Okay, so like a few of you out there I finally broke down and bought a ghost orchid at the speaker's forum this past weekend.

I've actually been fortunate enough to SEE ghost orchids in the wild in the Fackahatchi (sp?) stand in the Everglades of Florida (not in bloom, tho...darn!)

I've read all that I could and there is a LOT of information out there.. most of it conflicting!

There was a GREAT couple of articles (including on how to grow) on the ghost orchids in the JULY 2009 issue of ORCHIDS magazine (by the American Orchid Society - AOS).

I was just wondering... what SHOULD I mount it on. The articles in the ORCHIDS magazine recommends Hickory Bark (not likely to be found out here in California). In the wild I know they grow primarily on Pond apple trees. I've heard Cherry works well, too... any suggestions?

Any comments from fellow growers would be greatly appreciated!

Here's a couple of pics of Ghost orchids in the wild... Was fun taking a GUIDED four hour walk (with a ranger) through the swamps.. about knee- to waist deep in water. Was an AMAZING experience.

The first few pics give you an idea as to the natural growing conditions.... almost all of the ghost orchids were growing about shoulder height above about 3 -4 feet of water. Some have seed pods! Sorry none were in bloom on this trip! More photos if you like (there were LOTS of other NON native orchids growing in the same habitat)... along with some HUGE alligators!

Scott Farrell

Gooooood luck. I have tried several times to grow these. I have purchased flasks twice with noo success.. The last struggling plant suddenly succumbed in its 4th year. I went to Fla. a couple of years ago and shipped back several pieces of cypress wood, as one grower had suggested, to be ready the next time I tried. A month ago I ordered a Flask from a Taiwan grower and mounted some on Cork Oak, Cypress, Tree fern, manzanita, and Sphagnam moss. I put them in the wetest place in the green house, up high and shaded, low and shaded, , in places with little air movement and humid,In places with lots of air movement. I even set up a small Wardian case.But it has been to no avail. As of today I have only Two struggling pieces left mounted on the cypress with spagnam and one on manzanita, but I see little hope. So good luck. I'll be happy To just photograph yours when they bloom. :-).

Rich

Rich,

It was nice talking to you the other day... we'll have to see each other's greenhouses.

I'm just wondering if its NOT location or medium .. but water quality? What kind of water conditions do you have.. and are you doing anything special with the water you're using to water these?

The one I bought at the Speakers forum is currently on sphagnum and I'm watering it once a day... seems fine. No real growth.. but not going down hill either...

My water quality is pretty good out of the tap.. I don't do RO.

I got a Dendrophyllax funalis at the SBOE a many years ago. Granted not *quite* the same thing as lindenii (supposedly easier) but here goes. It was mounted in a teak basket when I got it, I had it for 2 years mounted right under a misting head and low and behold after acclimating to my conditions it bloomed. Once. The basket rotted all to heck - or maybe it overgrew with dense crappy algae, so - with the wisdom of Solomon - I put it in a plastic net pot, thinking the plastic wouldn't collect algae, placed it under the same misting head and there it has sat - not growing but not dying - for 4-5 years.

Then, like you, I read the article in 'Orchids' and got enough courage to mount it on an old 'stick' recycled from an old dead Andy's Orchids plant. Like anything else it won't root if it moves on the mount so I securely tied it to place with old nylon hose. Today I may be lying to myself, but I think a new root bump is developing on a root tip.... well I'm probably lying to myself, but hope springs eternal.

As to D lindenii (or whatever they are classified these days) yeah, I've killed 2-3 of them too. Which is why I tried the funalis. I think SBOE has a hybrid of lindenii and funalis tucked way back in a corner that they rarely if ever let pieces go, and I think they may have another leafless species, too, the one with slightly wider sepals than the lindenii. Anyway, my fingers are crossed for you. I live in Contra Costa county and use city water - no r/o - the thing bloomed for me hanging up next to the misting head, so rather bright light, not like phals. Intermediate to hot temps (especially in summer).

K Barrett

Hi all,
Lacking anything like the necessary conditions, I won't be trying to grow a ghost orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii), but it is fascinating to read about your experiences with this species.

Scott's brave wade through the swamp is more than a little scary to
think about (alligators, snakes,.... leeches, too?), but it yielded
some very nice pictures. They got me to thinking about this problem of
coaxing growth and blooms from a radiating cluster of green orchid roots.

Looking at Scott's pictures and those referenced by the Wikipedia
article on ghost orchids, I thought that every major point of culture
(light, water, temp, humidity, fertilizer, medium/mount) could be approximated, except one--precisely the one Scott wondered about--the medium or mount, which in this case might be required to provide more than a space to park some roots.

It isn't just that we don't have pond apple trees (nevermind hickory)
growing hereabout. When I looked at the in situ trees, themselves,
supporting ferns, mosses, lichens, and ghost roots, several bells rang.
The first was that I had read that orchid seeds need some sort of fungal element for germination. The second was that lichens consist of a symbiotic association of fungi, algae, and/or cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and that one of the purposes of these associations is photosynthesis. I wondered whether lichens on the ghost orchid's substrate might also be critical to the orchid's health and fertility.

A little bit of googling turned up an interesting, five page paper by
two scientists at the Department of Biological and Physical Sciences, U.
of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, "Endophytic Fungi Associated
with Australian Orchids" which discusses fungal associations beyond seed
germination and states on the second page:

"Isolation and perpetuation of the fungal endophyte of a rare orchid
species is crucial to growing the plant under horticultural conditions,
and explains the high failure rates for attempted propagation of
fungal-dependent orchids by fanciers."

(I have removed the http prefix from the URL below so that it wont come
through as a live link, as this seemed to block my first attempt to post.)

eprints.usq.edu.au/1642/1/Dearnaley_LeBrocque_Author%27s_version.pdf

While it is true that this is a paper about Australian orchids, it seems
reasonable that it could have implications for orchids elsewhere,
particularly those without what is generally considered a full complement of photosynthetic organs--namely, leaves.

One other bit that turned up in the googling was a reference to a
Pleurothalid of Mexico that is known to be epiphytic on lichen. The
source was Britannica Online to which I don't have a subscription:

(Again, in order to prevent this from being a live link, I have removed
the http and three w prefix from the URL):

.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/431285/orchid/73080/Ecology

IF some component of a southwest Florida swamp lichen is important to
the growing/blooming of a ghost orchid, then it would likely be
necessary to inoculate whatever mount is to be used. These associations
are usually quite specific, but if ANY of a variety of lichens would do,
then some home grown piece of wood that is already host to lichen might
be suitable. For example, if live oak in Florida works, perhaps a lichen-bearing live oak or black oak in northern California would, too.

It would be nice if the solution were to be that easy...though very little about orchid culture is easy the first time around. At the very least it might be worth the experiment.

Thank you for the pictures, Scott; and thanks to all for your detailed
accounts.

LuLu