Phorobana Shows

My thread in the CactiGuide.com forum... Plant on Plant Action

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Hi everybody!

I recently joined this forum to share a link in this awesome thread to some photos of orchids growing on cactus/succulents.  Since I'm here I figured that I might as well subject you to more of my plant on plant propaganda.

How many of you grow plants epiphytically?  I already know the answer...not enough of you!  Everybody should grow plants on other plants.  Perhaps the most accessible case I can make for doing so is that you'd increase the chances that visitors to your garden would take more photos.   In technical terms...it would improve the value to space ratio.  In simpler terms...visitors would have more reason to linger longer.  

For example....here are a couple galleries of accidentally epiphytic cacti...one and two.  As you can see there's lots of photos of cacti growing on other plants.  These accidental epiphytes improved the value to space ratio.  We know this is true because people lingered longer and took photos that they wouldn't otherwise have taken.  The value to space ratio would have been improved even more if those accidentally epiphytic cactus had orchids, bromeliads or Tillandsias growing on them.

Last week I attended a cactus and succulent show at the LA Arboretum.  Guess how many of the entries had epiphytes attached to them?  Not a single one.  A few weeks earlier I attended an orchid show at the Huntington.  Guess how many of the entries were growing on cactus/succulents?  Not a single one.

If I had to predict the future...I'd guess that the lines between plant shows will be blurred.  If people only had time to go to one show...they'd pick the one that gave them the most bang for their buck.  This will be the show that has epiphytes growing on potted plants.  Visitors would linger longer in front of each entry...admiring the epiphyte...or the phorophyte...or both.  And because each entry would have broader appeal...it's a given that more photos would be taken.  Each additional photo taken and shared online would help provide the show with more publicity.

The question is...will this future happen sooner or later?  Personally I hope that it happens sooner!  I expect great things to happen as a result of this cross-pollination.

Not quite sure what this "holistic" show would be called.  The best word that I've been able to come up with is "phorobana".  There's always room for improvement though so if there happen to be any wordsmiths out there feel free to throw some other suggestions out there.  One qualification is that new words should meet the google alert standard.  Basically you should be able to subscribe to a google alert for the word and not be inundated with irrelevant results.

So...does anybody have any questions?  Like...is Aloe ramosissima a suitable host for Angraecum aloifolium?  I don't know the answer...but I'd sure like to find out!  For the past couple years I've been growing several dozen miniature epiphytes on a Crassula Gollum. The Crassula has excellent drainage so I can water the epiphytes with decent frequency.

If you're interested in learning more...here's my overview of growing plants epiphytically.