# Terrarium Without Walls



## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

This setup is intended to look like a very small slice of a natural forest. It borrows some ideas from bonsai, but unlike bonsai the elements are all 1:1 scale with a small sapling tree, some shorter herbaceous plants and a natural leaf litter. It is lit up with a single PAR 38 LED lamp.










I wanted to make a layout that would look like deep temperate forest. These plants are to be grown pretty much like houseplants and there aren't many temperate-looking plants that can handle being grown indoors very well, but I think I have figured out a few good ones. The sapling tree is a Montezuma cypress (_Taxodium mucronatum_), which is very similar to bald cypress (_T. distichum_), but more tropical and usually evergreen. I have been growing a Montezuma cypress for more than a year in a fish tank riparium setup and it has been doing pretty well along. The grassy plants at the bottom are _Bambusa multiplex_ 'Golden Goddess'. Most bamboos do not like to grow indoors either, but _B. multiplex_ adapts pretty well. This variety can grow to about 10' tall, but you can keep it much shorter (~15") if you underpot it. 










I hope to add probably a few very short ferns and maybe some kind of very small blooming gesneriad. I might remove the bamboo and replace it with something a bit taller and thicker. The texture of the bamboo is rather similar to the Montezuma cypress and I think it would be better to have something in its place with more contrast. 










Here is one of the little coast redwood (_Sequoia sempervirens_) trees that I got a little while ago planted here as a little seedling. I think that the LED spotlight makes a pretty convincing sunlight with crisp shadows and shafts of light penetrating down through the foliage of the cypress tree.










I am just playing around with this thing. The effect for this first attempt is perhaps not as dramatic as what I imagined. Maybe I will experiment some more with the idea.


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## nick65 (Mar 7, 2005)

nice!.. do you think the single led will be sufficient though? how many watts are you using?


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## Broseph (Dec 5, 2011)

Your lighting reminds me of crisp morning sun in the woods. It always seems to break though the canopy and give the smaller plants those distinct shadows.

Looking good!


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

I always follow with interest and pleasure your threads. They are always very ispirational! 
Years ago I wanted to do something similar for my balcony with Picea pungens glauca globosa, some moss and local limestone, but you went much further. Keep us updated!


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

nick65 said:


> nice!.. do you think the single led will be sufficient though? how many watts are you using?





Broseph said:


> Your lighting reminds me of crisp morning sun in the woods. It always seems to break though the canopy and give the smaller plants those distinct shadows.
> 
> Looking good!





rigel10 said:


> I always follow with interest and pleasure your threads. They are always very ispirational!
> Years ago I wanted to do something similar for my balcony with Picea pungens glauca globosa, some moss and local limestone, but you went much further. Keep us updated!


Thanks so much. This light is a PAR 38 spotlight I think 15 watts. I have wondered if I might get a more narrow beam with a DIY LED using a 10 degree lens. Does anybody have experience with that? I'd like to get a beam that just falls within the ground area with less spilling out onto the wall.

I also need to experiment some more with plants and other features. I would like to find some kind of indoors-suitable hardwood shrub to use alongside the cypress tree. I think it would be good to use a shrub maybe 2/3 the height of the cypress. It would also be beneficial to add a stone or stump.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

With the idea of trying more different conifers as indoor plants I have been looking around for other tropical or subtropical species as better candidates. They are kinds of hard to find and sometimes pretty expensive. You can find various _Araucaria_ on ebay, but they are generally twenty dollars or more for a little seedling.

Searching some more I finally ran into a place that sells seeds of several different tropical conifers...

https://sheffields.com/Conifer-Seeds-for-sale

I ordered seeds for a _Cunninghamia_, a _Keeteleria_, an _Agathis_ and some more Montezuma cypress. It will be a long wait, but if they sprout for me it will be interesting to try out these unusual plants.

I'll keep looking around ebay and elsewhere to see if I can find more seedling and 1-gallon sapling plants, too.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

I have run into another conifer sometimes mentioned as growing OK indoors...

