A hurricane terrarium planted with a parlor palm and other low-light plants is a perfect coffee table or end table decoration.
Terrariums have their roots in Wardian cases, small greenhouses the size of a steamer trunk developed by Dr. Nathaniel Ward in 1829 to bring back plant specimens from botanical expeditions. Plants in the Wardian cases could live for months without the addition of water (which was ideal on voyages across the sea during which fresh water was limited). Terrariums today are less bulky and more artistic than the original roughly constructed cases. They can be as large as a side table or as small as a juice glass.
While you might think of a terrarium as a purely enclosed system, you can plant terrariums that are open at one end or another. The tall walls will still elevate the humidity around the plants.
Aeriums are similar to terrariums, but they house plants that don’t need soil—air plants. When air plants are enclosed by glass they require less frequent watering and tend to grow better in the dry home environment. (They’re native to warm, humid climates.)
Some of the terrariums in this chapter are themed and include accessories, while others are just plants. They’re all captivating little worlds.
A terrarium filled with tropical plants is the perfect jungle setting in which to keep a dinosaur or two. While you can’t time travel back to the age of the dinosaurs, you can bring a little bit of the Jurassic era to your desk or dining room table. Moisture-loving houseplants grow best in this fully enclosed terrarium.
Preserved reindeer moss
Polished stones
Ceramic animal figurines
Handmade ceramic sculptures
Plastic or resin mushrooms
Plastic decorative swirl picks
A container that looks large when not filled with plants and soil suddenly has little room for accessories when planted. Look for accessories, including animal figurines that are less than 2 inches long for larger terrariums and 1/2 to 1 inch long for smaller terrariums.
This container is a clear candy jar from the craft store. It is 8 inches tall and 7 inches in diameter.
Terrarium plants are usually stocked in the houseplant section of the garden center.
Ideal terrarium plants like high humidity and low light. Table ferns, polka dot plants, Selaginella, Croton, Alternanthera, and Ficus plants all fare well in terrariums. Because terrariums are so small, look for plants in 1-inch pots or plants in larger pots that can be split into smaller pieces.
Use a sterilized seedling mix or potting soil in a terrarium to prevent fungal problems. A small bag from the houseplant section of the garden center is enough for this project. It uses a few cups of soil, at most.
Key ingredients for terrarium construction include sterilized potting soil, activated filter carbon (activated charcoal), and tumbled stones.
1. Fill the bottom of the container with 1/2 to 1 inch of rocks.
2. Pour activated charcoal on top of the rocks until the rocks are barely covered by the charcoal.
3. Add the potting mix on top of the charcoal. Start with 1 inch of potting mix. This doesn’t seem like much, but it is easier to start with a little, then place the plants and fill in around the plants, than it is to add more potting mix and dig holes.
4. Place the plants. If you’re using accessories, such as the dinosaur, you can set them in among the plants to gauge the effect see if you want to move the plants around prior to planting.
5. Remove plants from pots and plant them. The bottom of the plant rootballs can be touching the rocks. Use a spoon to fill in with soil around the plants.
7. Position the accessories.
8. Water the terrarium. This is the trickiest step. It’s easy to overwater and then difficult to get the terrarium to dry out. Start by watering so that the top inch of soil (which might, in this case, be all of the soil) is about as damp as a wrung-out sponge. You can always add water.
9. Place the cover on the terrarium, set it in bright indirect light, and enjoy.
View the Garden from All Sides
Even in such a small terrarium, you can make separate little scenes. Ideally, you’ll use accessories to make the terrarium interesting and inviting from all sides.
A friend gave me these mushroom picks for my birthday the year I went through my terrarium-making frenzy. They are a nice detail addition on the other side of the terrarium from the dinosaur.
To the right of the dinosaur is a handmade ceramic sculpture (about 1 inch tall) from Etsy. It came in a set with a birdbath used in the Backyard Poolscape Garden. Just because accessories come in a set together doesn’t mean they have to be used together.
Air plants are beautiful specimens, best viewed from eye-level and close-up. Planting air plants (though you don’t really plant—you “place”) in a hanging terrarium is a fun way to create a garden with these unusual plants.
The container used for this project is a RoostTM recycled glass terrarium, but you can find other blown glass hanging terrariums. Alternatively, you could create the same type of project in a tall hurricane-style vase.
In addition to the Garden at the Beach, this is another good project with which you can display your vacation beachcombing finds.
This recycled-glass hanging terrarium can be planted with anything, but it makes a good showcase for large specimen air plants.
Seashells are a must for this underwater aerium, but please never harvest live shells. When beachcombing, determine whether there is a creature inside the shell or if it is empty. If there’s a mollusk living inside of it, throw the shell back in the water.
