Ok. That was a pretty cheesy title, but I could not help myself. Blame it on the heat. Because of course the weather finally turned sunny and warm again after 2 weeks of rain now that I am back to work again from vacation… oh well, that’s life. Especially in Sweden.
Back to the point. My beautiful Bulbophyllum pulchellum has outgrown its glorious IKEA cork trivet ehm… and needs larger accommodations. I had gotten 2 kilos of tree bark chunks for mounting orchids on a while back, luckily there is one piece large enough to hold this sprawling monster. It has set 5 new shoots this season (which, by the way, seems to be about average for this species)!
So, off with the trivet – a quick root inspection, excellent! – and then onto the bark. A little sphagnum moss padding for the roots, and done. I rather like the result and it should allow for a couple of more years of growing – at least. Now I only have to figure out where to hang it. It will have to rest on the windowsill for now.
Does the ikea cork trivet worked for mounting? Do you need to boil the cork trivet or any other work prior to mounting the orchid on it?
The IKEA cork worked for this species for some time. But to be fair it never really attached itself to the material, like the roots tend to do on natural cork, so perhaps it did not particularly like it that much. I did not boil the trivet or anything before using, so it might have been treated with something the roots did not like? I do not know, and I have not tried it on any other species either so I could not say weather it is a good or bad idea to use this material. I prefer using natural cork as it looks nicer too. Sorry, but I cannot be more helpful than this.