Jim,
That's definitely an issue and to be honest it's difficult to address. In my first terrarium I had that issue and I tried to solve it two ways. The first iteration of the hardscape I used to large driftwood pieces from the ground up. The issue I had was they blocked air flow and created too many dead spots. When I did the second design of the hardscape I essentially wove driftwood pieces to make a 'tree' and then had other branches act as buttress roots coming out. This way it was more airy and the planting spaces were larger. It did still leave a big open area of tree fern, so I took a bunch of clippings of
Selaginella and
Begonia and spaced them throughout to create some texture. I then put moss around it and layered some other plants around. There's no perfect solution but it helps. I have some
Restrepia there as well, but I'd had issues with some
Masdavallia and
Stelis (though others were fine), so just be careful and watch for dropped leaves and rotting.
Here's the terrarium I was referring to:
Planted Glass Boxes: The Prototype (Kym's terrarium)
Hope it helps.
Hybrid Mode
