Terrariums are usually trouble free and low maintenance – as long as you use appropriate plants, place it in a suitable location and water sparingly.

Several times we stopped and waited to check there was enough water before putting in a little more, knowing we could always add but would struggle to take away any if we over did it. It might take a little bit of planning to create your own, but I’ve never seen anything like this before and am personally very inspired! This is a great example of just how pioneering plants are and how they will persist given the opportunity. Terrariums are really modern versions used to create the right growing environment for exotics in the home including ferns, orchids and bromeliads.You will need to revert to long handled spoons, long chop sticks or something similar, to enable you to dig out a small trench and then to help you lower the plants into the newly created hole. When it comes to the kinds of plants and environment, bottles are a natural choice for a closed terrarium. A bottle garden is made in any glass container that has been, or could have been used for something else. If you did this, the cactus would demand drier conditions than the Peace Lilly could live with and inevitably one of them will die as their needs cannot be balanced. According to the aforementioned book, a long forceps with a scissors attached is a way to trim the plants to keep them the right size.

Working in a similar way to terrariums, you can grow a bottle garden for an indefinite period of time, as long as it’s exposed to the right lighting conditions. The Pteris Fern on the other hand is thriving and has grown, which we will pay close attention to going forward and if it starts to get out of control we will need to prune it to stop it taking over. Plants are grown inside the bottle with little or no exposure to the outside environment and can be contained indefinitely inside the bottle if properly illuminated. The bottle was filthy and filled with a stray Christmas Cactus cutting that had developed into a small plant, some grass and a sickly looking Wandering Jew. Don’t use succulents, like you see in the supermarket terrariums, as they will rot, use plants that thrive in damp conditions, especially miniature plants that will accentuate the appearance, Irish or Scottish Moss, Babies Tears, for example.

Making fantastic gifts and presents to give to people, and really an almost limitless way to express your creatively. Maintenance: Pruning of plants, occasional watering if the moisture balance is disrupted, and cleaning the glass to ensure light penetration. It’s also best to avoid flowering plants in a closed terrarium, because each time you open it to remove faded blooms, the environment/balance will be disturbed. Our bottle gardens are designed to be self sustaining so the hardest thing you need to do is to decide where to display then. Using a funnel, fill the bottom of the bottle with a layer of pea gravel and horticultural charcoal.

Plus this is going to be a focal point in your home that will draw attention - you want it to be attractive! A Terrarium, Bottle Garden, or Wardian Case are all essentially the same thing in that each contains and supports a miniature ecosystem of plants.

Our article takes a very simple carboy and takes you through the stages in setting one up as well as detailing our attempt along the way. I'm a gardener at heart and my outside gardens are beautiful but woe be any plant that enters my house! Aerangis fastuosa can be found in the eastern and central Madagascar highlands, between 900 and 1750m. I personally love gardening and ever since I moved to Germany as a student, I don't have a personal garden.

A watering can with a narrow spout can be used to direct a slow stream of water against the inside of the bottle, so it runs gently down into the soil. Check the eventual height and spread on the label, as many standard tropical houseplants, even young ones, will be too vigorous for terrariums in the long term. But sometimes, you don’t even have space for that and simply need a long stick (like a bamboo skewer) to push the roots into the substrate. An open Bottle Garden or terrarium will need a small amount of water every couple of months, if the opening is very wide then perhaps a little more often.Gently loosen the root ball and remove any excess soil that could prevent the plant from fitting in the bottle’s opening. Though it’ll probably need a trim if it’s bursting out of the top, aquascaping tools (like long scissors and tweezers) are really the only way to do it effectively.