I did the inventory, but every new plant now gets a picture. The flower pictures are only of that plant, not somebody elses plant, so I have to wait for a bloom for that.

I have that Phal, I like it a lot. I love all those spotted phals. I don't live in CA, I live in FL but same diff I guess. I find that almost all of my hoyas want to climb. If I leave them in hanging pots long enough for the stems to reach out about 2-3 feet they will attach to anything, even the stems of other plants, then up they go. Some even attach directly to the wall. This is generally okay with me, if I need to cut back a plant they have attached to I just remove them and redirect them. But sometimes it gets more complicated than that, like when they attach to wood slat baskets and totems that philodendrons are growing up. Once they get started there you can't go back. I have even had to repot some plants "in midair", because they were so enmeshed and tangled up with other plants that it would be impossible to remove them to take them down and repot. I just get a larger hanging basket, fill it halfway with mix, and use an empty pot the size of the older smaller one to make a well in the mix, then slip the old plant out of the old pot while still in midair, put it into the new one and fill back up with more mix and rehang. Its all I can do. I have a few repots I need to get to next week. This is a photo of what I call "hoya mayhem". This tricolor has gotten so tangled up with surrounding plants its basically reverted to the wild, LOL. Its one I am about to have to repot in midair. In th every back corner you can see a hoya pink solver and a camphoripholia growing up the wall and up the big grapevine in the corner. They have climbed nor roughly 8=10 feet from their point of origin.