Orchid project in Brazil
 

Hi everyone,
About a month ago my grandma passed away, and I brought her orchids home. Unfortunately I didn't have space to keep them all, but I didn't want to give them away either. I thought it'd be a good idea to mount them on a tree that is a few yards from where I live, this way I could still enjoy them.

People saw me mounting and started asking if they could bring their old orchids, because they didn't know how to care for them. Well.. amazingly I started with 6 and ended up with 20+ orchids, which got me kind of excited to start an orchid project to get orchids on all the trees around here.

Right now temperatures are cool at night, with pleasant, sunny days. The ocean breeze keeps humidity high and in the mornings there's dew everywhere. For some reason this seem to be the perfect weather for the orchids, because I checked today and ALL of them already have roots growing on the tree.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this project with you here. For now it's mostly no id phals, but I'll get some native cattleyas and oncidiums to make things more interesting.

I also would like to hear suggestions :biggrin:

Here are some pics (it doesn't look like much, I know):

http://i.imgur.com/KyapOMc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/4eDD7JQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/eLYscwl.jpg

This is wonderful! I also like the big Rhipsalis plants hanging down.

Thank you! The rhipsalis is a native species and grows like weed here. I try to remove most of it from the lower branches because otherwise they just take over the entire space.

Next I want to get at least a few Cattleya labiata, C. intermedia, C. walkeriana and C. loddigesii.

The intermedias I can get small plants for $2 or so but the other ones are much more expensive and I don't want to spend tons of money.

There's a city-owned orchid nursery inside a public park a few blocks from where I live. I'm planning on going there and tell them about the project to see if they could supply me with some free orchids.

What a sight...good for you and your grandma would be impressed. Did you climb up yourself to attach them and what is the attachment? Growth is amazing!

Hi, thank you!
Yes, I used a ladder to get up there. I like to use plastic ribbons for the attachment. It's really cheap and flexible.

Now that I've done this hundreds of times it's pretty straightforward. Best thing is to place the newest growth against the trunk making good contact, because that's where the new roots will emerge. Small plants are really easy, but big heavy ones are a pain, specially phals.

Afer that I usually wait 6 to 8 months for the orchid to create a good root system, and once it's attached on its own I simply cut the ribbon. People sometimes like to use organic materials for the attachment, because you can simply leave it there to decompose, but I'm not a big fan.

That's a lovely tribute to your grandmother.

So sorry for the loss of your grandmother. What an incredible and heartearming living memorial you have tasked yourself with. If the local nursery does not give you plants for free, I'd hope they could at least give you a deal on plants that are going out of bloom. I'd love to chip in $20, but I guess you'd have to start a gofundme page or something like that as I can't exactly drop it off on my way home from work:)

This is a wonderful idea and a nice living memorial to your Grandmother! I hope you are able to acquire additional plants for your project. This will be gorgeous when these plants bloom. Thank you for sharing such a sweet project

Thank you for the kind words. My grandmother loved her garden, but due to her health she had to leave it behind to come live closer to us.

Here's a picture of her dendrobiums.. when they were in full bloom it looked spectacular

http://i.imgur.com/WhP7lVM.jpg

I still have orchids that I have to mount and I can only do this on weekends, so I don't feel comfortable accepting money, but once I get this going maybe I'll create a webpage to post pictures and accept donations. Thank you though!

Every time I see a tomato plant, it reminds me of my grandpa, every red rose bush blooming is my grandma just reminding me that she is here! The dendrobiums are a beautiful reminder of your grandma