First small terrarium? Need inspiration.

[KellyKhaos]

Okay, going to jump right on in!

Last night I was at a local craft store & I guess the hours of lurking in this section finally got the better of me. I was heading towards checkout when I spotted 1/2 gallon mason jars on sale. Of course my orchid obbsessed brain started floating around images of all the lovely mini orchids I've seen on here & I ended up with two of them! Now I have two large mason jars & no idea of what to put in them. Was thinking leaving one open with out the lid & the other sealed.

I normally grow most of my orchids outside hung from a tree or mounted on it. Mostly phals, dens, cats & vandas with a couple of oddballs tossed in. So this will be my first real adventure with indoor growing & species. I've spent hours looking here & in the mini section but I'm not sure what the best options would be best.

The room they would be set up in is normally kept around 72-74degrees & the ambient humidity of the house fluctuates between 65% to 80% (yay florida!). I currently don't have any special lights for orchids but 4 recessed lights in the ceiling. I do have an area near my makeup/sfx table that has a combine lumen count around 2000 when all the lights are on.

Now with all of that in mind, are there any orchids that might work. Right now I'm not worried about looks so much as gaining experience & not breaking the bank to gain it.

Thank you for reading & any help!
Kelly.

[Subrosa]

Haraella odorata is an easy choice. As long as it's kept moist and in Phal light it grows and flowers. And although I haven't kept it myself, a recent thread reminded me of how cool Lepanthopsis astrophora is.

[Leafmite]

Cirrhopetalum tingabarinum, Lepanthopsis astrophora, Haraella rectrocalla, Pleurothallis rubella, Platystele stenostachya, Lepanthes telipogoniflora are all miniature orchids that are doing very well for me in jars right now (lid on). J&L J&L Orchids ~ Our Miniature Orchid Selections has a really mini miniature Bulbophyllum labeled as Bulbophyllum biseriale that I have also been growing in a jar (not sure if J&L has it labeled correctly). I also have J&L's Cirrhopetalum auratum which is very small, and does great a small tabletop greenhouse (this would probably be good with the lid off).

You could also call Andy's Orchids and just tell them what you want to do and the size of plants you are hoping to acquire and let him recommend the orchids.
Good luck!

[Anastasia Beverhausen]

I don't know too much about the really small and interesting miniature species, but I've successfully grown mini cattleyas and mini phals as well as a den aggregatum in much smaller glass vessels than a half gallon jar. Of course there were no lids involved with any of those mini terrariums, but they looked really pretty and i added in some shells or interesting stones on the top of the media for decor. For media i have used a drainage layer of pea gravel, topped with medium grade orchiata bark, sphagnum moss over leca, and plain ole semi hydroponics. Just some food for thought if you ever decided to go that route