Staghorn Fern Mounting: Perfect Project for my Fellow Crazy Plant Ladies

So I’ve basically been obsessed with visiting garden centers on the weekend. When I go to the local places near me they say “Hey! We have some new cactuses”. SMH, I’m known as the cactus girl. Anyway, it’s been inspiring me to get acquainted with different types of plants. If you’re a crazy plant lady you probably already know what Staghorn ferns are. You’ve also probably seen them mounted. Please know I did NOT come up with this idea. However, Mike and I attempted it and they look pretty good in my opinion for a first try. I first saw these hung in a little cafe in Shrewsbury, NJ called D’Jeet. I saw them again in Megan’s (@undecorated_home) beautiful home. I have always thought they were so beautiful but just didn’t know where to find them or the best way to go about it.

We recently started redoing our “dog room”, the den style room right off of our living room which used to be our garage. Mike built his his baby a.k.a his saltwater fish tank into the wall in there so we needed something to hang above it. I didn’t really want to hang pictures above it because I didn’t have the perfect ones and hunting down perfect wall decor can be a pain. When I showed Mike the Staghorn idea he loved it so that brings us to finding the ferns and mounting them ourselves.

We went back and forth with the idea of ordering them online from Amazon BUT they end up being a little more expensive with shipping than doing it yourself. We called our local garden center for 2 weeks waiting for staghorns to come in. This past weekend they finally came in so we rushed over there. The staghorns were $17, which I thought was a little pricey but I checked with my cousin Casey (@caseygodlove) who does florals in NYC and he said that’s pretty average. ($12-$20)

So we picked up our three staghorns and some moss and headed to Home Depot for the wood and some other little things.

 

Supplies.

1. Obviously the ferns
2. Moss (brown and green) . We used the one above in the photo from the garden center and also Sphagnum Moss from Home Depot
3. Plant twist or wire (found in garden section of Home Depot)
4. Stain
5. Wood (we used pine)
6. Hooks / nails to hang
7. Screws

You can use whichever type of wood you like. A friend of mine, Sara (@sadies_lovely_life) did the same project that day (we’re crazy plant lady twins) and she used a more rustic wood that she found. It’s really up to you. You can also cut and shape the wood or add a little burlap/cloth pocket. Check Pinterest for some inspo.

Steps.

1. Before you get started, soak your under moss in water.
2. Sketch out dimensions and cut your wood
3. Stain the wood
4. Use a pencil to draw to area you want your fern to sit on your wood. Then you can add screws to both sides of the area, you will use these to wrap the wire around to secure the fern and moss.
5. Add hook to backs
6. Start making a little nest with the brown moss. Make sure you ring out the moss pretty good before placing on wood
7. Break the dirt away from the roots of the fern. I read online that you can even rinse under water. I personally didn’t.
8. Place the fern in your little moss nest
9. Start placing green top moss on top of your ferns roots / dirt.
   TIP: make sure you are placing the fern in the right spot. If you want it to face up or down make sure you know which way you are placing it before you tie it down.
10. Start securing it with the wire of your choice. We took the wire across the top of the fern and around the center and bottom of moss.

 

I hope you found this little how-to valuable. If you have any questions please comment here or on my most recent Instagram photo.

xx.Cara