- What is florarium
- What are the advantages of breeding mini-gardens
- What you need to create a florarium
- What plants are suitable for breeding behind glass
- How to create your first florarium
Miniature gardens behind the glass seem to be toy, but these are the most real living plants. Want the same? Nothing is easier!
Tired of growing indoor flowers in the old-fashioned way in pots on a windowsill? Try to create a mini-garden in any suitable glass container. Such plants look spectacular, do not take up much space and do not require much time. You have been looking at mini-gardens for a long time, but you do not know where to start, this guide will help you on how to make a florarium with your own hands. But first, get to know the features of this hobby.
- What is florarium
- What are the advantages of breeding mini-gardens
- What you need to create a florarium
- What plants are suitable for breeding behind glass
- How to create your first florarium
What is florarium
Since the times of the great geographical discoveries, people were so impressed with the exotic flora of hot countries that they began to arrange winter gardens in our latitudes. This hobby was affordable only for the nobility, because, moreover, the plants themselves cost a lot of money, so they also had to build impressive greenhouses. The times of princes and spacious estates are over, but the craving for beauty has remained. So the idea of florariums - gardens in small glass containers was born.
In the conditions of small apartments, florarium will be a worthy replacement for bulky greenhouses. Due to the closed space, it maintains a special microclimate favorable for the growth and development of many plants. Behind the glass you can recreate a piece of rainforest, rocky or desert landscape.
It all depends on your taste and experience. Here it should be noted that different types of florariums require different training from their owners. For example, the florarium from succulents will be mastered even by a novice, who has never held indoor plants before. But the creation of tropical forest will require some experience in this matter.
What are the advantages of breeding mini-gardens
If you ask such a question to the ardent fan of indoor plants, then we get an obvious answer: “Because I like it!”. So all the arguments in favor of florarium are intended for those who want to take the first steps in creating a mini-garden.
- It is beautiful! A glass vase filled with live plants and decorative elements - pebbles, creeps, figurines looks unusual and stylish. Any interior will benefit from such decor.
- It is interesting! Care and observation of a small ecosystem will be of interest to both adults and children. Usually mother grows up beauty, and children and other households admire the result.
What you need to create a florarium
And it won't take much. You can find half of what you need at home, and buy the other half at flower shops and pet stores. So, we stock:
- Glass container The choice is great. You can buy a ready-made, but not always cheap container - a special cache-pot, a round or goblet-shaped aquarium. You can build a house for the plants with his own hands, there can not do without male help. And you can adapt to your needs all that is available - cans, large glasses, big-bellied bottles, vases.
- Drainage - expanded clay, sandstone, pebbles. It will take a lot, because in a closed container of excess water there is nowhere to go. Abundant drainage will not let the roots sour.
- Activated carbon . It absorbs extraneous odors and helps the soil to stay fresh. Usually it is used in tropical florariums.
- Substrate for plants . Succulents need a light sand mixture, orchids special soil based on tree bark, the rest of the plants will be quite ordinary flower land.
- Plants . The main condition for choosing plants is that they should be small and, preferably, slow-growing.
- Decorative items . Beautiful pebbles, stained glass, moss, crust, ceramic or plaster figurines. Everything that seems to you beautiful and worthy of adding to the overall composition.
- Tools . Planting plants in the florarium and caring for them is most convenient with the help of special tools. A surgical clamp is ideal for planting in hard-to-reach containers such as a bottle or a vase - it is convenient for them to fix the plant. If you do not have such luxury, then ordinary big tweezers, Chinese sticks or knitting needles will come in handy. It is convenient to tamp the ground with a wine cork or school eraser. For irrigation, a spray bottle, a small batch, or a medical pear will do.
What plants are suitable for breeding behind glass
No matter what plant you put under glass, it will actively grow and develop there, because the increased temperature and humidity are favorable for most green residents. But many plants are so much in tune with such conditions that they start to run amok and eventually fill the whole space, and soon they completely crawl out of the limits of the container.
To prevent this from happening, plants for florarium need to be selected with special care. For beginners, the ideal option would be succulents: fatty meat, saxifrage, agave. They grow very slowly, do not require complex conditions of detention. With their help they create florariums with a desert or rocky landscape.
For the rainforest in the bank fit small bushes of tradescantia, begonias, chlorophytum, fitons, pili. These plants are prone to active growth, so the tradescantia, begonias will have to regularly pinch the growing point, and such as chlorophytum and completely replaced with new ones.
The most difficult to care are orchids. For their maintenance, spacious florariums are made with lighting and an airing system. For small vessels, only species with short peduncles such as a venereal slipper are suitable.
How to create your first florarium
So, it's time to make your dreams come true! Let's start with the simplest florarium of succulents. You will need:
- A small round aquarium or can.
- Drainage - it is better to use claydite, it retains moisture well.
- Soil for succulents or a mixture of garden, leaf earth and sand.
- Sand, small and large stones for decoration.
- A small bush of saxifrage and two bushes of fatty.
The tank will have to be washed well and during the landing act carefully so as not to cover the walls with earth. A quarter of the volume of the banks must be filled with expanded clay, and on top of the layer of earth is about 5-7 cm. Now it was the turn to plant the plants. A hole for sushi is made in the ground and a little water is poured into it with a wipe or a pear. Bush tweezers gently placed in the hole and hold.
With the other hand, with the help of a stick, straighten the roots and cover them with earth. Also plant the rest of the plants. Cover the entire surface with a layer of pebbles or sand. At this stage, you can express your imagination - make a pattern of multi-colored pebbles, put more stones in the background, imitating a rock.
All work will take on the strength of 15-20 minutes. The first time the bushes are watered more often, then reduce watering. It is convenient to do this with a small borehole with a long nose. Feed the plants is not worth it, otherwise the composition will grow very quickly.
That's all. Your first florarium is ready. It remains to put a house with plants in a bright place of the living room or a cozy bedroom and admire its concise beauty. Caring for florarium is even easier than for the most unpretentious houseplants , therefore do not refuse a mini-oasis, even if you consider yourself lazy.
Author: Oksana Kirichek, especially for the online magazine “Women's Hobbies”.
Want the same?Tired of growing indoor flowers in the old-fashioned way in pots on a windowsill?
