You will be blown away by the wonderful wide world of bromeliads - they are mostly Epiphytic , meaning that they grow on other plants ( trees ) and hosts ( pieces of bark, dirftwood ) Some are terrestrial ( grown in the ground) and others are lithophytes ( grown on rocks ). Most are monocots.

You can wire bromeliads to your pepper tree and it can become a beautiful blooming sight to behold. I have bromeliads wired to the trunks of my palm trees as well as a few orchids.

My favorite website for bromeliad information is the Bromeliad Society of San Francisco
http://www.sfbromeliad.org/

They have some great cultural information and some wonderful photographs of bromeliads in the garden .

Bromeliads in a San Mateo palm tree
{{gwi:52043}}From Bromeliad Society Tour 2008

Bromeliads in Ted Kippings garden
{{gwi:52044}}From Bromeliad Society Tour 2008

A tillandsia set in a red banana
{{gwi:52045}}From Pina Colada

A sampling of bromeliads ( Aechema and Billbergia ) that could easily be wired to a tree
David Feix design.
{{gwi:52046}}From david's garden photos

Very lovely pics. Amazing what you can grow in mild climate. I don't think anything like that would grow around here, nevertheless holes in trees make excellent wildlife habitat.

For starters, I don't think you could harm the pepper tree if you tried. Secondly, I think the canopy will provide a good environment for epiphytes. The only drawback will be the extensive litter from the pepper tree.

The first photo shows a mature orchid happily growing attached to the bark of a tree in a private garden in Los Angeles. The second photo shows numerous epiphytes, including staghorn ferns and bromeliads, thriving in limited space on palm trunks along a narrow driveway in the same garden.

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The bright bromeliad below the lantern is a type of Neoregelia; the hanging plant is an epiphytic cactus from Mexico, Rhipsalis.

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In California the lack of year round rains and relatively dry air make it a bit more difficult to attach epiphytes to bark unless you provide automatic or manual watering. When I use bromeliads or Rhipsalis in trees, unless they are all Tillandsias, I typically use them in hanging baskets with a bit of soil, or when mounted directly onto tree trunks, I'll pack some moss held by fishing line or wire to retain a bit more moisture at the roots. I like adding drip lines with misters within the tree to make watering easier. Species orchids and Cymbidium orchids would also work for this use.