Give your water plants the wabi kusa treatmentFor an incredibly striking effect, try this easy Japan
Give your water plants the wabi kusa treatmentFor an incredibly striking effect, try this easy Japanese indoor planting styleI’m a total sucker for a social media gardening trend, but there’s one that upsets me: kokedama. You’ll have seen them, those floating orbs of plant roots wrapped in moss, suspended from ceilings by fishing wire. While they look great as installations at flower shows and in Instagram feeds, in real life they are totally impractical for all but the most dedicated gardener. However, there is a simple tweak that can be done to this traditional Japanese planting style that can turn it from one of the hardest ways to grow plants to something far more manageable, and here’s how to do it.Traditional kokedama involves taking a plant out of its pot and wrapping the root ball in a clay substrate and some moss. What this means is that the plants no longer have a plastic or ceramic casing sealing in moisture around their roots, and as a result dry out exceptionally quickly. Once you hang them up, particularly in a sunny spot which the plants will require for photosynthesis, the rate of moisture loss will mean you need to water your specimens once or even twice a day just to prevent total desiccation. As irrigating means taking them down and hanging them up again – they will be dripping dirty water all over your floor once they are back up – this system is doomed to fail for anyone but a Japanese master.Traditional kokedama is doomed to fail for anyone but a Japanese masterHowever, there is another Oriental technique with a very similar look, but without any of the associated watering problems. It’s called wabi kusa and it’s created by wrapping the roots of aquatic plants in moss and arranging them in trays, dishes or bowls of water. Sitting with their feet permanently wet, these plants have all the moisture they need and look incredibly striking when arranged with pebbles and drift wood to create indoor river banks in miniature. These are houseplants that are impossible to overwater All you need to get started is a couple of dwarf aquatic marginal plants. I source mine online from aquarium supply shops which, unlike outdoor pond suppliers, will be species selected for small stature. Good examples include echinodorus, acorus and hemianthus. They are also, crucially, grown not in muddy earth but in rock wool, a semi-synthetic but environmentally sustainable substrate that won’t cloud water. All you need do is take them out of their little plastic pots and wrap their roots in sheets of aquatic moss. There are several species sold by aquarium suppliers, but for me the cheapest and most effective is called Java moss.Wind a little nylon fishing line around the bundle, tie it in place, sit the bundles with between one quarter and one half of their root ball submerged in a shallow tray or dish situated in a bright spot indoors and you’re good to go. Maintenance involves topping up the water level once a week and the occasional water change to keep it clear (about once a fortnight). The same look, for a fraction of the work.mail James at james.wong@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @Botanygeek -- source link
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