Suggestions for adding more colour to my Carnivorous Terrarium?

[Ceapy]

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!

[borneotransplant]

How about highland nepenthes?

[Ceapy]

Originally Posted by borneotransplant

How about highland nepenthes?

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 ----------

Originally Posted by Jmbaum

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

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

[Jmbaum]

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

Originally Posted by Ceapy

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!

[Fishkeeper]

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.

[Ceapy]

Originally Posted by Fishkeeper

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.

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 ) 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 😁😁😁

[borneotransplant]

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

[Fishkeeper]

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?

[Ceapy]

Originally Posted by Fishkeeper

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?

Awesome I'm going to get some more spaghnum moss and stuff it into the crevice of the log and see how it does in a couple of months. I usually use a spray bottle every few days just to keep humidity up and the plants like it, but with a waterfall behind the log the rabbits foot fern hopefully shouldn't have any issues!

Maybe I can also put a few P. emarginata into the same spaghnum moss as the rabbits foot fern and get a cool combination going on.

I actually use seamax fertilizer for all my carnivorous plants. I either put a few diluted drops into the nepenthes pitchers, or on the leaves of my drosera. I also have bloodworms, but I find that because the humidity is so high the bloodworms usually turn into this black goo like substance (on the drosera) so I'm a bit worried about mold.

Do orchids need to be fertilized from the roots? Or would it be possible to just put a few drops of seamax into the mouth of the orchids and they can get the nutrients that way?

For the ruby necklace, it's actually in a plastic pot with drain holes... I should switch to a water tight container so the minerals in the soil don't leach into the rest of the water in the terrarium.

---------- Post added at 12:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:55 AM ----------

Originally Posted by PaphMadMan

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.

WOW the pattern on those leaves look amazing! It seems like their requirements would match my terrariums environment. I'll definitely look more into those as well. Thanks for the suggestion!

[PaphMadMan]

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.