Just an update.

Thought it would be nice to show the terrarium after it started to fill out a little more. The violets in here are a bit of a nice surprise. "Why?" You ask. Well, let me tell you.... Violets in terrariums are a bit hard to grow long term because they stay much too wet usually. Or at least for me they do. I think I found a small trick that seems to be working to keep the African violets watered but not too wet.

I have been using an all long-fiber sphagnum moss in the bottom of the terrarium as the "dirt" part. In other words I didn't put in soil this time, just the moss. It holds many times its weight in water and looks nice from the outside too. Then I wicked the little violets before putting them in the terrarium. That's putting in a small string into the soil and letting the end of the string hang out of the end of the pot. IF the violets start out moist, the wick will "wick" (or pull up) water to the soil in the violet pot when it starts to be less moist than the surroundings.


Since the violets stay in their pots and are "buried" in the sphagnum with the pot still there (which is against the rules for an AVSA show, but not against the rules in my living room,) they self-water AND because they are planted in a very, very light violet soil, they stay moist but not soaking wet.

So, I accidentally stumbled on a nice way to show off the little violets that doesn't result in their death in two weeks. Yay.