A Terrarium

A friend of mine gave me a glass terrarium as a house-warming present, and it’s been sitting there untouched and empty for weeks, and yesterday, I finally bit the bullet and filled it.

Part of the delay was to get the gravel to line the base (for good drainage), and also the charcoal to keep the potting mix sweet, and then once I had all that, I had to decide on what plants I wanted to use. I decided to break up the watermelon peperomia babies I’d gown from leaf cuttings, started around the beginning of the year. 

They’d done really well, and were now bursting out of their little pot, and when I took them out of the pot and broke them up, there were five healthy little babies, so one of them went into the terrarium. And then I added a tiny fern and a little red freckle plant (forgotten the botanical name.) So, only three little plants, but they’ll grow.

And when the plants have settled in a bit, I’ll be adding in some interesting rocks — no shortage of them here, because I have a bit of a rock fetish, and collect them all the time. And maybe I’ll get some kind of ground cover — maybe baby’s tears or some kind of small creeping green plant. But for the moment this is all there is.

I’ve always liked miniatures and mini-worlds but I’m trying to be restrained and elegant and not cram in a bunch of tiny miniature things. I’ve seen some amazing terrarium “scenes” people have created and though I’m tempted, for the moment I’ll just leave the little plants to settle in peace. And hopefully thrive.