Newly finished Exo Terra 12x12x18

[Pattywack]

Thanks everyone! A few plants are blooming now, the Platystele stenostachya, Scaphosepalum rapax, Pleurothallis rubella has a spike, Pleurothallis macroblepharis blooming like crazy, and the tiny Begonia vankerckhovenii has several tiny flowers!

The stenostachya has been a favorite for a long time even though it's blooms are so tiny. The moss is beginning to grow on the background so I'm happy with it for now, it should really take off in a few more weeks.

I harvested some moss plugs from my garden a long time ago, kept them isolated and alive until I decided to use some tiny pieces on the cork round/stump. They seem to have established well on the stump. They are small and fit into indentions. They may go dormant, but they look neat. This terrarium is a lot of fun!

[silken]

It is really nice. Looks like a lot of work but the results are worth it.

[u bada]

very cool!

[No-Pro-mwa]

Wow, it looks great. Lots of work.

[Joseia]

Looks very nice! Every time I see pics of these natural-looking terrariums I decide that I just need to try and do one of my own. But then I get lazy.

[Pattywack]

Joseia, if you think you would enjoy doing a terrarium you should. They are a lot of fun to plan and set up. You can take your time gathering plants and decorations, set things as you like and make changes as you go. Some of my plants I've had for years and they have never grown and bloomed as well as they have in this setting. It's relatively easy to maintain, I mist daily and it is a stable environment, plants are happy and growing, blooming. This is a small Exo Terra, a big one would be amazing!

[Zoomom31]

Being new in responding to posts, I THOUGHT I had done so correctly last evening, but I don't see it, so ...

Beautiful job! Having an "eye" is probably the most important tool when creating habitats, be they for animals or plants. You truly do appear to know what the plants would like in their natural habitat, and you can't ask for better than that.

Coincidentally, I also have been working on a 12x12x18 Exo. Not far along yet ... and as you said, many changes likely before I'm satisfied! But I love having this small slice of nature near me. I seem to do it a lot, as my desk area has my vipers, tropical frogs, Abronia lizard, etc ... all in naturalistic settings, fully planted. I even had an orchid I've had for 6 years without a rebloom, suddenly decided it loved being in an Abronia habitat, and flowered! That galvanized me to do an exclusively-for-orchids (well, and perhaps a couple of tilandsias and gesneriads) habitat, and here we are.

Thank you for posting this - please keep photo updates coming, it makes me smile!!

[PaphLover]

So enjoyable! I'd probably get lost sitting in front of it just watching the plants doing their planty things. I watched an interesting documentary on YouTube titled, "What Plants Talk About" or some such thing. Fascinating!

[Pattywack]

Thank you Zoomom and Paphlover, the terrarium has been a joy. There is not much work to it once you finally have your plants set in place and they acclimate to the environment. I have really enjoyed watching things grow and bloom.

This sits in my kitchen on the countertop/bar area and everyone is so interested in seeing how it is coming along. Friends always want to see it when they visit.

Here are some pictures, a few blooms. The kitchen has a big bay with lots of windows and the breakfast area is behind the terrarium with glass french doors so there is so much natural light, it is difficult to photograph without glare.


The first picture is Platystele stenostachya, blooms for months. Second pic is Pleurothallis macroblepharis, almost constantly blooming though blooms hang downward. Third pic a bright orange mushroom along with Pleurothallis
rubella and Bulbophyllum moniliforme.

It is not allowing me to upload pictures now:/

[Pattywack]

I'll try just a photo of the terrarium, no micro.

Wow, this is a pain today. I'll try more later, sorry