My first terrarium
Building a terrarium has been one of my big objectives since I started getting more interested in the combination between indoors plants and decoration.
I have always loved succulents so much, so my initial idea was to build up a succulent terrarium, but after reading a bit more about terrariums and their care, I held back on that idea for a few months. Apparently, it is not easy to take care of a cacti or succulent terrarium because it is challenging to keep the correct balance between light, humidity, and heat on those ones. As you all know, cacti and succulents are plants that do not like keeping humid too long, and it’s easy to get that messed up when you are working within glass and without drainage holes. And I knew I would feel horrible if I killed beloved cacti and succulents just because of my lack of experience on the terrarium realm.
Examples of succulent terrariums I'd like to have someday...
The great discovery! Tillandsia xerographica!
So, ad I said, I held back on building a terrarium for a few months. But this spring, whilst visiting some plant nurseries with my mum (she is a geek of plants too, although she is more of an outdoors plant / flowering plant person), I saw something that is not easy to find here: they had a couple of Tillandsia xerographica specimens.
You don´t normally find air plants in the stores around my area, so I was pretty sure I had to get it!
I selected the one I liked the most, with curly leaves and a pretty silverish color, all the leaves with perfect endings (not dry), and new tiny ones already growing from the center of the rosette. The price was great too (4.9€, approximately 5.5USD).
I would’ve taken some pictures so you could see the state of the plant when I got it, but a week has passed, and I have already put it on the terrarium. I will not take it out now, but next time, I promise to take the pics!!
I studied carefully how to take care of this plant and have already started its “Plant Diary”. After seeing how easy it seemed to take care of, I decided to use it to build my first terrarium.
Searching for a proper vessel for my first terrarium experiment!
I got the Tillandsia on Saturday while I was at my village with my parents for the Easter holidays. On the following Monday, I was free too, so I went shopping in the city center, seeking a glass bowl in a decoration store.
After going to a few different places, I found a pretty cheap option at a Spanish decoration franchise called “Mi Casa“. I remember these stores since I was a kid. The chain was founded in 1994 my area here in Spain, a region called Galicia, and, in particular, in my hometown Vigo. Most of their products come from Spanish and Portuguese factories, and the qualities and prices are pretty good, with very reasonable alternatives from bigger decoration chain stores.
I bought a 24cm diameter “fish bowl” that only cost me 11 EURO (12.2 USD), and, happy with my purchase, I headed back home.
Putting together the pieces
Once I got home, I cleaned up the bowl from the stickers and prepared myself to assemble the terrarium. I saw the Tillandsia came from the nursery in a mix of coconut fiber and pine bark. My living room combines nicely with the dark color of the bark, so I simply put on around 2 inches of a mix of bark and fiber on the base of the bowl and put the Tillandsia over them.
The Tillandsia xerographica grows small roots that serve exclusively as support and grabbing means to the substrate.
I simply put the plant over it, trying to get all its pretty long leaves nicely expanded over the substrate, and it looked pretty neat!
Actually, my husband is already on a high level of alert because of the huge amount of plants I have at home… but he recognized he really liked the look of the terrarium and how cute it looks in our living room. That’s a high-level comment coming from him!
I read that it is dangerous to get the terrariums in the way of direct sunlight, because they might retain a lot of heat and damage the plants inside, so I put it on one of our shelves, where it gets a fair amount of clarity but never direct line, and I am spraying a bit of water daily over the Tillandsia so it keeps humid and happy.
Let’s see if I can keep it healthy. So far it looks good… and I love seeing the terrarium every time I entered in my living room!
