Do you have any houseplants? Then you will be interested in a way of planting plants without pots. This method came from the land of the rising sun. East-business, as you know, thin. And even Japan – all the mysterious and incomprehensible country.
But as attractive looks all Japanese! Ikebana and bonsai, a Japanese garden and … A lot more. Meet kokedama, which translates from Japanese as”moss ball”.
Where did kokedama come from
Well, it is clear that from Japan. In Japan itself, kokedama is a borderline phenomenon between the culture of bonsai, kusamono and wabikusa. A phenomenon that has become very popular in recent years. And if bonsai is an ancient respected art (it appeared in China in 200-ies BC), then kokedama appeared as a separate direction in phytodesign and floristry only some 15-18 years ago.
To understand what is common and different in the art of bonsai and other above-mentioned Japanese techniques of decoration of plants with a new direction kokedama, it is necessary to start, in fact, with the”moss ball”.
Moss ball
Kokedama is a ball of soil substrate wrapped in moss. In the soil inside the ball planted plant. The composition can be small and large, lying just on the shelf, on a special stand or a beautiful dish.
Kokedama can be hung on a string and make a hanging garden of moss balls with plants. What is common among kokedama with kusamono and varicose?
Bonsai for the poor
Bonsai art is a hobby of representatives of aristocratic layers of society. Tree growing in the bowl, a miniature but fully present – painstaking work. It takes more than one year. To get a plant in a moss ball is much faster and easier. So kokedama (as well as kusamono and varicose) called “bonsai for the poor.”
Kusamono was originally part of the bonsai. This microlandscape, which grows micro-tree. Because a real bonsai is not just a dwarf tree in a pot. This is a whole world, a corner of nature, artificially created and reduced. Then, kusamono of the minor background for the bonsai tree has become an independent direction.
The microlandscape of kusamono is made not of trees, like bonsai, but of small plants: grass, mosses and other things (“Kusa” – in Japanese “grass”). Varicose – kind kusamono. Only the composition is a micro-pond using water or plants growing near water bodies.
To fully understand the philosophy of fragile beauty, variability and volatility inherent in these forms of phytodesign, you need to be Japanese.
So kokedama, kusamono and varicose in our environment has gained a much more monumental forms. For example, the work of the Dutch designer Fyodor van der Valk.
It is worth trying yourself in this art. Especially because the plants in the moss ball can be planted completely any, the main thing-to choose the appropriate size of the ball. And place kokedama can (and should) not only in the interior, but also on the street.
Can you imagine a garden of salad greens swaying in a light breeze on the terrace in front of the summer kitchen? I think it’s just great! And what opportunities for planting seedlings! No need to worry about a bunch of jars and how to place them on a small windowsill. This is worth thinking about separately – because there are ways of growing seedlings in “diapers” and so on. Than the moss balls worse?
The advantage of moss is that it can absorb moisture twenty times its own weight, and then gradually give it to the roots of the plant. In my opinion, this is a great solution for owners of a small plot. And, perhaps, a way to get rid of many problems of gardeners – for example, from the ubiquitous weeds or slugs, because both are difficult to get to the Bush of strawberries suspended in a moss ball.
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