The mosses look fine. The potting is good. However, are you keeping these inside?

I would recommend that you repot the mosses the same way but into a pot that will fit into your display containers. Be sure the pots have drainage as you should keep these mosses outside and bring them in just to show or for a short period though best to keep them outside during the evening hours. Get some distilled or Reverse Osmosis water and a spray bottle and spray them outside heavily in the AM. The Polytrichums enjoy the sun and are adept at handling some drying out. The Leucobryum should be partially shaded and sprayed during the day as it prefers a more humid setting to grow to its best presentation. Because of the potting media you can easily use a small watering can and flood them weekly or more frequently to encourage anchorage of the plants. good luck.

Thanks for the tips. I have them on the windowsill. I guess, I could move them outdoors. Two of them do not have drainage so I will have to figure out another way to pot them up. How about winters, they will need to go indoors then?

If they were found growing outside, then they should be outside.

Trying to create houseplants out of plants that are hardy enough to grow outdoors in temperate climates is an exercise in futility. Indoor conditions simply do not offer what these plants need to thrive. They will struggle and decline.

As you know, hardiness in the ground doesn't translate to containers. I can only grow stuff in containers as I live in an apartment. I am going to give it a try. If it fails, I am sure mother nature would not be worse off for the little bits of moss I took from the mountains.

getgoing, I would not worry about where they came from. What matters is that the conditions that you have them growing under are close enough to their natural range of occurrence. The Polystichums are pretty versatile and durable and take some beat down in nature due to sporadic episodes of drought but they bounce back as weather proves more amendable.

Definitely hope to hear the progress of how they are doing. You may want to keep a photo-journal on their progress and keep records of both indoor temps and outdoor temps, sunlight conditions, winds, and humidity.

May they surprise you with happy growing!

Terrestrialman, they have turned out to be very well behaved windowsill plants. I kept them outdoors for some time but they were prone to drying in the wind (closing up) and flooding in the rain (did not get around to repotting in containers with drainage). So I brought them back to the north facing window sill (the window is open mostly). The one in the glass bowl tends to dry out and prefers a transparent lid on it, so do others from time to time. I have been using tap water spray occasionally and same for watering and they aren't complaining. I will post updated pictures. Looks like they are setting into good open/closed terranium life with ease.

Here they are

EPIC!! Look good. You remind me to take a gander at some Leucobryon I have in an enclosed grocery store plastic cake container. It has doing quite well but I have not looked at it for a few years now. it is outside in shade. I use R/O water. You must have well processed tap water. Thanks for sharing the comments and photos!!

Here is an old photo of the plant taken back in 2009

That is a beautiful picture, presumably you have some sophisticated high resolution camera. The tap water here has very little salt (going by lack of deposits in my electric kettle). I did use filtered water for a few days but then got lazy. I think getting a dunk in rains once in a while also keeps the salt issue away. I think the orange red coloration suggests that the polytrichum need more humidity. I might try putting them in jars as well. The leucobryum likes the jar closed I think but I alternate between closed and open to be safe. I read somewhere that mosses do not thrive in terraniums...

So your leucobryum is established in a closed terranium?

Spagnum can be ordered from various botanical supply and carnivorous plant vendors. It tends to come with CPs like venus fly traps, whether you want it or not ;)

I've never intentionally cultivated moss (as in planted), but often encourage it when it naturally occurs.

The coloration of the Polytrichum is probably tied to a combination of water and sunlight. Has to do with what spectrum of light is being absorbed as the plant experiences desiccation. Yeah when I first got the Leucobryon all I had to keep it in was the cake container and so I stuck it in there and it was somewhat moist at the time. And I never opened it for several years but when I did i found that there was also a leafy liverwort growing in the moss colony. I checked it out and resealed the container and stuck it back outside.

This is a photo taken in 2010.

And I just found a photo I took March 2018

And I left it unopened.

Wow, 10 + years.

I have had soem growing on the top of my of all things Jade plant containers. They come inside and dry out during winter if kept in a sunny window sill or dtay green all winter long on a very cool porch. I don't treat them special and the moss thrives undwer my care. Some even grow in my greenhouse never to see the outside or rain water. As for carnivorous plants, that is a whole different ball of wax. I LOVE moss on my containers and throughout the pond area, and in my greenhouse.

I love your idea of growing deep down in glass containers. I use up do that too.

I have grown some moss with Haworthia plants in glass jars by filling the bottom 1/3 with perlite. I rarely water them.

My first experiment has been doing well since the arrangement was made in the spring. The photo is another one which I made this week.

Charlie, that is pretty. What kind of moss is that?

Getgoing, thanks for liking it. It's Selaginella kraussiana , a.k.a. clubmoss.

Which technically isn't a moss, but very close to it and very pretty, most selaginellas are...and I've tried to grow some hardy ones without a whole lot of success.

So did I. I actually had some grow on my jades plant pots and saw some growing on pot at my local greenhouse. I loved it. So I have an obsession with moss and actually get many different kinds from the woods. I planted them in my yard, near my pond, and many in my pots. I love them all. I will take a few pics soon so you can see.

Charline , very creative mind. Love the moss display. Good job

Dbarron, yes, I was once told it was a fern. Mine is probably not hardy.

Charline, very nice job and it looks so healthy)

Thanks for the compliments!

The arrangement below was made in the spring. Because it has been doing well, I made another one a few days ago, which was shown in my previous post. :)