From The Ground Up: Kokedama gives plants a new look

There's a hot new trend in houseplants. It's modern, sleek, natural, and unpretentious. It's kokedama. From the Japanese, loosely translated, 'koke' means moss and 'dama' means ball. This is a free form variant of traditional bonsai that are easy to try at home. Kokedama uses moss and string to contain plant roots, allowing plants to remain pot free. Simple plants look amazing wrapped up in moss sheets and string, hung in windows or perched in a shallow decorative dish. This is a great DIY that brings green inside.

Some kokedama are miniature plants, no bigger than a half dollar in total and some are huge 3-foot plants, bound in layers of moss and installed on podiums. Kokedama wrapped in ribbons and even metal bands have been showing up as this art form of plant presentation becomes popular.

Chose a plant with simple structure, a small orchid, fern, philodendron or dracaena such as 'Lucky Bamboo.' Even cuttings from spider plants, ivy or purple passion plants will work. Succulents also can be used and require less watering.

You will need sheet moss, thick cotton string or twine, some potting soil, a bowl, and scissors. Mix potting soil and water in the bowl. Add enough water to be able to form a soft ball of soil in your fist. Gently remove plant from its pot, keeping the soil as intact as possible. Wrap additional soil around the roots of the plant, forming a ball large enough to incorporate the root system completely.

Next, cut a circle of sheet moss three times as wide as the root ball of your plant, which will wrap completely around the root ball. At the top, bottom and both sides of the circle cut a slit in the sheet moss about a quarter of the way in towards the center of the circle. This allows you to overlap the edges of the moss and form a ball around the soil.

Set the plant and soil root ball in the center of the sheet moss, gently folding the sides of the sheet moss up and around the plant. Trim the sheet moss back to form a collar around the plant, but don't lap over any leaves. Wrapping the string is a bit tricky. Start with string at least two yards long and wrap it around the moss ball. Wrap in random directions to keep the moss together and soil contained, creating a firm ball that's tight and holds together well. Tie off tightly. If you want to hang your kokedama, tie another length of string to form a hanging loop to the outside of the ball, knotting it on either side.

Before hanging or displaying, submerge the whole ball into a bowl of tepid water. Once saturated, gently lift out and drain. Hang or place for display in a shallow dish, water about once a week and enjoy your new trendy houseplant.

For questions, call the Linn County Extension Master Gardener Hotline at (319) 447-0647.