Styling, Orchids & Alligators

CCC Foyer

CCC Foyer

CCC Foyer

I did a little styling in my foyer yesterday. So fun!

I mentioned I am interested in growing orchids on my trees in my Venice garden. I saw this done for the first time in Jamaica while on my honeymoon cruise and tucked it away in my brain. There is an excellent piece from The American Orchid Society with all the details, but you basically unpot the orchid removing the soil and attach it to your tree using pantyhose or long strand sphagnum moss or raffia twine or black cloth (something soft in other words) and keep the roots moist while it's getting established. My palm trees and oak trees are both perfect choices.

Orchid on palm tree

As for the alligator succulent topiary - I have ordered the form and plan to stuff it myself with sphagnum moss and plant it with succulents - I am thinking either Echeveria

 or Graptoveria.

You just make openings in the sphagnum moss with a pencil or screwdriver and stick in the succulent stems without soil and secure with a hairpin, florist pin, or more moss. There are tons of You Tube videos on topiaries showing it in more detail. The succulents grow and expand quickly so you obviously don't cover it but leave several inches of space between each. I read that you can just cut off the succulent stem and insert it, saving the pot, and a new succulent will grow in the pot. This obviously is much more cost effective. OK gardener friends, is that coleus inside his mouth?

I will post photos when I work on these projects.

Another gorgeous day here of course. Everyone told me it would take me a summer to adjust to the summer heat here and I found I needed zero adjusting. I think the summer heat and humidity here is very much like the D.C. summers. And no more coats and boots in my future. Glorious!