Globes of creativity transport Fedor van der Valk into another world.
Living spheres, all floating artistically in space, some painted with vivid color. It’s a mixed bag. Poppies. Orchids. Hydrangeas. Kaufmanniana tulips. Rosemary. Orange trees. Apple blossoms. The one thing missing: pots.
What all have in common is that they grow out of balls studded in moss, crocheted with string and hanging from the ceiling, often staggered at different heights, on a pulley system.
It’s a changing laboratory, van der Valk’s greenhouse in Amsterdam. He is a magic man with magic hands. A master of his own universe — of string gardening. So beautiful. Enchanting. Surreal.
There’s a name for what van der Valk does: kokedama, literally moss balls.
When his creations hit the blogosphere a few years back, there was a comment that his work channeled this Japanese art form.
He actually was kind of crushed. “You can imagine my disappointment,” he says.
Described in myriad posts as a botanist, he’s not, by training, and is the first to admit how much he doesn’t know. “I am less than an amateur. To be honest, I don’t know a lot of plant names, and I can’t find the patience to acquire the knowledge I wish to have, but I share the same deep passion for plants as trained professionals.”
And his artistry comes by instinct, along with a fertile imagination.
“Plants trigger my imagination in a way that I forget everything around me,” he says. “(I am) mesmerized.”
He has loved dabbling in the dirt ever since he can remember. “As a child, I was at times too timid to really explore. But when I did, I played with mud and made dikes. I was and am just fascinated by how water runs and mixes soil and other materials. I always had seeds I tried to germinate.”
It all clicked during a 10-year stint with Frank Visser, a brilliant designer and stylist. Visser’s Amsterdam studio, IJM, does creative design work for international clients, including fashion shows and magazines such as Elle and Vogue Living.
From cleaning studios to building websites and managing digital archives, van der Valk graduated to helping build sets for photo shoots, fair stands and interiors for stores the firm designed. “Around five or six years ago, we were making a lot of short stop-motion animations. I experimented with plaster marionettes I made myself from a plaster/moss molds.”
The idea was to create crocheted landscapes of 3-D spider webs woven in moss and grass. To keep them really airy the designer thought of hanging plants. The puppets morphed into moss balls, and van der Valk found his bliss.
“Taking care of plants connects me with reality. I have created a small, small world for myself, which keeps me triggered (focused) and challenged. Maybe hanging plants at eye level, swinging back and forth has a hypnotic effect.”
Some describe string gardens as a kind of mashup of terrariums (exploding beyond containment), hipper than hippie macrame holders from the 1970s and the carefully trained miniatures of bonsai (kokedama actually is an offshoot)
But he says he doesn’t have enough patience for bonsai. “I want the end to be immediate.”
Still, it’s a lot of work — trial and error. Some plants are more forgiving than others; one geranium, for example, has survived for three years. “Asparagus (the feathery evergreen fern) and crassula (succulents such as jade) are the easiest. Tropaeolum (nasturtium) is a favorite but difficult. Poppies are difficult. But I absolutely love poppies, so I will succeed.”
He won’t divulge his formula. “Whatever the plant needs,” he says. Once he made and posted an instruction video. A large Australian company used his images to promote its own string gardens. “It may come across as unpleasant and childish, but these things really hurt.”
On a recent top 10 list of gardening trends, string gardening is catching on in the United States. City Planter in Philadelphia even hosts classes.
The guru van der Valk sells his creations at Pompon, a flower shop in Amsterdam, and tends bar on a boat in the canals to supplement his income. “My dream is to have my workplace/showroom in a Victorian greenhouse on the water in the historic center of Amsterdam, where I currently live. A teahouse with homemade cakes, filled with my plants. And a place for other artists to exhibit their work.”
And he continues to grow his craft, indoors and out. For him and the plants, it’s all about finding gravity.
“I am fascinated with Japanese gardens,” says van der Valk. “Life is chaos, and they are able to contain it in perfect, simple balance.
“It’s very primitive. (With bonsai and kokedama) everything stops, and I start dreaming and enjoying. I imagine being small like an insect and live a perfect life in this miniature world.”
Try it
Want a string garden?
Sooo easy, say some. Well, maybe not so much. Even Fedor van der Valk’s green thumb fails him sometimes.
And although he won’t share his secrets (the proper mix of soil is key), he does post a basic tutorial for care on his website (stringgardens.com). The instructions are in French, but the charming illustrations by Elsadray-Farges are pretty self-explanatory.
The idea is to create a claylike mix. If the texture is too loose, it will break up when it’s watered. This may be a combination of peat, sand and akadama, a bonsai soil. Some recommend a ratio of 7-3, peat moss to akadama.
*Take your chosen plant down to its roots, gently shaking off the soil. Dip in room-temperature water.
*Wrap sphagnum moss around the roots; squeeze out excess moisture. Tie together with cotton thread.
*Shape the soil mix into a ball about the size of a grapefruit — smaller or larger gauged by plant size. “The ball is the most natural, organic looking shape,” says van der Valk. Divide the mix and set in the roots, reshaping, adjusting if it needs to be bound more. This is kind of like getting the right consistency for dough.
* Cover the ball with sheet moss, wrapping it with twine. If you can crochet, you won’t mind white; green is better as camouflage. Remember that you’ll be hanging the ball from the string.
*Soak 10 to 15 minutes. As van der Valk says, “When you put the ball in water, (the plant) soaks it up like a sponge.”
Most plants love a bit of misting. Some string plants need soaking once a week, others more. Let the plant drink up the water, then suspend until it stops dripping before you re-hang.
