Annie Martin is a landscaper and moss gardening expert and advocate who has earned the distinction of Master Moss Gardener. Located in Western North Carolina’s Pisgah Forest, just outside Asheville, Martin is the author of The Magical World of Moss Gardening (2015). Her passion for mosses has earned her the nickname “Mossin’ Annie.” Home Sweet Home recently interviewed Annie to learn more about moss gardening. The Joy of Moss Gardening
What Makes Mosses Distinct
Annie’s expertise means she has a deep understanding of the rich history of bryophytes (mosses). She shares that the existence of mosses can be dated back 450 million years, making them the “oldest living land plants” on record, having appeared “50 million years before there were any other land plants.”
Bryophytes are distinctive from other plants in numerous ways. Annie states the chief difference is that “they do not have internal mechanisms to absorb moisture, water, or to take in nutrients. They do not have roots.” Mosses do not flower, “but they do have sporophytes, which have capsules, and they contain spores, which can be distributed like seeds.” These sporophytes, Annie notes, “offer some pretty cool glimmering colors that are accents to the green appearance of mosses because the sporophytes can be crimson, golden, bronze or ombré colors. It's fascinating when they're going through this reproductive stage.” Rather than roots, mosses have rhizoids which serve to make the moss adhere to whatever substrate it is growing on. And the surfaces can be quite varied. Mosses don’t require soil; they can grow on a range of substances from the bark of a tree to a rock wall and even asphalt roof shingles. Mosses are often found growing on statues or in between bricks or other materials used to create garden pathways. Because there is such a wide variety of moss species, it’s natural that they vary greatly in appearance and size, although miniature in stature compared to other plants.
Color and Contrast
According to Annie, “Mosses offer year-round green in contrast with other plants that people feature in their gardens and yards.” This gives mosses a visual appeal that lasts through the winter when vascular plants go dormant. Because mosses are bryophytes, they are hardy, and freezing temperatures do not affect their growth. Annie is quick to point out that mosses do “shift their colors,” which means they grow in what she describes as “a full range of nuances of greens, from light greens to deep greens, emerald greens, to forest greens...the list goes on and on.” Aside from the multiple hues of green natural to many types of moss, there are also “certain moss species that will achieve golden overtones at certain sun exposures or times of the year.” The result, according to Annie, is a “green with a golden glint.” In addition to their visual appeal, mosses are also tactile, which means “they feel good to touch, to walk on, to pet.”
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April 2025
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