I replace moss yearly. The old moss is grungy looking and putting the plants in fresh, new moss makes me feel good. I really have no idea if it makes the plants feel good. I have missed plants who have gone 2 years plus without moss change and they seemed to be doing just fine. Obviously it does no harm other than to my pocketbook. Joe Parker, head of the Pleurothallis Alliance and one of the best Dracula growers I know, changes moss every 5 years whether needed or not. He states that by then there is no moss left and the entire space below the plant is occupied with dead and live roots. His plants look just great. John Leathers, owner of Hawk Hills, the optimum Dracula place in the US, keeps them in fresh moss. I have a couple of very large plants with 200 plus leaves. Dracula felix and D mopsus which I plan to experiment with. I will make 2 equal divisions of say 20 leaves each and place them in identical baskets with fresh moss. One will get yearly moss changes the other will not. Check with me in 5 years for results. Have to make sure to keep my cholesterol and BP down! The only problem with that experiment is that the 2 chosen plants are indestructible bulldogs which will grow in absolutely anything. Some one said that these two get no respect as they are impossible to kill. I don't have overgrown D vampira, D gorgona etc nor would I break them up if I did. The experiment, luckily, is not about survival but rather will determine rate and quality of growth so may still yield valid information. One thing I noticed when changing moss is that the old moss is really wet compare to normal (not new which is dry) 1/2 year old moss. Old deteriorating moss seems to retain more water. Dracula, Masdevallias, Pleurothallis and Bulbophyllums are all water loving plants which are hard to overwater. Everything said above applies mostly to these types of plants. I believe different rules apply to other plants grown in moss, eg Phaelies, Cats etc. These plants don't like to be drowned and need to be handled differently. I do have a couple of super large Bulbophyllums but am reluctant to break them up as they make such a nice display when they bloom. I have a couple of duplicates, B fascinator to be exact, should try the same experiment with them. Another observation along these lines is that mounted plants, which begin life in a ball of moss squashed against a piece of wood, also seem to do fine without ever having their moss changed. When the ball of moss is small, I may add additional moss but when it is substantial, I just leave them alone. This observation applies to the leafy plants and not the likes of Cattleya which don't need any moss at all being true epiphytes. Nick

I planted 50 leyland's 3 years ago. They were in the 5 gallon buckets, about a foot tall each. Now they are 12 to 14 feet tall. Not one has died, gotten cancer or been toppled. I live in Northwest Georgia. These trees have seen the most extreme weather our area has seen in years. Let me give some unsolicited advice, with all due respect. 1. Whether they are green giant or leyland or arbovitae of any kind: Make sure you know your soil, make sure you know your frost level, and make sure you PLANT AND WATER AND FERTILIZE them appropriately. If you don't have time to manage them, then don't plant them. 2. Plant them far away from structures you don't want them to grow into. i.e: fences, buildings, septic tanks, neighbors who hate their shade etc. 3. plant them double their pot width, ONLY to the top of the pot you bought them with and with 1/2 native soil and the other half conducive to your local weather and environment. Be prepared to tie them off with rope that have maybe some cut pieces of garden hose around the rope to keep them from choking and which will help keep them level in high wind times if you are in a high wind area. 4. Applying water and appropriate nutrients is huge, but easy. GG's and Leyland demand alot of water if on a slope with hard clay or dense soil. Down south if you are in red clay, then water them morning and night for the first month or two. If you are up north or in moist soil, once a week watering with any spronkler system is going to be ok, just dont overwater at night, stick to early mornings. I applied 10/10/10 in a circle about 1 foot out from the tree bole in early spring, and then again early summer, because my red clay is very acidic, hence the 10/10/10. Nice basic nutrients. 5. Don't flip out about the cancer issues that you might tend to google; you are planting a long term resource for shade and beauty and perhaps privacy, so pay attention to your trees....daily. If the branches are browning on the outside but green on the inside, that ok, it's just growth. If you see a ring around the trunk, then do some research, I won't go into detail here. Just watch your trees, and remember, if you are planting in a row or around fences/property, your soil may be very different from one side to the other. The pic below is a recent one of my Leyland's after 3 years. They started out at about a foot. This is in PACKED Georgia red clay with lots of rocks. You may experience some growtg difference, but if they look healthy, they are healthy. I must say: Your initial soil preparation is huge. Plant them well. The GG's and Leyland's have a tap root that if given proper care, will grow deep and delve for nutrients. Out of 50 planted not one has died or had a problem. I am not a tree doctor nor do I play one on TV. I am...a lover of oxygen.

If your pavers are in full sun, you need to find moss that will grow in sunny dry conditions. If you notice city sidewalks where the sun beats down everyday you will often see moss growing in the cracks. That is the kind you want. I don't know if anybody sells that kind, you might have to find some in an area that you can get permission to dig. You can also take slices of the the moss you already have and move them to areas you want it to grow. Just remove all rocks and debris and press it firmly to firm, bare soil and mist occasionally until it begins to spread. Full sun moss spreads slowly, so have patience! It is correct that Roundup will kill weeds in moss, just be careful to get Roundup that is not enhanced with additives because that WILL kill moss. You need plain glyphosate. Other weed killers will usually damage or kill moss. I know this from experience, having used Spectracide on a small area of my moss lawn as an experiment. It never did recover and I had to transplant moss from another area to fill in. Nashonii, Don't be mislead that moss needs a lot of water. Native mosses only get watered when it rains, and they can be lush and beautiful. You can kill them with too much water. If your native moss lawn or area is getting too dry, it will just go dormant, or you can mist it once a week or so. I see you are in the Ozarks like me, and our native mosses don't need a lot of moisture. They have been growing like crazy with all the rain we've had lately, but they will do fine in the summer without it. Just look around in the woods, parks, everywhere it grows wild and you will see how well it does. If you have moss but want more, you can take small pieces or divots and transplant them where you want them to spread (kind of like a hair transplant, haha). It fills in quickly. Or you can put bits of moss in a blender with some buttermilk or beer (not light) and spread it around where you want it, on rocks or bare soil. It's a little slower that way than direct transplanting but it does work. The key to getting most wild mosses started is bare, firm soil. If you mulch paths or areas where you want it to grow, it won't. It also won't get started on disburbed soil. The spores need a firm soil to grown on. And they don't need fertilized. Lime will kill most of them as they like acid soil, so if you lime your lawn, your moss will go away. John P just keep killing the grass out or pulling it, and the moss will spread on its own. I have had a moss lawn for about 25 years now, and I love it! There is no disadvantage to moss everywhere, in fact it makes a great ground cover under shady plants as it conserves moisture and shades the soil. If you look at pictures of Japanese gardens, you will see that there is little soil exposed, it is usually completely covered with lush mosses. Sometimes if I want more moss, I go to a local greenhouse/nursery where it grows like crazy and becomes a nuisance, and they scrape it off every spring. They are glad for me to scoop some of it up. I also try to rescue it from areas slated to be bulldozed for new buildings.

I have successfully grown moss by 'blending' with a hand blender in rain water (not so with yoghurt/buttermilk - too alkali) Moss will grow from a leaf fragment in ideal conditions so cutting it with a blender will help to distribute the fragments and cover a larger area. Moss only grows when wet, so it will grow faster if you keep it from drying up. Use your sprayer with rain water (more acidic than tap water - moss likes slightly acidic conditions) but any water will help.