Sea urchin shell
Driftwood
Tumbled glass mulch
Sand dollar
Spanish moss
Polished stones
Sea glass
Rope
Tillandsia usneoides, or Spanish moss, grows in the trees of humid southern locations. One long strand is actually many separate living plants. You can collect your own to use in projects, but if it’s going to be used inside your house, you should clean it first by boiling it or microwaving it to kill insects that live in the plants.
Air plants can be large. A big container allows you to showcase several of them and make a little underwater scene. This is a Roost recycled glass hanging terrarium (used here as an aerium), but any hanging terrarium would work.
This container can hang from the ceiling or sit on an end table.
Air plants come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors.
Use a variety of air plants (Tillandsia spp.) to create this garden. It’s becoming easier to find these plants at garden centers, but you can also order them online. If you want a variety of colors and sizes, order single plants. If you order a “package deal,” unless the different types are specified in the product description, you could end up with all of the same type.
A pair of long terrarium tweezers (with rubber grips on the end) and a spray bottle come in handy for assembling and watering the aerium.
This garden doesn’t require potting soil. I used aquarium sand to create the “ocean floor” above which the “creatures” (air plants) will float. You wouldn’t have to use sand, but I think it “grounds” the garden and makes it look more like a scene and less like a collection of plants hanging around.
You can find aquarium sand at a pet store.
Mini Project: Floating Jellyfish
Use a sea urchin shell, an air plant, and a piece of fine-gauge wire or fishing line to create a jellyfish to float in your aerium.
A jellyfish swims through the aerium.
1. Bend the wire so that it forms a T and check the air plant for size in the bottom sea urchin opening by sticking the air plant in the bottom of the sea urchin. If the plant is too large, you’ll need to carefully chip away at the bottom so that you can fit the air plant in it.
2. From the inside of the shell, thread the two ends of the wire through the top hole and pull it so that the T is just inside the top of the shell.
3. Hot glue the air plant inside the sea urchin. Now you have a jellyfish.
4. Pour enough aquarium sand into the vessel so that there is 1 inch in the bottom of the aerium. Place the driftwood. If you make a jellyfish, this is the time to hang it by wrapping the wire around the rope.
5. If you’re not using a jellyfish, you can anchor an air plant, upside-down, by wedging it between the rope knot and the top of the aerium. If you’re using a different type of hanging aerium, you could wire, or even glue, an air plant upside-down.
6. Place the other air plants and accessories. You don’t have to “plant” air plants in the sand. You can just sit them artfully around the aerium. The long-handled tweezers come in handy for this part, as it is difficult to get your hand all the way inside the aerium, particularly as you add more plants.
Care and Maintenance
Air plants do need to be watered in order to live. Because it is impractical to take them out of the aerium once it is assembled, use a spray bottle to mist the plants until they’re dripping twice a week.
Air plants do bloom, though not on any particular schedule. Once the plant blooms, it will die and a “pup” will form and grow from the bottom side of the plant. Once the parent plant is dead, clip it off and water the baby plant.
Keep a mister handy to water the air plants.
Set the air plants so that their most colorful side is facing out.
Overall, this project isn’t complicated. It just takes patience to place all of the plants where you want them, especially in a hanging container that swings while you’re working on it. (You can set the container in a bucket or enlist help from a friend to hold it while you decorate.)
You can find sea urchins and clean them, or buy them for the mini-project. Always look for sustainably harvested sea urchins. (They’ve been picked up from the beach after they’re dead and then cleaned, not harvested while they’re alive.)
Look around your yard for twigs that have lichen growing on them. Lichen looks a little bit like seaweed. If you don’t have driftwood, a lichen-covered twig will add some height and structure.
You can hot glue air plants to twigs or suspend them from wires or fishing line.
Quick to make, this terrarium provides long-lasting, elegant décor for your house. Because it’s planted in a terra cotta pot, you’ll need to grab a cork trivet with a plastic bottom to put under the pot to protect your furniture. It’s easier than ever to find the type of glass cloche that forms the top of the terrarium. Though this container came as a top and bottom set, you can browse through home-goods stores and garden centers and find two pieces that fit together. (Hint: Check the aisle with glassware for appetizers and hors d’oeuvres. Sometimes you’ll find cloches that go over a cheese tray.) You can also mix and match the plants inside the container—no need to stick to the exact plant list here. This project would look equally beautiful with an assortment of ferns under glass.
Note: Even though this project is quick in terms of assembly, it’s still messy, and unless it’s really cold outside, you will probably want to complete it in your garage or backyard instead of at the kitchen table.
Clockwise from top left: polished stones, activated filter carbon, preserved reindeer moss, rinsed pea gravel.
