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
|
IAS on Facebook
IAS on Instagram
