mounting a phal.

[raybark]

I have a Phal. parishii that is mounted, and it's growing upward. Every other one I've grown hangs down, but with the crown a bit uplifted.

[Dorsetman]

In the wild phals grow roots up so it's natural that the "bottom" of the leaves seem to be the top to us.

That is rather a sweeping generalisation. In actual fact some species grow on top of branches or even sides of trees, and the habit is exactly the same as other orchids - everything is the the right way up. But they are not all the same. I have seen one of the large white flowered species growing on the underside of horizontal branches, at a well- known nursery at Butterfield, in Malaysia ( opposite Penang Island, on the mainland) and was told that they grew them that way because that is exactly what happens in the wild with that species.
I cannot remember the name- at one time I thought all the large white ones were one and the same species, but now I know much better : amabile, Aphrodite, phillipinensis, stuartiana alba, and new ones distinguished all the time.....
That nursery visit was a long time ago , btw, probably when it was run by the grandfather of Michael who runs it now, so I am told.

[phalspital]

I let mine find their own orientation. Some bloom from the bottom, some out the top. They were wired to the tree with little blobs of sphagnum for the first year, then then wrapped themselves around it. Their roots go every which-way!

[CattyRobb]

Makes an awesome display.
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