Mossarium Ingredients

Mossariums are simple, low maintenance and fun. They're durable and will last a long time. You can get moss from your backyard, from your favorite trips, or delivered in the mail. Here's all you need.

  • Jar
  • Rocks
  • Spanish Moss (dried moss you can get at craft stores)
  • Moss
  • Water

all the parts of a moss kit laid out

Simple Instructions

Mossariums need very little water and very little sunlight to be happy. Here are steps for assembling a basic mossarium.

  1. Start with a clean jar and line the bottom with small rocks.
  2. Put a layer of Spanish moss on top of the rocks
  3. Fill the jar with water to the top of the Spanish moss
  4. Layer the moss on top of the Spanish moss
  5. Close the jar
  6. Leave it alone and out of direct sunlight!
That's really it. Check the water level every few weeks and add a tablespoon or two of water if it's getting low. If the jar is closed your mossarium will stay humid and moist. Here's an example mossarium showing the layers.

a single mossarium in a square jar showing all the layers when seen from the side

Common Mistakes

All of these mossariums started out great and wound up having some avoidable problems.

Overgrown

This mossarium was doing so well I forgot about it and it eventually outgrew its jar and started to die. Check in on your mossarium to see if it needs a haircut or a re-jarring.

Too much air

It's tempting to make open air moss gardens but unless you live in a really moist and humid environment, your moss will dry out and die. This mossarium has a second failure point which is other organic material that will rot.

Rotting organic material

This turkey tail fungus looked great, but after it had been jarred up for a while it started to decompose. No big deal except it created gasses that stank and which made the mossarium *pop* when I opened it. Probably not safe. Experiment with adding other things to your mossarium, but be mindful of ventilation and the general cycle of life.

Further reading

Further Reading If you want to get technical, start by looking up bryology. There are many bryological societies and many have interesting journals or other publications that go back over a century. A few notable specimens.

If you're just curious about moss terrarium gardening, there are a lot of places to go for more information including Moss is a great low-key way to keep some green in your house year round even if you do not have much of a green thumb.

a single mossarium in a square jar showing all the layers when seen from the side

A few mossariums I like