Mounting on clay pots issues

[Silje]

I think a lot of us has seen this picture...



...and gone 'Wooooow! That looks so nice!" At least I did. I just immediately got this beautiful picture of my fantasy growing space that has unlimited room and is in perfect condition 24/7, all year round. And I pictured rows of beautiful pots with even more beautiful orchids clinging on to them. Not a mealy bug or fungus spot in sight. Just happy roots and the correct amount of algae and moss to give it a bit of a wild flare.

One of the disadvantages of living on the countryside in the middle of nowhere in southern Africa is that orchids are hard to come by. But one of the perks must be that porous, unglazed clay pots are readily available and cheap. So I got a couple.



The first test was to fill them with water and let them stand over night to see if water seeped through and id they were still intact and had not turned into mud. Check. The clay pots were nice and sweaty in the morning.

The next test was to add a bit of moss (and here my lack of creativity and ability to make things look nice is clearly visible, but I'm a hopeless case and have given up on myself a long time ago)



And this is when things got a bit concerning and disappointing. That moss gets soaking wet.

I was initially planning on mounting an aerangis to this one since I struggle to keep them moist enough, but now I just put the pot aside to think about how else to do this.

Would it perhaps be better to just skip the moss altogether? Or replace it with coir which holds less water?

In the original thread, started by bumpman, where I saw this picture the first time, it looked like there was some interest in trying this and a couple of members bought pots to mount on. How did that all work out in the end?

Any recent and long-term experiences with mounting on clay pots are welcome.

(Maybe my pots are just crap and not really suitable for anything else than as dry decoration)