Easy Care Plants – Air Plants, Moss Balls, & Fuzzy Succulents

Now I already know what you’re thinking. “Air plants aren’t succulents Sierra!” I know, I know, but what if I told you that air plants are even harder to kill than succulents! Crazy right? I could be wrong, but that’s just my opinion.

While I love my succulents, I also think it’s very healthy to broaden your obsession to include other plants as well. Let me take a minute to introduce you to three of my plants that aren’t succulents.

The first one is called a Marimo Moss Ball (Surprise! I do actually know the name of one!) Moss balls are super low maintenance; to be honest I don’t remember the last time I cleaned out the water in this thing. You will usually see moss balls at the bottom of aquariums and in the wild (wild moss balls is a fun thought, but really they do really well in ponds). I actually got mine at a pet store and split it into two with a friend to make these adorable, tiny aquariums!

Fun fact: moss balls aren’t moss at all. They’re actually a rare form of spherical algae.

The water should be changed every 2-3 weeks and replaced with tap water that has been sitting out for 24 hours (oops). You want these babies to be kept in medium sunlight, not direct! Direct sunlight will cause them to turn brown and die. If they do start turning brown, move them to a cooler place with less sunlight and they should perk back up! If the balls start to lose their round shape, gently roll them in your palm until they return to their shape and plop them back in the water.

The next non-succulent I have is a Tillandsia Air Plant (two for two on the names!) To be honest, I thought it was alive in the store, and then I took it home but wasn’t sure if it was actually real, and then the tips started turning brown. It was definitely alive but I was killing it! Like I said, air plants are hard to kill, but your girl still managed to wound her air plant by forgetting to water it! Air plants can be a really fun addition to your collection as they don’t usually have very large root systems, if any. You can glue them to driftwood, hang them up, and really do anything with them as long as you water them every so often.

I think these plants are super simple to care for, here’s how; like your moss ball, keep your air plant out of direct sunlight, but still near a brighter light source. Fluorescent light is actually great for air plants and they’re a great way to liven up a room that doesn’t get a lot of sunlight. Watering can be a little tricky, so here’s the lowdown I found when I started researching how to care for them.  Every 3-4 weeks, soak your air plant in room temperature tap water for about half an hour, then shake the excess water from your plant and let it dry on a towel for a few hours so it can dry out a little bit (apparently they can rot if they are left to sit in extra water).

Air plant drying = bight area + good air circulation + a nice towel for the plant to sit on.

Lastly, mist your plant about once a week so that the plant is moist not so much that there is here isn’t a bunch of water dripping.
Author note: I’ve had my air plant for a year and only soaked it once! Writing this post has actually reminded me that I need to do this again, but to be honest, my plant has been just fine! As always, play it by ear, you know your plants best and while this works well for some people, but not everyone.

My last plant is what I call a Fuzzy. I’m not really sure what he is. I got this plant in an assorted planter and while I didn’t love the color at first, I loved that it was different than my standard green succulent and fell in love with it that way. I take care of this plant the same as my other succulents. Once the soil is completely dry, add enough water to moisten the soil again, and repeat! This little fuzzy sits on my window sill that doesn’t get any direct sunlight (None of my windows do. It’s like my apartment wants to kill my plants). I’ve only had it for about 6 months but so far, so good! I don’t yet know how this little fuzzy will do in colder weather but I’ll post a little update in a few months, and who knows, maybe by that point I’ll actually know what kind of plant he is!

If there is one piece of advice I can give you when it comes to being a plant parent, it’s to add some variety to your collection! You don’t want to be doing the same care routine and taking care of the same plants. You want all those tall, poky, fuzzy, chunky, and everything in-between plants in your collection.

Tell me about your favorite funky plant?