For some reason, I couldn't get the image to post in my first reply, then, all the text that went with the last image was deleted. Weird.

I
added a started cutting of a bittersweet vine to the hollow about a
month ago. As of 4pm today, it looks like the image in the reply above. The fleshy plants around the pot rim are liverwort.

Al

Hey Al, those are 'purty'!

Cool pics Al. I need to something like that.

As far as I can tell moss does not like a substrate that moves around - in other words likes to be on a solid substrate. Be it a rock, log, board or even terracotta. Hey broken clay pots should be good I think. And something that does not stay wet too long. I have planted moss on tamped lump of garden variety clay and it does quite well. From what I have read it is also not too fond of alkaline conditions. I try to use rain water with a tiny bit of foliage pro for my moss tray.

As a side story: Last year I had to take my car to the shop and had to wait. I was bored and walking around the dealership and noticed a sizeable swath of moss on the blacktop parking lot in a corner. After asking for permission I harvested a large portion of it. Needless to say other waiting customers were quite amused and helped me bagging them too.

Thanks everyone. Im planting moss for terrarium and moss garden.

Terrariums (seem to me) much harder to get a good moss growth. It seems to me that mosses do better open air (oddly).

tapla. Yours are very inspiring, do you think feather mosses like charcoal? Wondering if i could add some star moss on it too.

I'm not a moss expert by any measure, so I'm a little outside of my comfort zone when it comes to giving advise. Wood ash has an extremely high pH, which we know moss doesn't like, and hardwood charcoal is about 5-10% wood ash. I don't know it to be true, but I suspect there might be some issues re pH. Perhaps that could be dealt with by avoiding regular tapwater (contains carbonates) and adding an acid (white vinegar) to the water you choose to spritz the moss with.

As I think back on my little 'for fun project' shown above, I realize that I had cut down a pear tree, cut the branches into pieces, and burned the the pieces in a fire that surrounded the pear stump. What you see in the image was the fraction of the stump that didn't get burned. I thought it might look good as part of my moss project, so I painted it with buttermilk, spritzed regularly, and waited. It's only just now that I'm realizing the stump took much longer to become covered with moss than the featherstone. It seems to me that pH might have been a good part of that, but it also might be that the stones retained more moisture than the woody stump.

I don't think you actually need charcoal as a substrate. What I think would look nice is driftwood if you have a source, or other naturally aged wood. You could even use a saber saw to make a 2x6 or 2x8 into an irregular shape and use that. You could nail several pieces of wood together, knock off the corners with a saw, and grow on that, too. Or some sort of porous rock would work. For the most part, I see arboreal/feather mosses growing in situ on dead wood or on very thin soil layers that rest on top of bedrock or rock outcrops in high humidity shady spots.

If you find a source of info you feel is credible/reliable, I suggest you trust that source more than what I just offered. I would hate to lead you astray and have you waste time because something I said was inaccurate.

You might get some help if you click me!

Al