I note the gesneriads, mostly not in flower right now. Overall, I'd be pleased to have it in my living room (well done).

As for gessies, there are a couple of petrocosmea (begonifolia and keystones little rascal), a bunch or micro sinningia (freckles, wood nymph, bright eyes, star eyes etc. - of course didnt note what is where and have no idea what's still alive), a few african violets (fundy fog, senks fruit fly, fairy fountains). And a small episcia (silver skies). Oh and streptocarpus heartlands baby kisses.

Groundcover is moss and creeping ficus. Also a variegated ficus and some sort of fern.

The sinningias are just starting to bloom (one week after the show, of course).

It won a blue ribbon in one local show and best container garden in another. The main criticism being that I had opted for mostly green foliage plants. Meh. I dont like the pink stuff ;) and I dont know of many colored foliage plants that don't grow leggy or are high maintenance in another way...

Yes, I'd rather have sustainable (for at least a year or two) vs pretty temporary foliage plants.

Kohleria would give you some dark foliage, as would Epidendrum Pincushion. The latter has been good trade fodder for me over the years. Ajuga would provide some dark foliage contrast, too. (Which reminds me ... I really need to thin out the patch in one of my terrs...)

How beautiful that is!!! I love it. Rosie

I have some kohleria, not a growth habit I am particularly fond of though. (Or I am just not much good at growing them well.) The only one I would seriously consider is a small one I have 'an's busy bea'.

I am debating some nematanthus instead of the creeping ficus in my next terrarium though. I know the natural growth habit is different from what the ficus does, but I suspect it could be trained to climb the walls... or maybe shaped into miniature topiaries...

Maybe episcias for , but most grow bigger and faster than is convenient.

What a gorgeous display... So cool!!!!

Regarding Nematanthus and Kohleria - when I root the tips of these plants under the dome - they catch rot and defoliate in high humidity quite easily...plus Kohleria has a relatively high light requirement...so they are probably not appropriate if the humidity is 100% and light is low - while Petrocosmeas and microSinningias are happy. May be small Codonanthe devosiana? Stems attach themselves to mats, root and crawl.. It is a slower grower that Episcias.. May be Deinostigma tamiana will be happy - it is small, blooming and tough...

i.

Epidendrum Pincushion -- a pothos relative -- a mini & a clumper.

Irina, despite what everyone says, I cannot keep deionostigma tamiana alive to save myself. Ok, if I happen to win one in a raffle I may yet try throwing in a terrarium, but no high expectations.

I have to check, I may have a codonanthe something or other if it's still alive. I didnt realize they grew differently from nematanthus. But then, I never really paid attention....

Paul, what size leaf is that epidendrum pincushion? It looks fairly big (planning my next, smaller terrarium, which is 16" wide if I remember correctly. The one above is 20").

Amazing, I have like 500 of the little buggers I sowed from seed about 2 months ago (tamiana). They prefer (or works for me) to be grown a bit dryer than AVs..so that may be the issue.

Most of the gessies like it humid but not soggy - the roots need to breath.. So may be D.tamiana will do better on the wall... Petrocosmeas look very happy.

It could just be that I was never all that interested in deinostigma tamiana , and that meant it got third rate care....

generally those types plants do better in a terrarium where I am neither trying too hard nor actively neglecting them.

For the longest time I tried so hard with petrocosmea, they just grew smaller and smaller. Then I gave up and put them in a dish garden and suddenly they thrived.

The terrarium has no standing water in it and no more than an inch of soil anywhere. That seems to be the ticket for most of the plants in there to be happy enough without overtaking the whole thing.

Where are you Karin, I love petrocosmeas too, but they prefer cooler than I can give them (during summer)? But if the key is a quick draining shallow soil, I could try again (lol).

Toronto, Canada. There are some great growers of petrocosmea in my club. Me, I'm still working out the kinks. Doesn't help that we just moved, and my new plant room is way cooler than the old one was. Good for petrocosmea, but the other plants are throwing a fit. (Sloooowly).

Karin

"Paul, what size leaf is that epidendrum pincushion? It looks fairly big (planning my next, smaller terrarium, which is 16" wide if I remember correctly."

The largest leaf is a whopping 2 inches (5cm) long from plant stem to leaf tip (so including leaf petiole) and roughly 0.5" (1.5cm) at its widest. That is actually rather large compared to the usual leaf size for me.

Yeah, that doesn't fill me with petrocosmea hope, in my subtropical z7. Darn it!

I am thinking that there are Petrocosmeas from Hunnan province =- and there are from the areas much more to the south.....they grow at the entrance of the caves on a vertical wall - so - no direct light, high humidity, no very much soil, never soggy... aha - sounds like Karin's terrarium. DB - you need a cave...

I'd love one...free summer AC. Not just for petrocosmeas, but also for cool loving humans.

Nice place to live... coastal part of the state of Washinton... everything is green... tomatoes are evergreen...