I don't suppose you could put up a picture of the moss? Different mosses act differently, and some will never be very happy in full sun. It's also worth mentioning that common names aren't always very useful with mosses--I don't have any idea what plant "rock moss" is supposed to refer to, so there'd be no way for me to tell you if that's the plant you've got. Anyways... from your description the best I can guess is that you've probably got one of the species usually called "fern moss", in the genus Thuidium. I've never seen anything in this genus growing naturally in full sun, so if that's what you've got I suspect you'll have trouble getting it to do well in the sunny parts of your garden. In general, the mosses that grow well in full sun are going to need more water in order to do so, so in many areas trying to get moss going in full sun just isn't really worthwhile. You can do it, just might take a lot of water, or be limited to low spots that naturally collect water. Regarding spore dispersal--spores of mosses are usually dispersed by the wind. This seems to work quite well, so there shouldn't be an need for you to help the process along. Generally speaking, spores get just about everywhere and if the habitat's right they'll grow. This means, for instance, if you've got an area the mosses don't colonize on their own, odds are it's just not a good place for mosses to grow. Patrick Alexander

Like you, I operate on the strictest of budgets. I keep an eye on the distressed plants at local home stores. I've picked up viable plants for pocket change that just need the slightest TLC. Just today, I went to Lowe's and picked up a pitcher plant for 25 cents. They marked it down simply because the box/container was cracked. I would recommend advertising on craigslist and freecycle, too. With a pleasant request, you could probably find local generous souls willing to contribute cuttings, divisions, or even whole plants. Finally, though it's late in the season for this, do a careful survey of your neighborhood. A variety of herbs and groundcovers make suitable terr plants. I picked up some coleus from a planter outside a bank after they'd passed they're prime. The bank was happy to get rid of them, and a well-pruned coleus makes a suitable pseudo-bonsai. Don't know if these ideas suit your needs, but I hope they can help somehow...

Dear Yohanl, Your choice depends on the conditions you plan to have, key ones being light level and humidity. Here is one listing: Hedwigia - sun Entodon - both Dicranum - shade Ceratodon - sun Climacium - shade Thuidium - both Polytrichum - both Leucobryum - both Hypnum - shade If you don't have moss that you can remove from soil on your own property, ask at a local nursery that sells houseplants. They may sell you some cheap or even give you some that is volunteering in the greenhouse. Also you can go online to sites such as mountainmoss.com or mossacres.com to get "sampler trays" with several mosses that like sun or that like shade - or even a terrarium kit. For example, mountainmoss.com's kit description includes, "fluffy green mounds, fern-like carpets and tiny trees are represented in the moss species, " Dicranum, Hypnum, Thuidium,Climacium and Sphagnum". If you collect from your own property or (with permission) from someone else's, avoid mosses growing on rock or on tree trunks, as these have adapted to environments that are hard to provide in a terrarium. Whatever route you take, look up information online about the mosses. Those websites have some information and are worth looking at for only that reason. mossandstonegardens.com has a primer on growing moss. Even though it is focused on establishing an outdoor moss garden, the information there will apply in a terrarium. Go for it! Have fun!

I've grown a dozen or more species of moss in various terraria and paludaria setups... Of those I've only been able to find the name of two - Grimmia and Polystichum. I am not familiar with Kyoto moss by that name. Basically I would just collect a sample of any moss I came across and throw it in various conditions in a tank and see what it did. Some never survived very long, some hung on but didn't do much, some were champs in certain conditions and impossible in others, and some were so successful they were downright weedy! Most of the mosses I used were far happier growing on a harder substrate like a damp piece of driftwood than they ever were growing on soil. Your biggest concern in a shady terrarium will be plants staying too wet for the amount of light they receive and rotting away. Good ventilation will help this, but if the plants don't have enough light they will either rot or stretch toward light and look weak and leggy. My most successful tanks used light fixtures from ahsupply.com - they are bright, efficient, and they do a good job at directing most of the light to the plants instead of scattering it around the room. Also, I recommend getting your mosses started and growing before adding many other plants because many of the plants that do well in small terraria (miniature orchids and ferns, etc) seem to establish themselves most readily in a bed of moss. The moss can grab directly to hard substrates and in turn becomes a substrate itself. This is how many of the plants you would want to use grow in nature, too. Hope this helped some.