How to Make an Orchid Terrarium

Photo by Lauren Linn
Miniature Orchid Display at the 2009 Santa Barbara Orchid Show

I get quite a few questions and comments about creating and maintaining orchids within a terrarium.  I must admit my personal efforts in this arena have been dismal, but I have a collected a couple resources that may share more expert knowledge than I can provide:

OrchidBoard Discussion Forum

What: If you have a finicky orchid in your care you can search the vast and details postings of the OrchidBoard Discussion forum for a post to address your woes.

Who: OrchidBoard is home to some of the most detailed discussions on the care of specific orchid varieties.  However, membership to the forum is easy to obtain so you don't exactly know who is giving you advice.  

How: Note that I mentioned "search the forum."  As an unregistered guest you can search the discussion forums, but they are not 100% user friendly.  Expect to be asked to enter a captcha phrase to reveal your search results.

Bonus: OrchidBoard issues a gorgeous fundraiser wall calendar every year.

Cloud's Orchids Terrarium Tips

What: Cloud's Orchids is primarily an orchid retail site.  However, buried in their website is a comprehensive how-to guide on orchid terrariums which provides an excellent overview on the factors you'll need to consider when keeping an orchid terrarium.

Who: I presume the anonymous author of the article is Claudio, owner of Cloud's Orchids Nursery and a former American Orchid Society competition judge. 

How: Here's a pro tip that makes sense: 

"I would avoid using soil, sand or gravel as a substrate for your tank. It is difficult to do any maintenance once these materials are in place, and they can easily sour the environment. I would sooner use a layer of egg-shell crate to serve as the base to build on. This will provide air below the pots, and keep the plants above any water that accumulates on the bottom. Then if you ever need to do some house-cleaning, it is easily removed and the tank can be scrubbed before setting it up again."

Bonus: Claudio also provides a list of orchid genus recommended for terrarium environments.

"Miniature candidates are masdevallia, pleurothallis, promenaea, dracula, ornithocephalus, aerangis, angraecum, bulbophyllum, barbosella, leptotes, sophronitis, dendrobium, psygmorchis, etcetera, along with anything identified as a "twig epiphyte" in books.
You will also find compact candidates from the genera mentioned above, along with paph species, cochleanthes, phal species, jewel orchids, etcetera. Unless the mature size is clear in a description, it is always best to ask your plant source whether or not the plant is suitable for a small/medium/large terrarium."

Sound off: Have you ever kept an orchid terrarium?

What Can Kids Learn from Making a Terrarium?

We've all seen the "make a terrarium with your kids" articles but Carmen at Off the Grid News makes a valuable point about the teachable moments you can share with your kids during the process:

As for science, a terrarium is a great way to learn about the water cycle. Water on the earth cycles through several different states from ground and surface water to clouds, to rain, and back again to the ground. It evaporates from the earth to become a vapor in the atmosphere. There, water condenses to form the water droplets that make up clouds. When they get large enough, the droplets fall back to the earth as precipitation, and the cycle begins again. In a terrarium, you get to see this process in miniature. You need only add water to it once a month because within the container, the water will evaporate, condense, and precipitate, just as it does in the earth at large.

Moss Monday: Autumn Landscape

July is normally about the time of the year when fall weather really starts sounding appealing.  In spite of the Texas heat I can dream of cooler temps thanks to this lovely photo by Olegas Kurasovas, as submitted to National Geographic's My Shot (which also contains a hi-res file of the image, suitable for use as a desktop background).

Terrarium Tips from Koi Ponds and Gardens

Terrarium by Paula Hayes

I stumbled across the blog Koi Ponds and Gardens today - which has the feel of a spam or aggregate site due to its wide variety of topical content and articles copied verbatim from articledashboard.com.  However, the "Terrarium" post, credited to author Robert J. Bruce, reads like some sort of sublime Dada poetry.   I suggest you skim it if this tantalizing intro piques your interest:

Your house or maybe workplace is approximately to be a site of an continual summer season, because of your classify new glass plant terrarium.  You can precisely peer it in your views already.  The blossoms will probably be aesthetic throughout the darkest of December days.  The carnivorous plant life will nibble absent as Jack Frost beats upon the doorway.  You'll ring in the New Year having label new plants sprouting up.  It's going to be pretty!

