Flowers in Terrarium?

Question

I have a 30 gallon aquaium and i would like to grow flowers in it. Does anybody know if this is possible? Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank-you in advance

Rob

Answer 1

Very possible.

simple terrariums:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/sylla...

there is a list of plants that do well in terrariums here:

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/terrarium...

i am not really good at plant ID but i did recognize these three names on that list as being flowering varieties:

Miniature Begonia rex

Begonia rex-cultorum

Flame violet

Episcia dianthiflora

African violet

Saintpaulia spp.

check this page on them:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG017

that list i got those from is at a site where they seem to have real nice and knowledgable forum. so u can ask or talk about this stuff there if you wanted.

they also have a nice page talking about how to set up a terrarium and but the only thing is i noticed it said that potting soil has food in it<<<and that is not always true. Many potting soils do NOT have any food added to them. Some do. and some have LOTS of food<<like the kind that advertise "feed for 3 months".

fyi for if you are going to have a warm terrarium>>soils with added food have time release pellets. those pellet membranes release faster than normal when temperatures go up.

the text also says to add one part leaf mold or humus...now the nutritional content of leaf mold and humus are not the same. Humus is technically defined as compost that has been fully converted.

so what all that means is, if u get humus AND a potting soil without food in it, your soil is likely to be rather deficient. No harm on the writer of that text..she was trying to convey the texture of soil that you want. The humus and leaf mold are supposed to be fluffy and porous.

she makes it clear she isn't used to shopping for soils. if she was, she would know the soils sold these days do not all have natural food in them like they did 20 years ago and she MAY not favor using time release with a heated terrarium.

her how2 page is here:

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/terrarium...

her list of questions people have asked about their terrariums:

http://www.google.com/custom?domains=The...

i see a lot of folks make cacti terrariums:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2085156_make-cac...

so i thought i'd mention that lots of cacti do make flowers:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oG...

here is a results page where u can get lists of flowering plants good for terrariums:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=floweri...