A very nice DG'er sent me a whole bunch of ball moss (tillandsia). I wanted them to put in a wire wreath form I had. I had purchased one small tillandsia ball (which is blooming now) and thought a wreath would be way cool. The smaller ones kinda fall out when I spray it with water, but I'm sure they will grow and fill in the form if I keep sticking them back in again. LOL Here are a couple photos..........the DG member suggested I post them here.
First, the wreath.
Here is the tillandsia that I purchased that is blooming. It is about the size of a tennis ball.
That will be beautiful! Can you grow it in full sun?
Have no clue..........but since they grown "on" trees.................I'm going to try and keep mine hung in a tree.
Now that is creative! Thanks for sharing.
Anna: Great job on your wreath! I agree with rjuddharrison, very creative! The "Ball Moss" (Tillandsia recurvata) is really common here in the south, as is the "Spanish Moss" (Tillandsia usneoides) that dangles and hangs from the oak trees. I'm glad you could find a use for the stuff. ^_^
Oh, and your Tillandsia that is blooming is really gorgeous ... love the colors!
plantladylin, I'm thinking you maybe need to send me some more as my mom found the ball hanger that I wanted to use originally. (she thought she got rid of it at a rummage sale...........she found it a couple days ago). LOL
OMG!...................Be careful with that ball moss. It's sucking the life out of my crepe myrtyle and pine trees. It even jumped over into the pecans. One pine tree died already and the crepe myrtyle got sick as anything I HAVE EVER SEEN.
WHY???
Because although the ball moss does not actually KILL trees, it CAN become so aggressive and so thick that the braches begin to die because the branches are not getting nutrients. That is what is going on here. It started in ONE tree. I now have it in about 10 trees and can't get rid of it.
If I were you I would toss that wreath in the trash immediately. That stuff spreads like A wildfire and that is putting it mildly!
Lily, sorry, I must disagree. The ball moss and Spanish moss are epiphytes. They do not cause trees to decline. Declining trees attract it because of the already thin leaf canopy. Witness all the lovely oak trees, hundreds of years old and festooned with Spanish moss all throughout the South. They are perfectly healthy and living in harmony with the mosses on them. They occur there naturally and have done for centuries before we all lived here.
You should look for some other cause for the decline of your trees. You have serious heat and drought conditions in Texas at the moment - have you given these trees some extra deep watering this summer? Sometimes there is damage that you don't notice, such as somebody parking their car on the grass under a tree. This can seriously damage the root systems of small trees like crepe myrtle by compacting the soil and breaking roots close to the surface.
Branches do not need nutrients. Leaves and roots of your trees absorb nutrients. If you can possibly fertilize or water your trees, or cover the root areas out past the drip line with mulch, this may keep moisture in the soil and insulate the roots from the heat a bit. It should stimulate more leaf/root growth. Once the canopy recovers the ball moss will fall off and grow elsewhere.
Then I suppose we shall agree to disagree.
I had only one tree infected badly when I bought my home. My trees are ALL tall and mature. Healthy , Healthy, Healthy UNTIL my Other trees became INFESTED with this rapid spreading pest. IT has now taken over the neighborhood. BADLY. It is covering everything in sight... Oaks, pecans, crepe myrtyles, You name it, it has it. And yes I have researched it. Quite a bit actually.
Yes SOME articles say what you do, Others ALSO say that if the infestations are extreme, LIKE here it CAN cause serious damage to trees. Especially during growing season. It cuts of oxygen to newly forming buds and small branches.
Ball moss has been know to cause some minor physical damage to its host (trees). If allowed to grow unchecked for a long period of time, ball moss can grow so thick that it inhibits leaf production. Basically ball moss blocks leaves from forming, so the tree then has a limited amount of foliage that it is relying on, which in turn means less food for the tree.
Yes most articles say it's harmless. However, I won't be convinced. My trees were gorgeous until this pest took over. AND now most are dying a slow death.
So... as I said. I suppose we agree to disagree.
By the way.... my crepe myrtle were over 25 feet tall and Glorious. The moss got so bad they had to be cut back. One of the pines out front also over 25 feet is completely dead. The other pine tree... same size that had NO MOSS..... just lovely, until the moss jumped on it also. That tree is also now dying. SO..... Perfectly healthy well taken care of trees................Then that awful pest ball moss comes along and THEN my trees decline?
I am more than aware of our drought. This all started wayyyyy BEFORE THE DROUGHT.
Happy Gardening!
This message was edited Jul 4, 2011 9:53 PM
Unless ball moss can survive 20 below zero winter temps, I don't think I have to worry about it. I won't put it in a tree anyway, just in my wreath.
Anna......Your probably correct about that! If you ever want more look me up. I have them by the truckload.... LOL
And I would be MORE than Happy to share :))))
I'll take some! The only place I can find it here has it priced outrageously. I'll D-mail you.
Oh, I hear you on the outrageous pricing. $20.00 for a small hunk.........a nice big glob of it, like we'd REALLY like to buy is over $30.00 around here at garden centers/greenhouses.
it doesn't kill the host. I use it as a potting medium for alot of my orchids and have never had one die on me. It gets its nutrients from the air not the host plant. Ive got a clump hanging on a wire spike ready for me to use when potting orchids.It gets little green flowers on it that look so cute.
I'd say your trees died of something else rather than the moss.
This message was edited Jul 5, 2011 11:21 PM
Im not really sure what your talking about.
Anna's moss is in a ring not on a tree. Has it flowered yet Anna? You could poke some other tillis into the ring for a brighter effect.
No, the stuff in the ring hasn't flowered.........but the ball I got from Logee's did when it was in the g'house. Little purple flowers.
