Specialty Gardening: helpfull website, 1 by plantladylin

plantladylin wrote:
Good article but I disagree with some of the plants they list as good for closed terrariums. A few on the list grow so tall and so fast, you would be constantly pruning or they would take over the terrarium quickly! Many of the plants they list would do well in open dish gardens but not in enclosed terrariums. The very first plant they show is African Violet ... which would grow well in the humid environment of a terrarium but would not bloom unless it had very bright light. For blooms, AV's do best in a bright window, shaded from direct sun or on a plant stand under grow lights. Some Kalanchoe get very tall and Arrowhead Vine will vine around and take over the entire terrarium in no time. They also list Aglaonema as 3-6" - I would love to find one that remains that small. All the Chinese Evergreens I've ever seen get at least 12" and taller. Croton's are landscape plants and grow to be 4 feet or taller so I wouldn't want to place one in a closed terrarium. And, Neanthe Bella Palm's can get a few feet tall also so would be better for an open container.

It's a great list of plants - just realize that some of them on that list will get pretty large so you would have to be taking them out of a terrarium or dish garden as they outgrow the space or some you will have to constantly pinch back or prune to keep them at a size to fit the container.

Here's an example ... I planted this Fittonia ("Mosaic", "Nerve" plant) in this jar terrarium a couple of years ago and I keep having to pinch it back because it gets so squashed in there.