Mounted Staghorn Fern
After seeing many a mounted staghorn fern at Longwood Gardens back on Mothers Day I finally got around to making my own. The following steps will help you to Make your own too! If you want more ideas on how to bring the outside inside you should read my previous post about using greenery in the home. I’m a huge fan of house plants!
What you will need:
Plate
Pencil
Thin wire
Hard wood cut off (I got this oak cut off free from Home Depot, check out their scrap wood area)
Wax varnish and brush
Hanging hardware
Screws
Drill
Plant of choice, I used a Staghorn fern, but an orchid would work, or any other plant that doesn’t require soil to grow. I got mine from Lowes for $10.
First steps:
If your wood needs a sand, I would do this now and then you want to seal the wood, this just prevents rot, I wanted my wood to look untreated, so I used this clear Matt wax varnish.
Once dry, take your plate and draw a circle on your wood. This helps with screw and plant placement later on.
Then you want to turn over your wood and put your hanging hardware on. I used two d rings and screws with some wire. You can see why I made this the back. The lovely man gave me the scrap piece of wood for free, so I can’t complain that he scrawled all over it. I attached my hanging hardware like this:
Mounting the staghorn fern
Here is the fun part! In the circle you’ve drawn, drill in some screws around the edge of the circle. Some of my screws sheared off, and I had to drill more. This picture gives you an idea.
Next up in the circle, place a small pile of potting soil. Then you want to take your fern and loosen up the root ball gently. Staghorn ferns actually don’t need soil to survive but this potting mix will help retain the moisture. This means if you lose some soil while loosening the root ball, it won’t matter a bit.
Pop the stag horn on top of the pile of soil. Next up is the sheet moss, get it wet and squeeze out excess moisture, and apply to the root ball, covering any soil.
Perfect!
Now all there is to do is to secure the moss and plant to the board. I used a very fine wire for this, but string would work just as well. Use the pre drilled screws to attach the wire, carefully avoiding leaves secure the plant ball with the wire. Go back and forth inbetween and all around the plant in different directions using the screw heads to secure.
Add just a little more sheet moss over the screws to hide them if needed. Here you can just see the wire going back and forth over the ball. Once on the wall the wire is barely visible.
And then once it’s all secure you should brush off an excess moss. You should be able to hold the wood without anything slipping off.
Ta dah! Your Mounted Staghorn Fern is complete.
Now all you need to do, is find a wall with indirect light. Water the staghorn fern once a week, by submerging the entire board or giving it a shower. Let the board dry out completely before hanging it up again.
I love it! What do you think? Super simple, saves you a fortune and looks incredible.
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