Looking to give a terrarium as a gift

9 years ago

So I was hoping you all could help me. My brother's girlfriend has mentioned a few times that she is interested in terrariums and would like to try one. Her birthday is coming up and I was thinking maybe I could buy her the container and some plants. I haven't decided if I actually want to put it together or just buy her the stuff. I know she's been doing research so I'd hate to put it together and not do it properly. Or if she already has a vision I wouldn't want to get in the way of that. So I might just buy the stuff.

Anyway, I was wondering how I could go about doing this. I just want to do something small, what's a good container, like a large fish bowl? What are some good terrarium plants for a beginner (and where can I find them)? What sort of growing medium should be used? What else will I need to get? I guess I'm looking for a shopping list of sorts, and ideas on good, smallish, attractive containers.

Sorry, I'm rather clueless but really would like to try and do this for her.

-Erin

This post was edited by lilpetunia on Mon, Jun 9, 14 at 15:23

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Comments (2)

judyj
9 years ago
Hi Erin,
I know from my daughter-in-law, that giving a setup as a gift would be a great idea! Currently I have five terrariums and am putting another together tomorrow.

Mine range from arid Air plants on sand with driftwood in a fish bowl, to enclosed fern/moss arrangements, and from a smallish glass canister to a very large apple shaped semi-open terrarium.

Maybe you could buy the container, some sphagnum moss, gravel, activated carbon (I use all of this successfully on the bottom), and give a gift certificate for a local nursery where she could pick out her plants and the type of dirt she'll need, or some variation thereof?

Best regards,
Judy
paul_
9 years ago
Your best bet info-wise (and hers for that matter) would be to do an in depth review of posts on this forum. (The search function can be helpful for locating topics.) Questions like yours are understandably quite common and have been addressed in numerous posts ... so reading those saves lots of hand cramps from typing. heh

Check the FAQ out for some very general terr advice.

You can also find posts addressing plant sources and cheap sources for containers.

Give that a solid go, and if you have difficulties finding topics, by all means come back and query again.
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