Last year I started a couple of terrariums with varying success. My succulent terrarium was so starved for light in our east facing apartment that it had to be banished to the balcony were it eeks out a living on only 3 hours of light a day. On the other hand, my African violet terrarium is doing very well and setting records, being the only plant in this appartment to flower twice! OK, if I am honest, it is the only plant that has bloomed at all since entering through the "plant threshold of death"*.For those of you interested in do-it-yourself info, I planted the African violet inside of an 8"height x 6.5"diameter lidded glass bowl. I layered from bottom up, fish tank pebbles, charcoal, African violet soil, pebbles again, and a few decorative sea shells. The sea shells don't seem to make a difference to the violet, but they make me happy.
The African violet is well known for its dislike of having moisture on its leaves. So the idea of putting one inside of a damp terrarium seemed counter intuitive, however I have found that if I water it with a spray bottle on the stream setting, and point the water towards the edge of the bowl it drains down to the roots and doesn't effect the leaves. When I notice it looks too damp inside, I just open the lid for a few hours. It requires very little maintenance. However, at one point I was afraid it was getting too big for the bowl. I had to keep the lid open for a few weeks, and when I noticed that some of the older leaves were dying back, I cut them out and that allowed the plant to settle back into the bowl nicely. I have trimmed the leaves twice in the past year.
Overall, I am very pleased with this little terrarium experiment.
*Thanks to my landscape architect friend Ainsley for that vivid yet less than inviting description of our home.
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