Moss ball care instructions

Moss balls are marvellous, but unsurprisingly, they require slightly different care than your average house plant in a pot. But once you understand your moss ball’s needs, they’re fairly low maintenance.

PLACEMENT
Moss grows in cool and moist places (think of forest grounds on rocks or next to a waterfall). The plant paired with it therefore is also a shade-loving one.

Place the moss ball in a shady spot, for example suspending it from the curtain rail of a North-facing window. Make sure it is not over a radiator as will dry up (if it is, make sure it high up and water it often).

WATERING
There are two ways of watering your moss ball:

1. Suspend it into a bucket of water about once a week (in the winter slightly less, depending on the temperature of the room), submerging only the moss. Give it 5-10 minutes to soak, then drain the water by placing it on a little ramekin or water glass, and put it back to where you keep it.

2. If you don’t have time to soak it, give it some in-between spritzes from a water mister. You will have to soak it eventually, as the mister only waters the outside layer of moss, not the roots of the plant.

FOOD

Since the soil space is limited and will eventually run out of nutrients, it’s great to add some drops of plant feed every now and then into the water.

SOS
If your plant doesn’t make it for whatever reason, you do not need to discard the entire moss ball. If you’re up for a project, you can unravel the strings, take out the dead plant, choose a new one (a shade-loving one, like a fern) and tie it all up again. Even dried-out moss can always be revived, simply by watering it and putting it back into an environment it likes.

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