Dodecahedron Terrarium

When I was a kid, my Grandpa sent me this paper workbook about 3-D geometric forms.  Think origami meets paper doll meets rocket scientist.  I never really got the hang of building the shapes - but it left me with a profound respect for the beauty inherent in three dimensional geometry.

Dodecahedron terrarium from designinspiration.net.

Buy Air Plants (tillandsia) Online

My post last week about the Jellyfish Air Plants attracted quite a bit of attention.  While I love the ingenuity of that Etsy seller, the item doesn't look that hard to DIY.  If you are looking for a variety of tillandsia to jumpstart your next craft the site air-plants.com have a variety and some reasonably-priced combo packs.  The site also provides excellent information on how to water your air plant or tillandsia:

"You can also mist your plants as needed, in between watering but misting should not be used as a sole source of moisture. We prefer to use a dunking method when we water, and then every other week or so we will give the plants a longer soak for an hour or 2.  Always take care to gently shake any excess water off the base of the plants, as sitting water can cause rot and damage/kill the plant.  It is recommended that you water your plants in the morning, and leave them out of their containers in an area that they can dry within 4 hours.  Never let your Air Plant sit in water for prolonged periods of time!"

Leaded Glass Globe Bell Jar

I spotted this one-of-a-kind leaded glass bell-jar type terrarium in the Kansas Craigslist.  Here's the link if it's still an active post and you are lucky enough to be local and snap this treasure up.

For those with any stained glass experience, would this be a difficult piece to replicate?

Wardian Case Kit

Alright, day three of discussing Wardian Cases!  If you've been following along and now you think "I sure know someone that would love one of those as a kit" you are in luck.  White Flower Farm is accepting orders for the above "Victorian Conservatory" terrarium kit.  For $115 you receive the case, potting soil, sand, charcoal, pebbles and the plants listed below.

All these plants are terrarium all-stars and should make for an easy starter set for any "black thumb."

• Ruby Red Club Moss (Selaginella erythropus 'Sanguinea')
• Button Fern (Pellaea rotundifolia)
• Peacock Moss (Selaginella uncinata)
• Pin Cushion Spikemoss (Selaginella kraussiana 'Brownii')
• Bird's Nest Fern (Asplenium antiquum 'Victoria')

H Potter Wardian Cases

Inspired to build your own wardian case ala yesterday's post?  H Potter has a variety of leaded terrarium vessels befitting the best plant explorers of the nineteenth century.  I'm partial to that six-sided one myself.

And remember, a wardian case makes a great container to observe your new terrarium plants before planting them in a narrow-necked bottle or other hard to access vessel.  Read more about observing plants and moss in a quarantine setting here.

Walk-in Terrarium

Ever dream of building a massive, walk-in terrarium in your home?  Imgur user foolx shared a slideshow of a massive DIY project to build a zoo-quality terrarium enclosure for his large pet snake.

 Click through here to see the entire, impressive project documented during the different stages of construction.

Lotusland: Japanese Garden

Japanese garden at Lotusland

I'll be out of town this week so I am sharing some of my old photos of my favorite garden on the west coast: Lotusland in Montecito, California. 

Lotusland: Cactus Garden

I'll be out of town this week so I am sharing some of my old photos of my favorite garden on the west coast: Lotusland in Montecito, California.

Cactus garden at Lotusland

http://www.lotusland.org/

Lotusland: Fern Garden

Fern garden at Lotusland

I'll be out of town this week so I am sharing some of my old photos of my favorite garden on the west coast: Lotusland in Montecito, California. 

Lotusland: Traditional Gardens

Topiary garden at Lotusland

I'll be out of town this week so I am sharing some of my old photos of my favorite garden on the west coast: Lotusland in Montecito, California.

The theatre garden contains an audience of stone grotesques

Painted tiles by the house

Massive tree at the edge of the lawn

Lotusland: Ganna Walska, Patron of the Garden Arts

Madame Ganna Walska

I'll be out of town this week so I am sharing some of my old photos of my favorite garden on the west coast: Lotusland in Montecito, California.

 Madame Ganna Walska was an eccentric polish opera starlet with a penchant for the extraordinary: she was fond of taking morning swims in the nude, investigating the occult and the bizarre and amassing exotic plants.

"She married six times, wrote her autobiography, Always Room at the Top, and continued to study both vocal music and spiritual teachings in search of creative fulfillment and personal enlightenment. After residing in Paris and New York, Madame Walska turned her sights toward California’s sunny climate and free-thinking residents." 

Needless to say she sounds like an awesome old bird and I wish I could have attended one of her famed seance soirees back in the day. She founded the vast estate now-known as "Lotusland" in 1941 and used the grounds, her money and her connections to create a lush fantasy land of gardens.

"She wanted the best, the biggest, and the most unusual plants available and was often willing to pay any price to get them. So determined was she to finish the work she had begun that in the 1970s she auctioned off some of her jewelry in order to finance her final creation—the cycad garden." 

The grounds feature 17 themed gardens containing over 3,000 plants.