I once unmounted two brassavolas from a tree fern mount. They were facing opposite each other and the mount was ugly--it was a mess (an inherited orchid). The roots were pretty much wound inside the tree fern slab, so it took me about 4 days to little by little tear bits and pieces of the tree fern and work my way around the roots. By the end I had to take out the tweezers and work at getting out as much as possible. I ended up being able to separate them, but it was tough. I soaked, and soaked and soaked and soaked.
I also pried a Renanthera Nancy Chandler from the 4 inch vanda basket it came in. When I got the plant, I thought it was actually in the vanda basket bare root, but I discovered that there was actually a teeny plastic pot inside the vanda basket, and the vendor had covered up the whole mess with tree fern. First I broke off/sawed off the vanda basket, and then I had to cut off the plastic pot-piece by piece. The root system had basically surrounded the plastic pot. It was weird because some of the roots were almost very wood-like and tough. I soaked and soaked and soaked. That project took me an entire day. I ended up snapping off a new root by accident,but the only roots I had to cut off were brown and hard. The plant is now hanging bare root, and it put up a spike about 1 week afer I unpotted it/unmounted it.
I unmount everything that I get and mount it on what I like.
