If you're snickering right now, get your mind out of the gutter. If not, good for you. Mounting a staghorn fern is good, clean fun. I recently bought a young staghorn fern and after studying some mounting techniques on the Net, decided to give it a try. These hanging ferns can get huge so a reasonably strong mount is definitely needed. I bought a wood frame mount on ebay and painted it black (to match my wardrobe, of course).
Here's the main ingredients in today's project: Staghorn fern, mount, moss,
fishing line and, unseen here, 8 screws.
I soaked the moss, which is basically going to be the only 'soil' used on the mount. It absorbs
water like a sponge and stays packed so it's an ideal medium for staghorn ferns.
I attached 6 screws to the mount. These will help secure the fern.
The excess soil gets removed since it won't be needed. The moss is a much better medium.
A healthy portion of moss is placed on the mount with an indentation created in the middle
where the fern goes and the moss gets wrapped around the base of the fern.
Here's the clever part. In order to not disrupt the delicate young fern, fishing line is strung from screw to screw, overlapping the moss and the edges of the fern, holding it firmly in place.
Et voila, a happy staghorn fern on it's new home! I picked a semi-shaded spot for it
that hopefully won't get too much sun.
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