Because you can’t see what’s in the bottom of this container, I used pea gravel instead of polished stones. Bagged pea gravel can be dusty, so I rinse it before using it so it isn’t messy. Find polished black stones and preserved reindeer moss at the craft store or in the houseplant section at the garden center. Activated filter carbon or activated charcoal is in the aquarium section of the pet store. You don’t need a large container of it unless you plan to make a lot of terrariums.
The container for this project is a Campo De’ Fiori aged terraria with a terra cotta base and hand-blown glass cloche. You can create the same look without the branded container, just test the cloche to make sure it fits the pot. (It should sit just inside or right on the edge of the pot.)
Use sterilized potting soil for this terrarium project.
“Tree”
Eugenia myrtifolia ‘Nanum’, Teenie Genie miniature brush cherry
“Shrub”
Hypoestes phyllostachya, green-and-white polka dot plant
“Groundcover”
Ficus pumila var. quercifolia, creeping fig
The glass cloche is perfectly sized to fit over the terra cotta container.
1. Cover the bottom of the container with pea gravel to a depth of 1/2 inch.
2. Top the pea gravel with activated filter carbon. This layer should only be 1/8 inch thick.
3. Add potting soil, leaving 1 inch between the top of the soil and the top of the container.
4. Plant the plants, starting with the largest plant first. Fill in with soil around the plants, leaving at least a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of space between the top of the soil and the top of the container.
6. Water the plants. Water this terrarium as you’d water a normal houseplant—until the top inch of soil is damp like a wrung-out sponge. The terra cotta pot will permit more evaporation than an enclosed glass container, so you don’t have to be as worried about overwatering.
7. Mulch with decorative stones.
8. Place the glass cloche on top of the container. Set the container in an area of the house with bright, indirect light.
Once an unused wedding gift, a few plants and some decorative moss turned this hurricane vase into an eye-catching garden. You can find large vases like this at every home décor store. The key to its finished look is layering. You can see everything—from the pebbles in the bottom to the palm tree growing out of the top. Speaking of the top, this terrarium isn’t enclosed, which gives you greater freedom to use taller plant material.
Activated filter carbon
Rinsed pea gravel
Hurricane vase
Preserved reindeer moss
Parlor palm
Peperomia plant (not pictured)
Podophyllum, arrowhead plant (not pictured)
This project calls for light-colored pea gravel for the bottom of the container, even though you can see it. That will create a more interesting layered look, whereas using dark colored stones would make the bottom of the container appear “heavy,” with the soil and stones creating a dark mass in the bottom.
Use houseplant potting soil for this project.
1. Layer 1 to 1½ inches of gravel in the bottom of the vase.
2. Pour in activated filter carbon to a depth of 1/2 inch.
3. Add 2 inches of potting soil to the container.
4. Place the plants. I split off a smaller chunk of the parlor palm so that it was lighter and more airy in feel. Just plunking the whole palm in the vase looked messy and top-heavy because the palm wasn’t tall enough so that the entire top floated above the vase. Once in place, the bottom of the palm looked naked. There was a lot of space between the stems and the leaves, but, again, not enough space so that all of the leaves were above the vase rim.
Adding two shorter plants of contrasting colors and textures around the base of the palm filled in the vase space and created more interest. This is the same layering technique used in full-sized garden design, only the layers of a full-sized garden are trees (tallest), shrubs and large perennials (middle layer), and annual flowers, groundcovers, small perennials, and bulbs (shortest layer).
Use a long-handled spoon to add soil around the plants so that their roots are entirely covered.
5. Add decorative moss around the plants using the terrarium tweezers. Once all of the plants are planted, it’s hard to reach all the way into the bottom of the vase. Water the container until you can just see water trickling in between the pebbles at the bottom of the vase.
During the “Great Terrarium Frenzy,” I planted this vase with a different type of palm tree. The plant was about 4 inches taller than the container, so when planted, stuck out of the top of the container at least 8 inches, creating a dramatic effect.
Quick Canning Jar Terrarium
Ideal for a desktop or a child’s nightstand, this canning jar terrarium is easy to make and to care for. It’s a great school project.
Rinsed pea gravel
Activated filter carbon
Sterile potting soil
Selaginella plant
Plastic wrap
Wide-mouth canning jar and lid
Animal figurine
Quick Canning Jar Terrarium Step-by-Step
1. Layer pea gravel in the bottom, activated filter carbon on top, and 1 inch of potting soil over that.
2. Use the terrarium tweezers (or a dinner fork) to plant the Selaginella. Make sure its roots are in the soil.
3. Water the terrarium until you can see water running into the pebbles.
4. Place the animal figurine next to the side of the jar.
5. Tear off a sheet of plastic wrap and cover the jar with it.
6. Place the lid ring on the jar and screw it down.
7. Use sharp scissors to cut the plastic wrap so that the edges aren’t visible under the lid.
(Using plastic wrap instead of its metal lid allows more light to reach the plant and a better view of the plant.)