The best part is that the whole article has that lovely horse ebooks spam-poetry vibe yet actually makes some good points about terrariums: keep the interior humidity up, don't over water, and don't put your terrarium in full sun.

LED Decanter Terrarium

Hop over to Steve Asbell's blog The Rainforest Garden for a neat DIY guide on making this gorgeous, softly lit terrarium.  I've always loved the use of glass decorative elements in terrariums for the way they catch and project light.  Steve has found a way to use the protruding "bump" in the bottom of a wine decanter to actually light up the glass elements in his terrarium.

Coffee Shop Terrarium

Here's a beauty of an overgrown terrarium, which lives at Sightglass Coffee in San Francisco.  I spot some spike moss (selaginella) in there- a hardy terrarium plant that I highly recommend.  The variegated pink plant looks like a spider plant of some sort; anyone know what it is?

Photo by Niall Kennedy

Q and A: Plants for an Ornament Terrarium?

Q:  I am making a terrarium in an ornament. It will have a hole for air. Wondering what you think would be a ideal plant in that environment?

A: Some of the factors you will be considering for your project: finding a plant that will stay small, tolerate an open air hole, and won't need much soil.  See some very cute examples at lesliehalleck.com.

If you'd like to skip soil all together I'd suggest using a tillandsia (air plant) for your terrarium.  These are about the right size for an ornament.  They are easy to care for as you just have to submerge the
plant in water once a week in order to water it - and you could easily fill the ornament up with water, let it sit 15 minutes, and then pour it out.

If you did want to add soil to the ornament - I would suggest using cactus soil (or mixing regular potting soil with sand) and planting a small succulent in your terrarium. This way you won't have to attempt to keep a humid environment inside your terrarium and you can get away with watering it in very small, infrequent amounts.

Moss Monday: The Curious Pairing of Moss and Ancient Poo

BBC Nature News reports "Antarctic moss lives on ancient penguin poo."  As you can likely glean from the silly title, puzzled scientists finally determined that moss thriving in the apparently nutrient-lacking locale of Antarctica subsist on deposits from penguins that thrived in the area thousands of years ago.

Succulent Terraria Print

I dig the vaguely southwest vibe of this terrarium print by Alyssa Nassner of Small Talk Studio.   While succulents have certainly had their day in the (magnified) sun of terrarium crafts, I prefer a moss terrarium any day!  Where is the moss, Alyssa?

Q and A: Quarantine for Large Plants

Chemical Safety Signs - MySafetySign.com

Reader CJ left a couple questions in the comments of my post about keeping new plants in quarantine before adding them to a terrarium.  I'm sharing a version of my reply in this post to clarify the circumstances for which I recommend the quarantine process for terrarium plants.

Q: I recently decided to attempt a trio of open terrariums in my home. I bought a variety of different plants including irish moss, davalia trichomanoides (fern), hypoestes phyllostachya, and what I suspect to be a peperomia scanden (unlabeled), along with 2 other unlabeled plants from a local nursery. I am also buying a small orchid. I want to take the proper steps before beginning the process of planting them all. How do you quarantine medium sized plants? They range in height from about 3" to 10". Should they be separate from one another? 

A: If your open terrarium vessels are large enough to reach your hand into - I wouldn't worry about keeping them in quarantine prior to planting them.  If mold develops you can reach in and cut it out or scoop it out as it develops and a larger vessel isn't as likely to get quickly overrun by bugs or mold.  To recap my suggestion from the original post:

It is relatively easy to remove problem items from a large-opening terrarium such as a vase, fishbowl or dish.  But if you aim to plant a terrarium in an enclosed terrarium or a narrow-opening vessel like a wine bottle, test tube etc. it may save you time an energy in the long run if you can be patient enough to "quarantine" your plants and moss to see if any problems surface before you add them to your terrarium.

If you'd still like to quarantine your larger plants prior to planting them, you may be looking at a need for additional equipment.  Some terrarium enthusiasts invest in large aquariums or wardian cases in which they can enclose their plants prior to terrarium-planting.  You can keep several new plants in the quarantine vessel for a period of time.  Make sure to inspect each plant regularly for insects or mold and remove promptly if discovered so they don't contaminate each other.

