Photo: Star and Europa

A beautiful branch, a mini poinsettia, some soil and moss

If you have practice with clay, spruce and candles, then you can move on to a slightly larger project. Kokedama is a Japanese invention and actually means a moss ball. It is a technique of the art of bonsai which is also very popular in Japan.

A kokedama is a plant that is taken out of its pot and put into a ball of soil and then covered with moss.

You can easily make a kokedama with mini poinsettias. Take them out of the pot. Moisten some sphagnum or garden soil with a little clay in it and tug it around the clod of roots and the leftover soil. Shape it like a ball. Put moss around the clod. Secure the moss with steel wire hoops or maybe even better; take a string of a natural material, like green wool, and wrap it around the ball, but not so much that you can’t see the moss. Tighten a little, but not too much. Use the end of the string to tie your kokedama to what you want to tie it to.

You irrigate by taking the ball down and dipping it in a bowl of water. Let it soak a little before hanging it up again.