I like Christmas decorations and have collected a whole lot of them over time! You most likely have too! Adorning for Christmas is a stunning solution to improve your enjoyment of the season, in addition to to welcome friends to your own home! The way in which evergreen garlands and evergreen wreaths make our properties look, communicate of custom and romance! However different supplies -from pink tinsel to feathers- inform completely different tales! A particular wreath begins the “Welcome” proper on the from door! For one thing somewhat completely different this 12 months, why not make a Christmas wreath utilizing ball moss!
Randy and I bought married in 1978! Sure…virtually 50 years in the past! That 12 months his mother made a stupendous Christmas wreath! Fortunately for me, since I admired it a lot, she recommended that we make one other!
It was stunning wreath and we used it for many years! Our home had a entrance porch, and throughout the vacation season the wreath hung outdoors on our entrance door the place it was protected. Within the low season, it was saved, hanging on a garments hanger and coated with a rubbish bag after which hung within the storage. It held up very effectively.
When it will definitely began to look ratty, and since I had SO many different issues, (I assumed I’d by no means miss it), I discarded it. Nonetheless, this 12 months as I made decorations with our grandson, I began reminiscing about that wreath and Randy’s mother. I made a decision to attempt to make one other wreath just like the one she and I had made collectively.
Ball Moss
What’s it?
Ball moss is a small grey plant that may be discovered rising on stay oaks and different timber. It’s carefully associated to Spanish moss, that trailing magnificence discovered within the southeast. The scientific title of ball moss is Tillandsia recurvata. Though it’s referred to as “ball moss,” it isn’t a moss in any respect, however an air plant or “epiphyte” within the bromeliad household. Different epiphytes embrace some bromeliads, orchids, and ferns.
Not like mistletoe, which is a parasite, ball moss takes no vitamins from the tree on which it grows. Once you do see it on branches that look sick, it’s as a result of the inside branches of the tree are themselves affected by a scarcity of daylight, in order that they die. As a result of ball moss likes low depth gentle and humid circumstances, the inside of timber, particularly stay oaks, is the popular atmosphere for these fascinating little crops. In case you want proof that ball moss isn’t a parasite, you may also discover it rising on phone and fence strains! Loopy!
One other shock is that ball moss additionally blooms! Think about my puzzlement once I noticed “cotton” on my ball moss in the future! After I pulled a bit off, it jogged my memory of milkweed or dandelion fluff.
Ball Moss Bloom
The place to Discover it
In our quest to make a ball moss wreath, we wanted ball moss! It’s all over the place, proper? Nope! I immediately realized I had at all times taken it with no consideration. It was all over the place we grew up! Truthfully, I simply remembered it being in or beneath stay oak timber, which isn’t the commonest tree the place we at the moment are! So, I seemed on the web to see if it’s bought on-line. It’s: one vendor wished $6 for one plant! 😳
I contacted a good friend in our Grasp Naturalists group who has been in space for much longer than we now have. He recommended that we go to a neighborhood metropolis park the place he had seen some. Certain sufficient, we discovered some simply the place he had stated: on some sickly-looking crape myrtles: the moss didn’t look too good both. (After some consideration and analysis, I believe it’s as a result of these crape myrtles are in an excessive amount of shade, having been overshadowed by a ‘bigger tree. It has additionally been very dry right here for some time.)
Not the ball moss of my recollections, in any respect, but it surely’s what we discovered! We gathered it up and introduced it residence. After we bought the moss residence, we put it within the freezer for just a few of hours to kill off any undesirable bugs. (We now have a spare, not often used freezer.)
I’ve to let you know that within the course of of constructing this wreath, I ran right into a brick wall. I began this challenge after a bout of nostalgia. I noticed I used to be making an attempt to RECREATE the wreath I had made with my mother-in-law and that I had had for thus a few years! I couldn’t discover the identical form of decorations we had used earlier than: the substitute cardinals had been the unsuitable dimension; the place are the pine cone flowers and fascinating dried pure decorations we might simply discover on the craft shops so a few years in the past? Even the moss didn’t look the identical! Sigh!
What I wanted was to make use of my very own creativeness, as an alternative of remaking what she and I had made so a few years in the past: and what SHE had used HER creativeness to do! (In equity to us, SHE was an artist!) I wanted to CREATE. We determined to flock the wreath for a snowy look. (And since the ball moss wasn’t as pale a grey as I remembered my outdated one was.)
The Course of
Supplies Wanted
- Sizzling Glue Gun and scorching glue
- Small wire
- Wire Cutters
- Ball Moss or different base masking you want to use
- Decorations of your alternative, cardinals, pine cones, deer antlers, and many others.
- Wire Coat hanger
- Flocking in case you select (we discovered some at an enormous field lumber retailer)
- Plastic picnic desk material to comprise the mess!(you may simply shake it out outdoors when executed)
Decide a big work house. We began outdoors, however ended up ending inside (it rained). Inside, we coated a desk with a plastic cowl. Working methodically, Randy and our grandson (who’s 9) completed scorching gluing the moss to a grapevine kind. Let your creativity information you as to the look and use loads of scorching glue in order that the moss might be hooked up securely.
Subsequent, we hooked up a garments hanger to the wreath, hung it in a tree and sprayed flocking on it. We went again and sprayed extra later, however took it contained in the barn because it had change into very windy. After the flocking dried, we changed the hanger with some wire to hold it for show. Make sure you have a look at the entrance of the wreath to orient the place you need the highest to be.
In my quest to seek out the identical form of cardinals and different issues I used to have (which I didn’t discover), I collected a whole lot of completely different sorts of ribbon and numerous Christmas ornaments and greenery to attempt to discover one thing which may fulfill my emotions of nostalgia. After a number of tries, I come across a glance we appreciated for THIS wreath. The decorations had been hooked up utilizing numerous strategies. For the antlers, we used wire bent into the form of a hairpin then pushed it via to the again of the wreath and twisted it tight. We pinned the bow on however then determined to scorching glue it additionally in addition to all the opposite gadgets. The berries had been simply pushed into the moss. Use your judgement as to how greatest connect any gadgets you utilize.
It’s not the identical, by any means, because the one I made with Randy’s mother. It does nonetheless, remind us of her! And it reminds us of the Texas Hill Nation the place she had lived with its white tail deer, cardinals, stay oaks and cedar timber, and BALL MOSS!
You might not have ball moss in your space. What do you will have in your neck of the woods? Conventional evergreens are aromatic and wonderful! Non-traditional evergreens are enjoyable too! A good friend confirmed me a wreath right now on which she had used yaupon holly that sported pink berries, and mistletoe for the greenery. She had collected the grapevine herself to make the wreath base after which used bits and items as accents that she had collected in her travels. Possibly you will have one thing that calls to thoughts a time or good friend or cherished one from the previous? Or possibly you may use one thing that sparks pleasure in a brand new and completely different manner? Maybe one thing that simply tickles your humorous bone!
Like making one other flower association or backyard, making one other wreath will be particular in case you simply let go! Get inventive and have take pleasure in!
Glad Gardening,
Julie