Rock, me, Kokedama by Elizabeth Licata

Kokedama flanked with hippeastrum and seasonal arrangements really cheers up the winter kitchen.

Most Rant readers are likely familiar with Japanese moss ball plants, or kokedama. I was not, however (or maybe I forgot about them), and when I saw a pre-Christmas email from a local plant store offering kokedama of various sizes for sale, with images, I was there the next day. “I’m here for the kokedama,” I announced, and promptly bought 6 large ones for holiday gifts. As it happens, one of my friends had similar ideas, so now I have a modestly sized kokedama as part of my kitchen plant array.

Here’s a larger one that became a holiday gift.

If you google, you’ll find all kinds of sites devoted to the DIY creation of these things. No thank you! I’ll stick to my store-bought kokedama and put my energies into keeping it alive, which doesn’t seem hard if it stays in a shallow dish and soaks up water at need. (And it’s pretty easy to tell when it’s time to add water.) I will not, as many seem to do, hang the plant from the ceiling. That’s just going to make watering a pain—also, I notice that the moss tends to shed. Ferns are often recommended for kokedama culture, but the ones I bought are mainly sturdy house plants of office-surviving varieties. Ferns are fussy in houses where central heating reigns during the winter.

A new year, a new—to me—winter garden addition. Cheers to kokedama!

Rock, me, Kokedama originally appeared on Garden Rant on December 28, 2017.

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