How To Create An Elkhorn Fern Ball

This is our take on a classic Australian hanging potted plant. Our concept was to create a spectacular ball of Elkhorn ferns as feature hanging plants in the centre of our outdoor space - think disco ball, but greener!

To house the plants, we used 2 half-sphere wire baskets that come with coir liners, zip ties to hold them together and a decent size chain and hooks to secure the ball in place once finished.

The plants were purchased from a local plant store, before planting we mixed up a 50-50 ratio of Osmacote native potting mix and wet sphagnum moss, with Osmacote Native fertiliser thrown in.

The first step was to decide how many plants for the ball and cut the coir liner and wire basket where the plants needed to come through. We used sturdy kitchen scissors for the coir and a small Dremmel grinder to cut for the basket.

After the modifications, we set the two baskets onto small buckets and began carefully poking our plants through the holes, immediately adding wet sphagnum moss around the plants to fill any gaps. Then we backfilled the basket with our soil/moss mix.

To join the baskets together, we placed a sheet of timber (any ply or MDF will do) on the open side of one of the baskets, carefully held it all together, flipped it upside down and placed it onto the other ball. With the timber in between the two halves, we then slid timber out and secured the baskets together with several zip ties. At this point we stuffed a little extra soil into the baskets via a hole we made in the top and around the plants to make sure there was enough inside.

The last steps were to hang the ball and water in the plants to ensure they got a good drink in their new surroundings.

Above: Our growing Elkhorn fern collection

If you love the look of a feature Elkhorn ball for your outdoor area, follow our DIY steps or ask us to create one for you.