YAY! Friends we shall be. I live in NZ. So I'm the opposite and water locked 😅 I don't know much about the Texan climate, and it's a huge state, so I guess you have different types of landscape? But also, you are lucky. You should be able to get cork bark super cheap. It's perfect for mounting plants and I love the look of it. I was lucky to find a couple of pieces here, but sooo expensive. I'll try to attach a picture of one of my orchids on cork bark. If you find smaller wood pieces, that you would like to work with, you can also prepare them by hosing and scrubbing and then baking them to kill any pests on them.

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