Google: _Cupressus macrocarpa_









(Wikimedia - Creative Commons image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Cupressus_macrocarpa_Goldcrest1.jpg)

Monterrey cypress (_C. macrocarpa_) is not especially classy and I don't like the appearance of the young plants. They are a very slender and tight conical shape and look like those blooming heather plants you see for sale at the grocery store. The plant is itself sometimes sold as a cheap living Christmas tree wrapped in a foil and a bow like you sometimes see Norfolk Island pine. But it might be possible to improve the look by thinning out some of the branches to make it more open. Monterrey cypress is used for bonsai and I can imagine that it can handle some pruning and training.


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## Adogowo (Feb 8, 2013)

I am not sure on the Latin but if you are going for indoor evergreen a Buddhist pine is good candidate that can be trained small I think it is a podacarpus species . I like your idea for chameleons with some way to keep them from falling/climbing away from the "cage".

Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

Adogowo said:


> I am not sure on the Latin but if you are going for indoor evergreen a Buddhist pine is good candidate that can be trained small I think it is a podacarpus species . I like your idea for chameleons with some way to keep them from falling/climbing away from the "cage".
> 
> Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk


You are right. Buddhist pine is _Podocarpus macrophyllus_. It is very common (ubiquitous) for sale as a houseplant and it grows well indoors. I have wondered about getting some other less common _Podocarpus_ just to have something more unusual, but maybe I should get some Buddhist pine to try out too.


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## Adogowo (Feb 8, 2013)

I have seen it as a very nice specimen tree in a butterfly greenhouse here in Colorado and as nice bonsai that seem to look nice in photos. Not a lot of indoor bonsai here with all we have to chose from in our mountains. But elephants bush also makes a nice indoor tree. It is like a jade in leaf shape but the leaves are smaller and the branches will ramify. One of our club members has one that he donated to the Denver Botanic Gardens that is 24" tall with multiple branches and great surface roots. Louis said they are pretty easy to train. Although they are more succulent like if a thick layer of bark is important to you.

Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

I added a birch stump and I think it helps a lot. I might try another larger stump, too.



















I got this little 2" mini _Cyrtomium_ fern at a garden center for just a couple bucks and I think it looks good with the leaf litter. 










Does anybody know what kind of fern this is? This is another cheap garden center plant sold as a houseplant. The new fronds have this real attractive gold blush.


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

Last fern looks to me Dryopteris sp. (perhaps Dryopteris erythrosora).(?)


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

rigel10 said:


> Last fern looks to me Dryopteris sp. (perhaps Dryopteris erythrosora).(?)


Thanks so much. I think you're right. Is it funny they would sell that as a houseplant?


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

Here are a couple more quick pictures of this thing. The plants are all actively growing with new roots and foliage. The _Taxodium_ seems to be doing real well. I am think about hanging a second smaller LED lower to light up the ground portion better because the cypress casts some shade.










It's hard for me to capture this in a hurry and with my photography skills, but the foliage and other things have such interesting spatial dimension. This effect looks really cool in person.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

Thanks for the likes you guys. I am working on ideas for another setup of this kind. I am having fun with this one.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

I have a start on another setup like this. This new one will have a larger footprint about 24" X 48". This will give me room to add more features, such as larger fallen logs and a small vernal pool.


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## Jeremy M (Oct 19, 2012)

If you're going with a pool, here's a fun idea: go outside by a body of water and poke around the weeds at the edge to find some species of web-building spiders and place them around your setup. I find that most often these seeming water-specialist arachnids won't want to stray from a source of water and will gladly build their webs alongside the new source, provided there are sufficient twigs and cover. Perhaps you could find a small species of rush or marginal grass to add. Often times you won't even have to feed them; enough of the same little insects that are attracted to water outdoors will be drawn to the indoor feature and caught in the web. Otherwise an occasional offering of standard smaller feeders will do. If the spiders do decide to leave the water feature, it's unlikely that you'll ever see them again.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

Jeremy M said:


> If you're going with a pool, here's a fun idea: go outside by a body of water and poke around the weeds at the edge to find some species of web-building spiders and place them around your setup. I find that most often these seeming water-specialist arachnids won't want to stray from a source of water and will gladly build their webs alongside the new source, provided there are sufficient twigs and cover. Perhaps you could find a small species of rush or marginal grass to add. Often times you won't even have to feed them; enough of the same little insects that are attracted to water outdoors will be drawn to the indoor feature and caught in the web. Otherwise an occasional offering of standard smaller feeders will do. If the spiders do decide to leave the water feature, it's unlikely that you'll ever see them again.


