The Wire Basket Project

I bought this wire basket at Terra Sol Garden Center in Santa Barbara last January, a stop on our trip home from Thousand Oaks.

It was this planting—also at Terra Sol—that inspired me to buy the basket, thinking I'd do something similar, especially the part with the fern growing out the side of the liner.

Over the winter months I replaced rotting burlap on a couple of my epiphytic fence plantings...

This one was challenging since the Pyrrosia rhizomes were actually growing through the burlap, thankfully I was able to work the loose weave apart and thread the rhizomes through.

I saved this large piece to use lining the wire basket, but just could not make it work. The folds got too deep and it just looked sloppy.

So I broke down and bought a premade coir liner.

Then I decided to line the basket with moss and put the liner inside.

 

Nope! The liner was now too big.

As luck would have it I'd originally bought a liner that was too small, so I went with that one.

I also sliced a few openings in the side, to help the ferns grow out through the moss.

Here are the plants I used. There are two Begonia grandis ‘Alba’, two divisions of Pyrrosia lingua 'Ogon Nishiki', and three 4" pots of Blechnum penna-marina. Once I got working I also added a 4" pot of Pyrrosia lingua, as the Pyrrosia divisions I was working with were just too sparsely leafed out to make any impact.

I bought the Begonia grandis at Thicket on Alberta, I think they'd potted up some of the volunteers growing under one of their nursery tables!

Working the Pyrrosia rhizomes through the side.

I wanted to stuff one of the Blechnum penna-marina root balls through the side as well, but couldn't get it to look right. Oh well, this plant is a fast spreader so it will be growing out and around soon enough.

Here you can see the plants all tucked in and the soil topped off. Before I moved the basket into place in the garden I covered the soil with a layer of moss.

I'd tried the empty basket form in several places around the garden and decided my favorite location was on the pathway to the shade pavilion. Can you see it?

There it is...

I've wanted to use Begonia grandis in my garden for years now, but since it's so late to emerge I've held off, knowing I'd grow impatient with the empty space. This planting felt like great excuse to finally use it.

Finally, I added a couple of Tillandsia to fill in and add a different texture. I look forward to watching the plants settle in over the summer months and hope everything (except the Tillandsia) will prove sufficiently hardy to return again next year even better.

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude. 

Moss: rare, common, and despised

This tale of moss starts at Terra Sol Garden Center in Santa Barbara (a stop on our drive back home after a stay in Thousand Oaks, CA), and has nothing to do with moss, at least to begin with.

Monkey tail cactus! (Cleistocactus colademononis, I believe)

I don't know exactly why I find this sign so humorous, but I do. Do they think a cartoon monkey is going to help sell an expensive plant?

They have ferns!

If I hadn't already picked up a Blechnum gibbum 'Silver Lady' earlier in our trip I would have definitely grabbed one here.

Platycerium superbum, $49

This! Some sort of large Epiphyllum. Guess how much. Seriously, guess. Bet you were wrong.

What!?!

Okay so now I've discovered the moss, very unexpected. Maybe even rare, in these parts.

Buy it by the square inch for .50 cents, or by the square foot for $56. If you really want to get carried away you can get 5 square feet for $279, but I wonder where they're keeping those larger quantities because they aren't here...

Carpet moss? I didn't take a photo with an easily read label.

A few weeks later and a stop at the Oregon Flower Growers Association where there was a selection of moss on offer. A flat here (approximately 1ft x 2 ft) was going for $16.50. Moss isn't so rare up here in the Portland area.

Back at home I was thinking about those moss prices as I did my annual spring clean-out of the rock-moat around the patio, and spent far too long staring at the nearby moss.

I'm lucky that I don't have to pay .50 cents an square inch for this!

On the other hand, we did just pay a local company a large sum of money (as in a few hundred dollars) to spray the moss on our roof, so that our new homeowners insurance wouldn't cancel our coverage. 

I find it rather ironic that I rescue moss when it falls from trees in the neighborhood (and bring it home) and I cultivate it in my own garden, and yet we were paying someone to kill it.

As you might have guessed I was VERY concerned they'd end up killing not just the roof moss, but moss around the garden and other plants too (a bleach mixture that kills moss but doesn't hurt your plants... that just doesn't seem possible).

Thankfully the damage was extremely minimal and I can still count my moss fortune one .50 cent square inch at a time.

I'm rich!

The Bit at the End

Lots of moss in the adorable hummingbird nests in this blog post from David Perry: A Few Small Birdy Updates.

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude. 

Making the moss Christmas tree

Once I decided to make a moss tree for Christmas I knew right away what the base would be. Thank god I'd saved this chicken-wire covered tomato cage I used back 2017 to make the opuntia Christmas tree, even before that the tomato cage was the base for my "Cousin Itt" tree in 2014.

In case you're curious how the opuntia tree came together there was a "how I did it" post for that one too. 

It was November 12th when I got to work on the moss tree. Having our extra-long outdoor dining table to work on made a huge difference; lots of space, great light, and no need to worry about making a mess. Yes those plastic bags are full of moss.

I sorted the moss into piles according to size and type of moss (going by looks only, I don't know moss at all). 

I used some older dried moss I had on hand, and the loose pieces from this haul, to stuff the inside of the tree form. I feared if I covered only the outside with moss it would dry out too quickly. I then laid the moss over the form and started wrapping with wire. If you've ever made a wreath wrapped with paddle wire this is the same idea. 

Peeking inside before I filled it up the rest of the way.

The finished "tree"...

I made the moss wreath that same day, using an old wreath form I had on hand.

After I finished the tree and the wreath I stored them in our garage until Nov 28th, aka decorating day. I didn't want them getting too wet in the rain, and I didn't want any animals picking at the moss. I did take them out of the garage a couple times and hose them down.

A few days after completing the big tree shape I went ahead and covered the two larger of the three mantel-sized trees. The smallest one was actually my first run at the idea and had been in the basement for weeks getting misted on the regular to see how it would hold up.

These I filled with ripped up paper bags.

And a layer of plastic at the bottom. They were going to be on the painted wood fireplace mantel and I was hoping to cut back on the drips.

Remember the bird that made it into the Christmas scheme? It was a fluke that I happened upon these (very) red birds for 50% off at Pomarius. How could I not take one home for only $3.88?

I used the metal drum the moss tree is sitting on to keep it off the floor in the garage. It was pure luck the form fit right inside the lip. It worked so well that I decided to use it in the house too. 

I think after Christmas I'll pull the moss off the small tree shapes (I don't want them to rust up too badly), but keep the big tomato cage tree intact and take it out to the garden. It will be a fun addition for as long as it lasts.

The Bit at the End

Andrew asked how I was going to bring a moss Christmas tree into the house, without also bringing in a bunch of unwanted critters. That was part of why it was nice to work outside. I thoroughly inspected the moss before I added it to the tree form. I picked off a few beetles, slugs, and worms. Since it was in the garage for a couple weeks I reasoned any remaining creatures a chance to flee. Then I watched this video "Moss, the brilliant green icon of the Pacific Northwest, and the microscopic world it supports" okay so I guess there's an entire wildlife safari in my living room now...

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.