I love Christmas decorations and have collected a lot of them over the years ! You probably have too ! Decorating for Christmas is a endearing way to enhance your enjoyment of the time of year , as well as to receive guests to your home ! The way evergreen garlands and evergreen plant garland make our homes take care , speak of custom and Latinian language ! But other materials -from pink tinsel to feathers- evidence unlike tale ! A special garland start the “ Welcome ” in good order at the from threshold ! For something a lilliputian different this year , why not make a Christmas garland using ball moss !
Randy and I got married in 1978 ! Yes … almost 50 years ago ! That yr his mom made a beautiful Christmas wreath ! Luckily for me , since I admired it so much , she suggest that we make another !
It was beautiful lei and we used it for decades ! Our theatre had a front porch , and during the holiday season the chaplet hung outdoors on our front door where it was protect . In the off - season , it was store , pay heed on a clothes hanger and covered with a refuse suitcase and then hung in the garage . It hold up very well .
When it finally started to look ratty , and because I had SO many other things , ( I thought I ’d never lose it ) , I discarded it . However , this year as I made medallion with our grandson , I started reminisce about that wreath and Randy ’s mom . I decided to test to make another wreath like the one she and I had made together .
Ball Moss
What is it?
Ball moss is a small greyish plant that can be found originate on live oaks and other trees . It is closely bear on to Spanish moss , that tag beauty found in the southeast . The scientific name of ball moss isTillandsia recurvata . Although it is call “ clod moss , ” it is not a moss at all , but an strain plant or “ air plant ” in the bromeliad family . Other epiphytes include some bromeliads , orchids , and ferns .
Unlike Old World mistletoe , which is a sponge , ball moss takes no nutrients from the tree on which it grow . When youdosee it on leg that look ghastly , it ’s because the interior branches of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree arethemselvessuffering from a deficiency of sunshine , so they die . Because testis moss likes scummy intensity luminousness and humid conditions , the interior of tree , specially resilient oaks , is the preferred environment for these interesting little plants . If you need proof that lump moss is n’t a parasite , you may also feel it growing on phone and fencing lines ! Crazy !
Another surprisal is that ball moss also blooms ! Imagine my puzzlement when I saw “ cotton fiber ” on my ball moss one day ! When I pulled a minute off , it reminded me of milkweed or dandelion fluff .
Ball Moss Bloom
Where to Find it
In our quest to make a ball moss garland , we needed ballock moss ! It ’s everywhere , right ? Nope ! I all of a sudden gain I had always taken it for grant . It was all over the place where we maturate up ! Honestly , I just commend it being in or underneath springy oak tree , which is not the most common tree diagram where we are now ! So , I look on the internet to see if it ’s trade online . It is : one marketer wanted $ 6 for one plant ! 😳
I get hold of a friend in our Master Naturalists group who has been in area much longer than we have . He suggested that we go to a local city commons where he had seen some . certainly enough , we regain some just where he had said : on some sickly - looking crape myrtle : the moss did n’t look too good either . ( After some consideration and inquiry , I suppose it ’s because those crepe myrtles are in too much shade , having been overshadowed by a ‘ expectant tree . It has also been very ironic here for a while . )
Not the ball moss of my memories , at all , but it ’s what we witness ! We get together it up and bring it home . After we get the moss dwelling house , we put it in the freezer for a few of hour to kill off any unwanted insects . ( We have a unembellished , rarely used freezer . )
I have to tell you that in the process of making this wreath , I ran into a brick wall . I bulge out this project after a bout of nostalgia . I realized I was trying to RECREATE the chaplet I had made with my mother - in - law and that I had had for so many eld ! I could n’t regain the same variety of decorations we had used before : the artificial cardinals were the amiss size ; where are the pine cone shape flowers and interesting dry raw decorations we could easily find at the craft entrepot so many years ago ? Even the moss did n’t look the same ! Sigh !
What I needed was to use my own imagination , instead ofremakingwhat she and I had made so many years ago : and what SHE had used HER imagination to do ! ( In fairness to us , SHE was an creative person ! ) I needed to CREATE . We determine to constellate the wreath for a snowy aspect . ( And because the ball moss was n’t as pale a gray as I remembered my old one was . )
The Process
Materials Needed
pluck a large work blank . We get alfresco , but end up finish inside ( it rain down ) . indoors , we covered a table with a pliant covering . ferment methodically , Randy and our grandson ( who is 9 ) finish hot glue the moss to agrapevine form . permit your creative thinking guide you as to the look and apply plenty of spicy glue so that the moss will be seize firmly .
Next , we attached a clothes hanger to the chaplet , hung it in a tree and sprayed flocking on it . We go back and spray more later , but took it inside the barn as it had become very windy . After the flocking dried , we substitute the hanger with some conducting wire to hang it for showing . Be sure to look at the front of the wreath to orient where you want the top to be .
In my quest to discover the same kind of redbird and other things I used to have ( which I did n’t find out ) , I collected a lot of dissimilar kinds of ribbon and various Christmas ornamentation and verdure to taste to determine something that might satisfy my feelings of nostalgia . After several tries , I attain upon a feel we liked for THIS coronal . The medal were attached using various methods . For the antlers , we used conducting wire crumpled into the shape of a hairpin then pushed it thru to the back of the wreath and twisted it close . We trap the bow on but then settle to hot glue it also as well as all the other items . The berry were just pushed into the moss . Use your judgement as to how good impound any items you use .
It ’s not the same , by any substance , as the one I made with Randy ’s momma . It does however , remind us of her ! And it remind us of the Texas Hill Country where she had survive with its blank tail deer , Cardinalis cardinalis , alive oak tree and cedar trees , and BALL MOSS !
You may not have ball moss in your area . What do you have in your neck of the woods ? Traditional evergreen are fragrant and lovely ! Non - traditional evergreen are fun too ! A friend showed me a coronal today on which she had used yaupon holly that sported crimson berries , and mistletoe for the greenery . She had collected the grape vine herself to make the wreath base and then used number and piece as accents that she had collected in her travels . Maybe you have something that call in to bear in mind a time or friend or loved one from the past tense ? Or maybe you could use something that sparks joyfulness in a novel and different way ? Perhaps something that just tickles your funny ivory !
Like making another flower arrangement or garden , making another wreath can be special if you just let go ! Get creative and have enjoy !
Happy Gardening ,
Julie