That's a neat idea. A couple of very small web-spinning spiders have already found this setup that I have here. 

For the new setup I think I might use some _Neocaridina_ in the small water feature.


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## Steelen (Jun 22, 2014)

Sorry, this is my first post on the this forum. I have been lurking as I am trying to get ideas for what I want to be doing as my first viv when I move from Netherlands to USA (small background). But I noticed that almost none of the pictures seem to work for me. Is there anyone else having that issue in this thread? I was interested by the title, but I can't view the images except for the conifers.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

I apologize, those images mysteriously disappeared from my album space a couple of weeks ago. I was meaning to upload them again. I just got most of them back in there and here they are.


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## Steelen (Jun 22, 2014)

Awesome! Looks like a forest with bonsai. Is that tree stump still alive or is it dead wood? Would be amazing if it grew out over time to fill in more of the gaps.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

Steelen said:


> Awesome! Looks like a forest with bonsai. Is that tree stump still alive or is it dead wood? Would be amazing if it grew out over time to fill in more of the gaps.


Thanks. The tree stump is dead. Actually the whole thing is grown out about as much as I want. The negative space is much of the effect that I am trying to develop. If you go out in a mature woods you will see that the understory plants have open branching patterns and open space between them because they have to try to capture the filtered light that comes through that canopy of the taller trees.


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

Very nice! I'd like to have something similar on my balcony. I also really like the effect of the dead tree stump. But what's that? A little dog's jaw?


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

Thanks again. It's a raccoon (_Procyon lotor_) skull.

I have a couple more ideas for setups like this. I also want to try to incorporate moss-covered stones or logs. I think I might get some Vivarium Works replica stones (Vivarium Works Online Shop) and cover the tops with Hygrolon (Folius). With good water and light I think that moss will grow well in a setup like this, even though it will be open-air. I have noticed with this planting that the setup has created its own little environment with higher humidity than the average in the room. After misting with the RO the leaf surfaces and leaf litter near the ground remain moist for a whole day or more. The humidity will be moderated even better if I incorporate a couple of little vernal pool water features.


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

Well, I think it is better if you go in the woods and bring home stones with moss. In a temperate viv I think it's more beautiful and more natural, such as raccoon skull, than artificial stones - a part for the weight.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

rigel10 said:


> Well, I think it is better if you go in the woods and bring home stones with moss. In a temperate viv I think it's more beautiful and more natural, such as raccoon skull, than artificial stones - a part for the weight.


I would prefer natural moss-covered stone as well--they would be less costly and a lot easier to put together--but real stones reaching up more than a few inches will be very heavy. The false bottom for this setup won't support that much weight very well.

Those Vivarium Works rocks really are very convincing.


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

I agree. In fact, I have some beautiful stones, which I bought at the fish shop, but I do not think to use because of heavy. Now I do not know what to do with them.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

Another advantage of using the replica stones is that I can use pieces that were cast from the just the top 1/2 of larger rocks and with open bottoms. By resting this kind of replica right at the soil level I can create the appearance of large boulders mostly buried underground.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

Look at this cool new book title that I just learned about...

McKnight, K.B, Rohrer, J.R., Ward, K., Perdrizet, W.J.: Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians (eBook and Paperback).

Has anybody seen this?


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

It's been a couple of years, but I have gotten back to this project again with a new setup in a larger (36" X 18") enclosure.

Watch this time-lapse setup video for a few details...


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