Live spanish moss!

[swords]

Surprisingly, after searching for nearly a year to find a decent looking an elephant ear Alocacia I found a really nice one at Target (of all places).
it's potted in a mix of peat and LF sphagnum but had a top dressing of something I've wanted for a long time, living spanish moss! It's slightly grey/green and is very supple (squishable).
I collected all the spanish moss off the top of the pot and soaked it in distilled water with a drop or two of superthrive and currently just have it laying on my eggcrate grid that the nepenthes pots sit on (so they may drain freely and have the water evaporate and make awesome humidity).
What  is a good way to mount this to cork slab or to a  dead tree limb and have it grow and colonize my arboreal/epiphytic  terrarium? do i need to tie it with fishing line or does it take root easily to new surfaces?

Thanks for any thoughts!

(Edited by swords at 2:11 pm on May 28, 2002)

 

[fatboy]

That's a weird way to find Spanish moss, as part of potting mixture. Are you sure that's what it is?

If it is, just hung the stuff from the tree limbs. It doesn't grow roots and I almost never water mine. It just grows and grows with complete neglect.

Near my house there are some mangroves and I went and cut down a few mangrove trees that had been dead a long time and were all bleached. I soaked them with the hose for a couple of hours to get rid of the salt and then "planted" them around the garden. I then hung loads of T usnoides (Spanish Moss) and other Tillandsias all over them. Most of the Tillandsias have now formed big clumps.

Looks wicked and requires almost zilch in the way of maintenance.

Cheers, fatboy

 

[swords]

Yes, it's spanish moss, whoever does the plants for Target must have thought it looked better than plain peat on top. It's not used in the potting mixture, it's just used as a top dressing over the peat/sphagnum mix which the plant is potted in. OK, I will just experment. does it stay put or will it fall off the branches due to activity (treefrogs)?

 

[fatboy]

It's kinda strange stuff Josh. It doesn't actually root but the part that is in contact with the tree limb will die, go black. Don't worry, it will only be th little part that is touching the tree itself. This then sticks, somehow. When it gets too dense in some areas and I try to rip some off to put elsewhere, you really have to pull it apart. It doesn't just pull away so it does have some way of grasping. Maybe I'm wrong and there are, VERY tiny, roots. Certainly can't see em though.

Cheers, Troy.

 

[Neppie]

ahh! I ordered some tills over the interet and when they came (they were great plants!&#33

almost as packing matieral was some spanish moss. I put it in the green house hung over another plant. I was worried bout them when they were turning black when it touched the plant. Thanks fatboy!

 

[gr8oz]

It's funny how geographics colors our impressions. I've got bales of spanish moss growing in the trees in my yard. When it gets really out of hand I have to mulch it or send it off with the recycling. All you have to do is suspend it loosely from something...a branch, for example. Mist it occasionally and it should do fine. I've seen more and more of it being used as a top dressing for bromeliads. Legend has it that Ford once used it as stuffing in the seats of his automobiles. Oz

 

[lithopsman]

gr8oz- when you have extra, can you send me some? I only have a tiny amount, that I'm hanging in a tree today. The tree is in my bird garden, and I hope the birds don't trash it.

When you have an overgrowth, please tell me.