Suggestions for adding more colour to my Carnivorous Terrarium?
 

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for a few plants, orchids etc that I can add to my terrarium!

I was thinking about replacing the ones on the wall, as well as taking out a lot of the drosera capensis since I have so many of them already.

My terrarium is normally kept around 19-25c and humidity ranges between 50-70%, depending on the time of day (there's a waterfall behind that log in the wall).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

How about highland nepenthes?

highly recommend

Coelogyne incrassata (monilirachis)
most beautiful vivd burgundy leaves leaves,
always in bud or bloom.

Bulbophyllum catenulatum var. red/yellow
easy, vigorous and always in bloom

Lepanthes calodictyon
Great leaf pattern and shape

I've thought about adding different nepenthes, but I've already got 5 different species of tropical nepenthes right now 😂

I was looking for orchids/plants that would add more unique colours and make the terrarium look more exotic.

---------- Post added at 10:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 AM ----------

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll definitely check them out!

Keep in mind that carnivorous plants like much higher light levels than a lot of mini orchids are necessarily grown in. Whatever you get, you might want to start with it on the bottom, maybe under a leaf, then gradually acclimate it out and up.

I would try to grow a white rabbit's foot fern up your background. It would be a nice textural contrast, the green and white would probably look nice against the reddish leaves, and it would help the background look more natural. I would also pull the perlite off the background, I think.

You might try some pinguiculas. P. emarginata is a lithophyte that doesn't require a winter dormancy (though will grow smaller leaves for awhile on its own), and flowers almost constantly. I imagine its hybrids are similar, though I don't have experience with the hybrids. It also multiplies really easily from leaf pulls, which is nice. I accidentally chopped half a leaf off mine by dropping a light on it, and when I put the leaf bit in live sphagnum, it grew about half a dozen new babies along the cut edge. You could stuff sphagnum in those crevices and put the pinguiculas right in that.

If you are set on orchids, I suggest Bulbophylum. They are growing like weeds in my terrarium. They just need a lot of humidity.

Thanks for such an in-depth post!

Yes, my terrarium grow lights (45W LED) are on a timer to stay on for 12hrs each day. These are the ideal lighting conditions for lowland nepenthes.

I actually put some ruby necklace plants (see pic) in one of the upper wall slots. The purple really stands out and adds more colour to the terrarium, I'm really liking it so far.

The white rabbits foot fern seems like a really good idea. You said to put it up on the background... Do you mean like sticking it against the actual wall? Or did you mean putting it into one of the slots in the wall?

Do you think I could stuff a bunch of spaghnum moss into the waterfall crevice (or even onto the actual wall :shock:) and just put the white rabbits foot fern or pinguiculas. P. emarginata onto the spaghnum moss and hope it roots?

I really want to make a nice contrast with the plants and the dirt background, it'd be really cool if I could make a wall of plants and flowers, rather than being limited to the 3 slots in the wall.

I'm not a fan of the perlite either, but I'll wait until I have the plants in the background and the look I want before pulling them off.

Thanks again for the inspiration! Really excited to make my terrarium look even more awesome 😁😁😁

Rabbit's foot fern will grow as an epiphyte if you make sure to keep some water on it. If you buy one potted, it'll probably come with dirt, which your carnivores of course won't like. You'd want to either really thoroughly clean the roots and replant it into something else, or take rhizome cuttings (just cut off a piece with some leaves on it, preferably with a few roots) and root those into sphagnum. Or both! Clean the dirt off, keep the full plant, and spread a few cuttings around. You could put a pot of it on the floor and let it grow up from there, or you could organize something with moss on the wall. I've seen pictures of them grown on rocks with almost nothing around the roots, and that works as long as you make sure they get enough moisture.

P. emarginata, or other suitable pinguicula species, wouldn't need to be in a pot at all. As long as it has some moss around its roots that you keep lightly moist, and you make sure it gets some food (freeze-dried daphnia is good), it'll do great. In the wild, they can be found growing in the moss on cliff faces.

Another potential difficulty: fertilizer. Orchids like mild enough fertilizer that you could probably just dab a little around their roots, and not have enough runoff to harm the carnivores. Especially the nepenthes, some people actually fertilize those. But non-orchids are going to want some amount of fertilizer, and could potentially be tricky to feed enough without bothering your carnivores. Epiphytes in general will need less fertilizer, so are probably best to go with.

The ruby necklace is interesting, I haven't seen that one before. I see it looks like it's in dirt, though. Is that cup it's in water-tight, to contain the runoff?

Jewel orchids - Macodes, Dossinia, Anoectochilus, Ludisia. With the right choices you'll have constant color and pattern for interest. With well controlled temperature and moderately high humidity they should adapt to fairly bright light, but still leave the brightest spots for your carnivores.

Actually, only some carnivorous plants want much higher light levels than orchids. A setup geared toward Nepenthes will probably have what orchid growers would consider medium light (Dendrobium-Cattleya light) whereas Droseras usually need higher light, Pings need higher light if you want color, and Heliamphoras need full blast, intense light. I have a Nepenthes, some Pings and some Droseras in my orchid tank right now and the Nepenthes has consistently red leaves (a sign of light stress, though not necessarily a bad thing) at Cattleya light.

Here are some plants I have grown alongside my Nepenthes and that I think would give you interesting color and texture:

• Pleurothallis prolifera - gets deep red under high light, likes much more light and slightly less water than most of the genus
• Dendrobium cuthbertsonii - cute bumpy leaves that can have shades of red and purple under high light, brilliant flowers that last for months. This one has a reputation for not wanting to go above 80F but I got mine from a seller who says his temps go into the 90s in summer and I think night temperature drop and pure water are more important. Needs R/O or distilled water, constant moisture, and brighter light than most Dendrobiums.
• Meiracyllium trinasutum - Cattleya relative, leaves turn purple under very bright (Vanda) light but it will bloom under less, wants to dry out between watering. Mine came from Andy's with beautiful purple leaves and they reverted to green within months, I don't think I have a spot in my tank that is bright enough to color them up again.
• Lepanthopsis astrophora - I grew this in the pot with the Nepenthes for a year and its leaves turned purple which isn’t recommended for the plant, but it bloomed like crazy. Wonderful flushes of tiny starry blooms, wants constant moisture and low-medium light.
• Mediocalcar decoratum ‘variegated’ - just got this one so not as certain of care requirements but I believe it wants consistent moisture and lower light. The specimen I got has a slight pink blush at the edges of the leaves which is really cute, and I’m wondering if that’s a response to medium-high light. I’m going to experiment with placement to see if I can get more of that pink coloring.
• Epidendrum porpax - grows like a weed and leaves will turn red under high light
• Racinaea crispa - strange, ruffled and curled bromeliad that gets deep red under high light, the most important care tip I have heard is that it needs very pure water.

There may be some Neoregelias that could work for you as well, although they may not like the constant moisture as much as most of the plants I listed.