Smaller plants can be sealed into a gallon ziplock bag, kept upright with a chopstick or popsicle stick as a stake.  Make sure to leave the bag slightly "unzipped" to allow for airflow.  Don't leave your plants in bags for longer than three days or so.

"Be careful what you put in there!"

The Crafty Collaborative and Better Homes and Gardens House and Hold teamed up to provide a pair of "reviews" of terrarium-crafting.  Both participants created the typical succulent-in-potting-soil-in-a-jar type terrarium - which is great for an afternoon craft but may not last in the long run.  One woman made a wise comment:

"Be careful what you stick in there… initially I had these little mushrooms from the craft store and within a couple of days they were totally furry with mold.  Gross."

She doesn't describe in detail what these craft store mushrooms were made of but I'm picturing those foam-looking mock mushrooms you see in the floral arrangement sections of craft stores.  Beware adding spongy decorative items as the moist terrarium environment is prone to encouraging mold growth on plants and nearly anything else.  When considering adding curios to your terrariums, think of hardier items that could handle semi-outdoor conditions like glass, plastic, clay or stone.

How to Cut Bottles for Terrariums

Cut bottle terrarium by Justin Newcombe

We discussed how to cut the neck off a bottle for use as a terrarium vessel before on the blog.  Readers commented that using a manual glass cutting tool might be feasible but sanding down the cut edge left us scratching our collective heads.  Lucky for us, Justin Newcombe of the New Zealand Herald Weekend Project column has weighed in with his DIY directions for this impressive up-cycle:

• Newcombe used a tile cutting attachment on a dremmel handheld saw.
• He then suggests using #000 grade steel wool to polish the bottle and the cut glass edge.  

UPDATE:  Thanks to a tip from reader Caff, regarding another method of cutting a bottle.  Kane Daniels demonstrates how to cut the top off of a bottle by wrapping cotton thread around the bottle, lighting it on fire, and plunging the bottle into a bucket of ice water to shock the bottle into two pieces.  Full instructions can be found here and please let me know if you've tried this before!  I'd love to hear more details.

Safety reminder:  Please careful to do this craft outside and away from anything that might be flammable, and to wear appropriate clothing that won't get in the way.  Keep children and pets secured so they do not approach the flame.  It wouldn't hurt to have a fire extinguisher handy in addition to the large bucket of water.  

Terrariums as Curio Displays

Terraria by Kim Holleman

Artist Kim Holleman will host a terrarium-making workshop as part of the Atlas Obscura Speakers series at the Observatory Room in Brooklyn, NYC in late August.  The pitch for the workshop mentions creating "living" terrariums with plants but places a square focus on the opportunity of designing a focal point around a cherished miniature object:

In this workshop you will make a unique living terrarium in a glass container which doubles as a curio display for your tiny treasures! A variety of glass, plants, pebbles and tools will be provided. Students are encouraged to bring a handful of tiny special objects and stories about how you found them!

Terrariums do make great curio displays for items like beach glass, chandelier crystals or small figurines.  What unusual small items have you included in your terraria?

Fantasy Faux Terrarium

"Ancient Goddess Ruins" by Tony Larson

If you are going to make a faux terrarium - you might as well go for the full juxtaposition of "living" with the fantastic and fully anthropomorphize your moss.  Artist Tony Larson (aka Megatone230 of Etsy) created this stunning head-in-a-jar using all non-living materials.  Pinar from My Modern Met reports:

"The Minneapolis-based sculptor handcrafts each piece, combining man and foliage in an organic aesthetic that, as the artist himself says, "makes a great conversation piece!" Ancient Goddess Ruins can be purchased on Larson's Etsy shop called The Wonder Room for $230."

Moss Monday: Shimogamo Shrine, Kyoto

From Google World Wonders Project, Shimogamo Shrine, Kyoto

Alright bear with me - I'm fairly sure there is some moss up in there.  This is a screenshot from Google Maps' World Wonders Project - which allows you to explore cultural sites around the world using Google Maps' now familiar street view navigation.

By pressing the arrows you advance through the scene.  It can be a bit tedious to orient the "view" where you want or to determine at which points you can actually advance "deeper" into the scene.
Some of the recordings of locales only give you the view from the actual street - a drive-by tour if you would.  However the site depicted above, the Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto, allows you to scoot around the grounds as though on a walking tour.  Google, please make these for some botanical gardens!  In high def please.