Living log

Fern and moss on rock

Species unknown

composition
Type
composition
Acquired
2024-04-08
Origin
garden centre
Status
alive
Style
Planted on rock
Interventionprune
A fern with strap-shaped fronds and a mossy root ball lifted out onto a wooden table mid-repotting, scattered soil and a blue bowl behind.
The same fern resting on the table with roots and moss exposed at the base, loose soil around it and a blue bowl behind.

Time for a prune, as it’s now two year since this fern has rooted on the rock. It’s still growing and produced a large stem growing upwards with many more leaves, but smaller leaves and less intense green. My suspicion is that the fern lacks fertilzation. Also the tiny water plants at the side died off, maybe I need to get a replacement for these. But what really makes me sorry the plant is the state of moss. I’ll get liquid fertilizer and dilute it heavily so the nitrogen in it does exist in the container but doesn’t over-fertilize/kill the plant. I’ve cut the root at the bottom, since I want it to further root into the rock, not the fine lava stones it is placed on.

Observation
A fern growing on a small moss-topped lava rock, held in a hand over a wooden table; long strap-shaped fronds rise from the rock.The moss-covered fern rock held in a hand, upright fronds with a few water droplets catching the light; trimmed moss clippings scattered on the table.
The fern-on-rock held up from the side, showing the mossy green underside and fine fern roots dangling below; loose soil on the table.The fern and moss planted on their rock inside a large closed glass jar terrarium standing on a wooden board, with indoor shelving in the background.

Today I finally removed the rubber band forom the fern on rock project. I’ve cut the moss a little back with scissors, like this is looks a bit more neat. The rubber band I’ve just cut and pulled it slowly. There was no problem to take it off. Maybe I also got lucky here, because the band has a smooth surface and the fern and moss roots had nothing to attach to, so it made the removal easy.

The small plants on the back have rooted as well as well as the fern itself. The upside down test was a full suceess and I’m extremely happy about this project. Now I’ll just keep it in a smaller container that is free now (rice is now stored elsewhere). It just fits the plant so much better than the long container I used before.

Observation
A fern growing on a moss-covered lava rock inside a tall clear glass jar, strap-shaped fronds arching up and pale rhizome roots creeping over the rock, with dark soil and gravel in the base, on a windowsill in indirect light.

A small update on the fern on rock project started three weeks ago. It’s growing well. Once I opened the seal to exchange the air. Watered it again with a spray bottle (simple table water). It shows growing roots from what I now know is the rhizome. It looks like a little stick and the fern leaves are growing from it. You can see the three root pointing at you in the image. I especially like that the sprickeled moss (very fine cut moss) started to grow very healthy. Maybe in a few weeks I try to remove the rubber band.

Interventionpropagate
A bamboo tray set up for the project: two small potted ferns, chunks of dark lava rock, tweezers and a bowl of lava gravel on a blue cloth.A fern being attached to a piece of lava rock with moss packed around its roots, a blue bowl of water and more lava rock nearby on the bamboo tray.
Two ferns removed from their pots with roots washed, resting in a light-blue bowl and a black-and-white patterned bowl on a bamboo tray.Two ferns in ceramic bowls beside three pieces of dark lava rock laid out on a bamboo tray, ready to be attached.The finished fern-on-rock placed inside a tall clear glass jar with condensation on the walls and dark soil at the bottom, on a wooden table.

For this experiment I went to a garden centre and collected a few water plants and moss from the aquarium supply plus a few lava rocks. The lava rocks actually were sold as heat stones for barbeque. Not really sure how that is intended to work originally, but I just wanted the stones. Lava stones I think are super useful to do plant arrangements, because of their large pours. So the idea is to let a plant root on it. The moss is there to make it look more busy. Otherwise the stone would be a bit bare. To fix the plant on the rock initially I used elstic band. I’m not sure if this really works as good, so I expect this to take a while. The rock would look very ugly in the rooting phase when I hadn’t used a transparent band. Anyway here I found transparent hair band. It’s flexible and doesn’t look as ugly so it fit the job at hand and since I don’t have an aquarium to use I took an IKEA glas container.

Btw ferns seem to be easy to propagate, you simply split the plant in half and you have two. Done. For fertilisation I bought a liquid water plant fertiliser that I spray in the bottle when I sometimes want to exchange air. Opening the container, wait a few hours, spray new water to keep the stone moist and close the container.