V is for Vanda Orchids

Look what we found at our local grocery store the other day.  Four Vanda orchids in glass vases for $10.00.  They have VERY specific instruction on how to care for your Vanda, and how to carry the vase, all that's missing were some stick figures demonstrating all this information.

According to the American Orchid Society they originated in the Asian tropics and need partial shade.  Vandas need lots of water and high humidity, but there roots need to dry out, so they can't be kept in standing water.  Because of their water needs they are mostly grown in slatted-wood baskets and in pots with a coarse potting medium.  This is what we decided to do with them.

After our trip to the Naples Botanical Garden this winter, we have been a little obsessed with growing plants directly on tree trunk and in rock crevices.  We don't have any rock crevices in our garden, but we do have the big Magnolia that sits over our patio.

Logically, the first step was to go bananas trying to find and acquire all of the plants that would work on our tree.  I wish I could say we sat down and came up with a fabulous plan, but we didn't.  This spring we started to try and figure out a way to hang everything.  After some thought we decided that attaching wet moss and plants right to the trunk probably wasn't a good idea, so we started with this old weirdly sized lawn chair as a nice base. After a two thick coats of spray paint it was ready to go.  We loaded up, but there are still more waiting for homes.  Maybe we can use them for something like the air plant hanger the Plant Geek made last summer.

Obviously once we had the chair, the next logical thing to add was hanging orchids.  Clearly there was no other choice when the Plant Geek saw them in the floral department.

What can I say, he has good ideas.