Houseplants on Beds of Moss

For the New Year we were up in the Northeast, visiting relatives of Mr. Red House.  My mother-in-law is a gardener and has a beautiful collection of houseplants.  I love seeing them, especially since I don't currently have any houseplants, mainly due to a cat who can't resist munching on anything even remotely green.  (You should see the begging that goes on in my house whenever I eat a salad.)

I love my mother-in-law's exquisite collection of containers.  She keeps an extensive container garden outside during the summer months, but then brings many of them in for the winter.  Looking a little closer, the plants are made even more beautiful by her overwintering habit of covering the soil with soft pieces of woodland moss.

She does this as a mulch to keep moisture in and prevent the plants from drying out too quickly. 

(Thus one would not want to do this with succulents and other arid plants.)

The moss even kept enough moisture in for some seedlings to grow, such as these impatiens that grew up out of the moss.

I just love the beds of moss because they look beautiful.

Even a dead plant looks pretty good when it's nestled in moss in a beautiful container!

Honestly, just a container of moss looks good. 

Cup o' Moss

Can you tell I love moss?  If I ever get a houseplant again, I'll have to plant a bed of moss at the base.

Do you think my plant-munching cat would try to get into a terrarium?