What material for totems?

I was looking through giancarlo's pictures (my wish list) and saw a couple climbers on trimmed sticks or saplings. I wonder if anyone has a recommendation for wood that "wood" hold up to being partly buried in the soil.

What other materials do you like for totems?

Thanks for your input :).

Here is one example of giancarlo's stakes, simple, but I like it...

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/136712/

Hi Dawn, for plant's like epiphyte's , I use fallen tree limb's;-) I got this idea a few year's ago when a friend of mine showed me what his "climbing" vine's would do with his old cork screw willow limb's . I am sure there are fancier way's to create such for the home environment;-) Use your imagination or do some research on such. There are alot of material's one can use for plant's that are climber's.

My biggest concern was rotting off in the soil or leaching, but I was thinking about it last night and realized it wouldn't matter to the plant, as long as you catch it before it falls over and add a fresh stake. Thank you for that info, I bet the corkscrew would look very neat. I think the fallen branches look better than the cocofiber ones, plus it offers branches to catch leaves on while training :).

I just wondered about the use of grapevine. Only if it wouldn't sprout though, lol.

Yes, you can use grape vine's as well. My mother use to use those for all kind's of thing's even making wreath's.

Funny that you mentioned the possibility of re-sprouting if one use's such for totem's that will be stuck in potting soil. The first two limb's he gave me I used for potted vine's and before I knew it I had tree's growing as well;-) I told him to make sure the fallen limb's have some age on them before he gave them to me. He got the timing just right and now I use them for outside purpose's as well. I like the look ;-)

Have fun with your choice's of "totem's".

I was wondering if there was a way to use maybe some form of netting and orchid bark stuff to get them to grow higher than your average stick

Have you thought about cedar? I walk in my woods and see cedar trees that have fallen and they have knots and a limb that goes out and then another knot and another limb and cedar wont rot very easily. It looks very pretty also. Check out a piece if you have access to the woods.

thanks mekos I never thought of cedar and it has other benefits too, like cedar smells good, and if you're like me and put your plants out in summer cedar deters the fleas that like to crawl into your soil

I kind of know what your talking about. but I think it would break down. Best answer is to try it though. I have wondered the same, but a stick is so simple. I live on the edge of the woods, so I got that here, plentiful and easy. Grape vine, too. Now to acquire a corkscrew willow stick, root it, and then grow philo's on it. What a life :).

Yes, They work good and make great steaks for plants. Bugs don't like cedar but it smells good to me. I would think it would last a long time also in a plant pot.

oh great as if I don't have enough plants, now I want to try that! was thinking about moving my new orchids to logs to grow too but I don't know enough about them yet...philos though are pretty resillient and came bounce back from some pretty good neglect for the most part...most are very forgiving if you make a mistake....not so sure about orchids

I have a cedar in my yard, but it has grown big and fat and I like it. I'll go find something in the woods. We had an ice storm that knocked over many trees last year. I wouldn't mind finding something already in permanent dormancy. I also wondered about black locust, it doesn't rot fast either, but is just as likely to root and grow.

Trina, try one orchid to see if you can grow them that way. They are too costly to experiment with a whole wad of them. Vanilla likes to climb and ramble all over like philo's.

I have a very dumb off topic question, but what category do tillandsia utriculata plants fall under?

oh I wish I had a vanilla orchid, I just got $10 wal-mart orchids the were selling as Ice Cube orchids and the 3 my dad got me at Lowes

tillandsia's are bromeliads.

Edited to say: Trina, sorry if that isn't what you meant. I am tired, gonna drag butt to bed now.

This message was edited Dec 4, 2009 12:35 AM

Locust tree wood is extremely durable, even when exposed to the weather or embedded in the ground. We cut down a locust tree we did not want on our property in 1960 and used it to make a small grape arbor. It is still standing today without any sign of deterioration of the wood except for some surface weathering. It looks like it will probably last for another 50 years. We have never painted or treated it.

That's what I thought. My dad says if you use a locust post, you usually won't have to replace it for life, but I didn't know about smaller wood.

locust wood, I'll have to think on that one

and yes 3jsmom3 that's what I meant