When I finally found a staghorn fern a few weeks ago I was EXCITED! They are rare and usually expensive. I somehow only paid $2.49 at homedepot and I was beside myself!

I thought I really wanted to mount it on a piece of wood, with moss surrounding the roots, but I didn’t know where to hang it, and watering it seemed like it would be a huge chore (taking it down, giving it a shower in the sink and then waiting for it to dry before hanging it back up).

So it stayed in it’s pot, patiently waiting for me to decide what I wanted to do. Last weekend I toyed with the idea of placing it in an open terrarium and after some more research decided against it. They are an epiphyte which is an “air plant” so they aren’t planted in soil and a terrarium would probably cause root rot. 

During my research I came across a type of bonsai called Kokedama which means Japanese moss ball. Basically it’s a plant surrounded in a ball of moss, that can be hung by a string or placed on a pretty platter. 

So I decided to do my loose version of kokedama, by making a sphere using mini vine wreaths and filling it with moss inside and covering it with moss outside. 

So I started with :

• My staghorn fern
• 3 mini vine wreaths
• 2 types of moss, soaked in warm water
• nylon string

I clipped the wires holding the wreaths together and formed a sphere leaving a large opening to fit the fern. 

When I was happy with the size and shape (keeping in mind the size of the plant!) I started adding moss on the outside (Make sure to squeeze the water out before!). When I was mostly done, I tied 1 end of the nylon string to a piece of the vine and started weaving the string around the sphere to secure all the pieces of moss. When I was satisfied with how secure it was, I tied off the string on another piece of vine and started fluffing up the moss to hide the string. I added moss here and there to fill in gaps and make it look how I wanted.

Then I added a bunch of moss to the inside and took the fern out of the pot, loosened the soil from the roots and removed as much as would easily fall. I put the fern inside the sphere and added moss all around to fill all the gaps and to secure it in the sphere. 

Then it was time to place it on an old cake stand where it would get plenty of light (but no direct sunlight!)

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!!!!