My daughter’s terrarium

I posted my terrarium update yesterday. Today I wanted to acknowledge that my daughter (who is 5) is the reason it happened.

I’d been slowly collecting items for building a new orchidarium for my mini orchid collection and also had a couple vases I tried out for some Venus fly traps we bought at HD. And I’d had a loose thought to maybe use one vase and the leftovers to make a separate terrarium but she said to me one day, “Can you help me make a jungle jar?”

I wasn’t sure what that meant so she described that it had dirt and plants and bugs, basically a terrarium. “Why, yes, yes I can!” And we got to work and built two! (Photos 4 & 5 are how it looked initially)

I may have made some strong suggestions as you’ll notice the similarities but ultimately she helped with the substrate, she chose the wood piece, the rocks, the mini orchids, and the individual leaf litter pieces and much of their positioning. She also rejected the addition of a micro Saxifraga stolinifera or Ficus pumila Quercifolia or Sinningia cv. ‘Little Wood Nymph’ as a center piece (much to my surprise). So in the end it’s many of her choices. I do most of the care and maintenance but if she sees me walking with the sprayer she always asks if she can spray them.

Some time later we were watching “Creative Galaxy” and the characters start taking about a jungle jar and I’m like, “Ah, so that’s where you got it from!”