If you are ever in Charlotte it is a must if you are into Aroids or
epiphytes in either.
At 01:26 AM 1/9/2003 -0600, you wrote:
At 6:26 PM -0500 1/8/03, Harry Witmore wrote:
Thanks Craig, the epiphyte displays at Faichild are exactly what I'm
going for. They are very convincing. I will let you all know how it goes
when I get started.
Harry, et al.,
A couple of points on other responses that I've been reading, and
then I think that I will have said all that I need to say and will bow out.
I, unfortunately, have not been to Fairchild in a good many
years, and though Craig was there in the late 80's when I was last there,
and it was a pleasure meeting him and being shown around, I don't recall
much in the way of artificial trees - not to say that there weren't any -
I just have a great memory of some of the particular plant species I was
lusting after at the time, and some nice material growing on rockwork instead.
Anyhow, two things that Craig's writing prompt me to comment on -
the first would have been prompted by several other responses as well. I
want to be very clear that the process I was describing previously is
"constructing" an artificial tree from the outside in. In some ways,
especially in preparation, it perhaps takes more work (arguable), but
from the time you've put the pieces of cork together, you know what the
finished product is going to look like - a distinct advantage I think.
The other, and perhaps even stronger advantage of this method over gluing
and screwing cork onto a structure is that there are no hiding places for
pests under the bark. The main large tree that I worked with before I
started building my own, was the central tree in the rainforest
simulation at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Now admittedly, with
this example as well as with several other art. trees and draped walls, I
'm looking at installations where there are animals in the exhibit, and
therefore food, but the most frustrating thing for me with the gaps
between cork and mounting substrate was the bug problem. Working with
mounting bark onto any kind of premade support structure, given the
nature of cork, is going to mean using lots of impressively small pieces,
or having gaps of moist dark space between bark and substrate. Having
seen the results of this in terms of some of the inhabitants of these
spaces and the damage they can inflict to new root and shoot growth, I'll
avoid this method if I can. I understand that it is the way most art.
trees are constructed, and that many people are very satisfied with the
results. Just my two cents of input.
The other point that I would make may be just as frustrating, but
I would say that although I understand Craig's point about the fissures
in the bark largely disappearing over time, I meticulously try to match
up not only fissures but also, to the extent possible, even the shading
of the cork bark tubes that I put together. The two questions/comments
that were commonly heard once the tree at UNC Charlotte was completed were
how did we get that huge tree into the conservatory, and how did they
build that conservatory around the tree without killing it?
The tree is some ten plus years old now I guess, and although there are
over 100 plants growing on it representing I think somewhere in the
twenties the number of different families, there's still a fair amount of
the bark visible. And I do think that it's the fissures that are the final
fooling point in convincing folks that it might just be a real tree. Even
with the three foot long branches I'm working with now, each with a fork
in it to provide a planting crotch as well as essentially three stretches
of branch to plant on, I stressed with my volunteers who helped me put
them together how important "the look" of the bark was to the finished
product. And as strange as it may sound, I've even had several different
folks involved in the construction work around the greenhouses ask me what
those things are that I'm growing that have the yellow labels on the ends
(the yellow "labels" are the plastic-painted rebar ends so that I have
hanging tabs for the branches, both in the greenhouses and for putting on
benches to wheel into classrooms, and I actually haven't gotten any
epiphytes mounted onto these "branches" yet, so all these guys are seeing
are very convincing unplanted cork bark tubes.) So, for me, while it may
be that a year or two after planting you will or won't be able to tell any
difference, but I'm very pleased that for alot of "average folks" on the
street, even with no planting my branches and trees might as well be alive.
Good Growing and good luck raising these artificial structures -
regardless of your approach, the outcome of bringing us one step closer
to feeling like we're in the tropics, in the rainforest, is good for us
and good for our plants.
Jonathan
Harry Witmore
Zone 7 NC
Cloud Jungle Art
Epiphytes.Org
Cloud Jungle ePiphytes
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