Dailynews Variety: ‘Miniature Garden’ Greenie in the Bottle

Rather than simply sitting on your table and complementing your living room, small terrariums work well on office elements, kitchen appliances, and much more. Wherever you decide to place them, cool terrariums will stimulate dry habitats, and won’t limit your choice of using soils, pebbles, or any other natural elements you think look beautiful.Since these habitats are pleasant for a variety of plants, you won’t even have to worry how to decorate them.Besides, there is almost no home décor where terrarium ideas wouldn’t work out. With a little bit of creativity and free time, you can decorate both your indoors and your outdoors with breathtaking gardens, be those some of your succulent terrarium ideas or larger water gardens.

To add tropical atmosphere into your space, a miniature garden is the idea. The contribution to the natural touch of your décor gives an array of practical aspects you probably never thought of. But for those of you who are tree-lovers owning a small living space, terrariums are the right answer for you. As Head of Visual Technology Program, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Dr. Sunkunya Chaipong gave her refined knowledge of how and why terrarium should be made to freshen up your room. She defined ‘terrarium’ as a mini ecosystem in a glass container that could be categorized into two types: open and closed terrariums.  As its name suggests, closed terrariums come together with a cover. It’s only possible for moist to appear from the earth and plants as the temperature is slightly higher in a closed terrarium. After evaporation, the water vapor will be added up on the side of your glass container and gets back to the plants and soils at the bottom. However, too much or too little water could hurt your plant. As Dr. Sunkunya suggested, different types of plants can adapt to the different climate. As such, open and closed terrariums require different plans. Generally speaking, the most suitable plants for closed terrariums are plants that love and thrive in shady lights which are mostly leafy plants; however, some are too big to be in terrarium. Therefore, choosing the right kind of plants including Maidenhair ferns, Heterogonium Pinnatum Selaginella Wallichii, and Home Perennial would be crucial for miniature garden to sustain its growth.

For open terrarium, miniature plants for open style terrariums require arid environment and healthy circulation of air. They are to give them lots of direct sunlight and watering them when the soil becomes too dry. Dr. Sukunya further revealed that if you want your garden to look greenish and glowing better go for Victorian Brake Fern having lovely slender elongated and sharpy leaves, patterned with white detail or Scrophulariales such as Nerve plant having a colorful leaf display intricate vein patterns in dark green. It is rather difficult to grow floral trees in the miniature garden due to their nature of sun loving. Dr. Sukanya as a terrarium expert revealed that in order to achieve growing plants in the small garden, some plantations such as Nerve Plant or Flame Violet may reach height of higher than the container when with plenty of moisture and enough sun. The planter must be ready for its grooming.  On the contrary, for plants like fern, they are quite slow growing making it quite suitable for terrarium decoration.

“I will have to say that cutting or trimming these plants are just like grooming trees in the garden. All you have to do is to trim them in shape. One of the best-known plants for terrarium is ‘Moss’. Moss is fantastic for adding texture and color to a terrarium and is amazingly easy to grow, both in the garden and in containers.” Even the tiniest space can become a stylish sanctuary, you just need to add a green looking carpet and moss would be the answer yet again. All in all, moss is the strongest plant to be living in terrarium having different types of selections including sheet moss, pincushion moss, red moss, etc.

“Sheet moss has a unique characteristic, which often forms large carpetlike mats on log. In order to attach them on the log for garden decoration, a cord will be used. Since mosses can absorb water so easily through their leaves, choosing dried moss is the best way to protect your plant from infection of fungus.”

In order to create layers for terrarium garden, the container needs to have drainage holes in the bottom, so you’ll need to create a drainage layer to help keep water away from the plants’ roots by putting basalt rocks. Next, put a layer of sphagnum moss at the bottom of your terrarium to soak up extra water. Next, use a large spoon or trowel to add layer of activated charcoal on top of the stones to help drainage and control any odors followed by adding soil for water plant and decorating what ever you want. Dr. Sukanya also added that if the decorator prefers to terrarium look flashy in the center region, try to create space around it. In case the decorator prefers terrarium to look distinct on the side, one side should be decorated with plants that are higher than the other. On the other hand, if top-view is what the arranger is looking for, small size and transparent bottle covered with lid should be selected to make it look interesting from top. Additionally, materials like small woods could also be used for decorating the garden and making them match with the prepared soil reducing chance of soil corrosion as well as detain moisture in soil.

“Not only you will get ambience from greenness of the plants, you can also get your feeling from stones or rocks such as pebbles or others. For example, in case the color of the rocks is brown or sometimes black, the garden will look eye-catching and yet beautiful, revealed Dr. Sukanya.” Besides, some other props like tiny house and different types of miniature doll can also be very useful for creating a perfect terrarium. Besides creating a unique environment for plant growth, a terrarium can tell a story of its own. In her ending she revealed that even if it is just a tiny garden, the terrarium could help create feeling of relaxation for the viewer and concentration for the decorator. More importantly, this could be a chance for children to learn from the tiny nature creating them opportunity for self-learning and trial. Hopefully for those who love a terrarium, this would be your chance to enjoy yourself, create extra income and adding greenness to your living space. “Select your best type of plants”