Plants on bookshelves, floor plants, countertop and coffee table plants, plants hanging from the ceiling… so many ways to display them!
If you are like me and love to fill your indoor space with plants, it can sometimes be a challenge to find the right balance between tasteful décor and plant fever. When implementing creative display ideas for plants, one should always take the plant’s interest into consideration, along with obvious design or cosmetic aspects. Ensuring that proper lighting, moisture, and soil needs can be maintained will be critical to plant health—a struggling plant, no matter how cool it is displayed, will still struggle.
One of the things I like most about indoor plants is the opportunity to observe and learn about them from the comfort of my home. One particularly fascinating group of plants is epiphytes and semi-epiphytes—plants that prefer to grow attached to trees or other plants (without harming them) rather than growing on the ground in soil. Well-known examples include orchids and air plants, but there are many different types of plants that fall into this category including select ferns, bromeliads, hoyas, and more.
Displaying these plants by mounting them to wood helps simulate their natural growth environment while providing a unique and attractive look. Using cork, driftwood, or other wood surfaces, plants are bound with moss and securely attached with wire or fishing line. Mounted plants may be hung vertically on a wall and taken down every week or two for watering.
Our creative team has been busy making some of these mounts for purchase, but if you would like to try your hand at making one yourself, we have listed the materials and instructions below and you can watch the process in our class video. Stop in one of our garden center locations to get some inspiration or to pick up supplies—our plant experts can help you make selections and suggest perfect plants for mounting.
Supplies
- Fern or other easy-care houseplant, start with 4 to 6-inch plants
- Bonsai mix and peat moss (we suggest Gardner & Bloome Organics)
- Sheet moss, collected or packaged
- Scrap lumber or driftwood
- Filament (fishing line)
- Heavy gauge wire (optional for hanging)
- Small copper nails or carpet nails (optional)
- Drill with large drill bit (optional)
- Hammer
DIY Steps
- If planning to hang the mounted plant, drill a hole first to loop heavy gauge wire through.
- Mix soil and moisten until it holds its shape when formed into a ball.
- Shake soil from the roots of the fern and encase them with new soil mix.
- Place in a natural nook of driftwood.
- Cover with moss.
- Wrap fishing line around it to secure.
*If using flatter driftwood/bark or a wood slab, follow the above instructions, then trace a circle where the fern will go and pound in nails halfway every 1–2 inches around circle. Place fern with soil mix in the center, cover with moss, and then use the filament to hold it all in place by looping around exposed nail heads back and forth (creating a crisscross pattern).
Mounted Plant Care Tips
Hang your mounted plant or place in a location with bright, indirect light. Water weekly or when dry and mist between watering. To water, soak the entire piece of wood with the plant in a tub or bucket of room temperature water for about 20–30 minutes; allow to dry before re-hanging. Enjoy your mounted plant!
