THE NEXT BIG THING
Following on from the hippychic looks of knotted, woven and macramé plant holders, kokedama is the latest creative way of displaying houseplants – without containers.
Kokedama, which translates as ‘moss ball’, has its origins in Japan, where it’s an offshoot of traditional bonsai – the art of deliberately stunting the growth of a tree or shrub for ornamental reasons. It involves removing a plant from its pot, shaking off the potting compost, then wrapping the root system in a kind of mud ball made from a mix of compost and specialist minerals and clays, before covering it with a layer of living moss tied in place with string.
If this all sounds like too much hard work, you can always use a vanda orchid, staghorn fern or a few air plants instead to achieve the dramatic effect of a plant suspended in space.
l Extracted from At Home with
Plants by Ian Drummond and Kara O’Reilly (£20, Mitchell Beazley)