Busch
The German Comapny "Busch Modellspielwaren" as it is actually called does do a lot of small stuff and toys but in the scalemodelling world they are better known as a company that offers a great range of Modelrailroad accesories and scenery supllies, Trees, Grasses, Humans Animals, Buildings, and other natureproducts in every scale that the Model railroad world knows.
Fun thing is that a lot of articles that Busch is selling are perfectly useable in the dioramabuilders world. Often they look even better in scale when not used in H0 but in the 1:35 world...........A good example is this particular set. When opening the box I could really not believe they were actually speaking of H0 scale... what was wrong with them you might ask.... Well it were just giants.... I don`t know how many people ever saw a H0 Figure or I don`t know how many people ever saw a Real life 1:1 Mushroom but the Idea Jurrasic Park And Alice in Wonderland flipped through my mind when I looked at the Ferns and Mushrooms for the first time.

The Set of Ferns and Mushrooms.
Well the Ferns and Mushrooms came in a nice printed, Not that large, box. On the front side there is a big picture of the Ferns and Mushrooms in an Idyllic H0 forest setting. with a couple of lovely deers between the ferns and some Mushrooms between the grass. I kinda sound like Bob Ross now Don`t I? the company logo is presented. The scale, Item# and a little note that the trees and the animals on the front are not in the package.
The back shows the content of the box. and the instructions of how to apply them. the Instructions are just as almost any other piece of text on the package done in 3 languages.. namely German, English and French. Even if you don`t happen to speak one of thos languages I don`t think you will encounter troubles when applying the Ferns and Mushrooms as the drawings will tell the tale just as good.

About Ferns and Mushrooms
The Contents of the kit are 2 plastic sprues with 14 Mushrooms each and 7 plastic sprues with 24 Fernleaves each. One of the Mushroom sprues contains 7 Mushrooms of the so called Fly Agaric (Amanita muscari) which can be recognized by the white stem and the Red dome with white dots. All have a different size. the other side offers you 7 different mushrooms of the so called King Bolete (Boletus edulis), White stem and Brown dome. And an unpainted Sprue of 14 Mushrooms Which Busch calls the Birch Bolete (Leccinum scabrum) The Ferns are well...... Ferns. Each sprue Contains 24 leaves and all vary in size.
Probably you already noticed that one sprue comes painted and that would spare you some time right? well actually if you are a bit fond of detail and good finish you will probably be bothered a little bit by the big molding line that runs over every dome of the mushrooms and you`ll sand this. Eventually this leaves you with repainting the whole mushroom again.

Conclusions
Fun thing is that I wonder how many Diorama modelers are actually aware that companies as Busch and other railroad companies offer much much more then grass and flock alone for your diorama`s. Not everything is usefull of course but there are definately some gems that can be found there. I frequently go to the Model railroad shop to see if I can find something usefull to use in Diorama`s.
About the Ferns... Although not so crisp as the Photoetch Ferns from the big PE companies still a good replacement. The Details are quite nice and will do for a convincing Fern in 1:35. The Mushrooms are clearly way too big for the H0 scale... Epic Proportionally too big to be precise. But in 1:35 they will do fine. The pictures will do the telling ( the Mushroom next to the figures foot in the picture is actually a mediumsized Mushroom. There are a couple of bigger and a couple of smaller Mushrooms). I think with that price you have a nice addition for the groundwork in your diorama`s and a very usefull one with that as a Fly Agaric will definately color up that little dark space in your dio`s.

PS; for the people who thought I was a little bit too harsh about the use of the Mushrooms and ferns in H0, You should see the bottom picture and make up your own idea. of Proportions.
picture from the Busch Homepage

With a Friendly Greet

Robert Blokker