Dancing-lady Orchid and Acorus calamus: Planting Flowers Like Flower Arranging, Arranging Flowers Like Planting

Today I’m introducing a flower-arranging–style way of planting—or, looked at the other way around, a way of arranging flowers as if you were planting them.

Planter: A wooden planter, made of paulownia wood, with a side length of 15 cm and a plastic liner.

Top dressing: Black lava rock.

Wood: One long piece of shrimp wood.

Plants: Dancing-lady Orchid (Oncidium) and Acorus calamus.

One more thing you don’t see in the photos: a small moss ball.

How It’s Planted

The roots of the dancing-lady Orchid and Acorus calamus are placed together into the moss ball. Wet sphagnum moss is used to fill any gaps and hold everything in place.

The moss ball is then set into the wooden planter. The shrimp wood is placed beside it, and everything is buried with fine lava rock.

Here, the lava rock plays a stabilizing role. It secures the shrimp wood, fixes the moss ball in place, and also stabilizes the plant roots.

Because the dancing-lady Orchid is relatively tall and soft, it tends to fall over. In this case, you need to use small clips—the kind that often come with orchids when you buy them, used to clip the flower stem to a wire support. Use these clips to fasten the orchid’s stem to the shrimp wood. Here, the shrimp wood functions as a support structure.

Watering

Water directly.

Common Questions

1. What if the shrimp wood isn’t stable?

Place a stone underneath it. In this setup, the wood stands very securely, so I didn’t use any stones. If you do use one, choose a heavy stone. Lava rock is relatively light, while dragon stone and seiryu stone are much heavier and work better for weighting.

2. What if the dancing-lady Orchid doesn’t look good after the flowers fade?

Simply pull the Oncidium out. I keep a separate pot on my balcony specifically for orchids that have finished blooming. Then replace it with another plant. Remember how it was planted? It was inserted into a moss ball, so it comes out easily with a gentle pull.

This photo was taken in early December. A few days ago, after the flowers faded, I replaced the orchid with a Nepenthes. Nepenthes are larger and heavier, so I secured it to the shrimp wood with zip ties and added stones at the base of the wood for extra stability.

3. What if I don’t have a moss ball?

That’s even easier. Just use the plastic orchid pot the plant comes in. Place it directly into the planter and bury it in black lava rock.

The Acorus calamus can be planted directly next to the shrimp wood. Since the planter has a plastic liner, it can hold water without dirtying the tabletop, which also makes it very suitable for Acorus calamus (which can live in water and mud).

Taking It Further

You can even simplify this setup further by using only shrimp wood and Acorus calamus, and replacing the orchid with any freshly cut flower stems. Roses in spring, lotus in summer, chrysanthemums in autumn, and winterberry or plum branches in winter.

At that point, it becomes a semi-living flower-arranging vessel.

To be updated.