Terrariums: Your Indoor Garden Forest

Update 2022: Exceptional Terrariums is no longer operating.

I love terrariums. They’re beautiful, easy to care for and thrive on neglect. Most houseplants need consistent care – that means checking moisture levels and watering when needed. Yet terrariums hardly ever need water. They create their own little ecosystem and can happily live for months without any care. Now that sounds like the perfect option for someone who:

• travels frequently
• forgets to water
• waters too much

All these “tiny forests” need is bright indirect light and a consistent temperature – two ingredients commonly found indoors.

Linda Barnett of Exceptional Terrariums creates miniature forests in her home studio in Concord NC.

Barnett says her terrariums, which contain plants such as ferns, lichens, moss, and bromeliads, typically need only to be gently watered every six months. These plants prefer moisture and shade.

I love the attention to detail in her work. Carefully placed pebbles, stones, slopes, and the green moss she grows and harvests herself.

She also offers some lovely succulent arrangements and mounted Tillandsia (air plants that grow without soil).

Here are some more photos from her booth that was at Atherton Mill in 2014

Want to make one yourself?

They’re gorgeous and I am so glad I bought one of my own. It is happy living here on my desk, my own personal tiny forest.