Re: Aroids in terrariums

From: ERTELTJB at ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu on 1997.11.03 at 22:39:18(1571) Jean asked about aroids which are suitable to terrarium growth, and as I have suggested in several other posts about terrarium growth ( on other lists ), the size of terrarium or plant case, along with how much you want to fool with it/replant it/disturb it are major factors to consider. One of Dewey's favs., Caladium humboldtii 'Marcel' is doing real well for me. There are also several smaller Anthurium species (collected, species unknown), an unknown and unflowered species which I think is in the genus Stenospermation, several smaller cultivars in the genus Homalomena which do well in smaller conditions. I have a plant that very closely resembles Anthurium clidemioides (sp?) that is a wonderful terrarium species with incredible leaves. Alocasia reversa stays small enough that it is proving a good mid-sized terr. plant, and several other smaller Alocasias are also good. I also grow a stay-small species of Syngonium which I don't think has ever been named - I received a piece of it from the Marie Selby Gardens many years ago - dark-velvet green with a silvery mid-rib; it grows a half-dozen leaves or so, and then stem with occasional nodes for a foot or so before leaves resume or new shoots start. There are lots of possibilities for ones that stay fairly small. And, of course, if you don't mind redoing your terratium once or twice a year, you can go with many others as well if you get starts or seedlings, because it takes them a while to get established. Then again, once they are established, when you go to pull them out you discover root systems several feet long running under all the soil in the terrarium - I try not to go that route myself. I hope that this helps answer the question. There are those who just dump a Philodendron or Pothos into a terrarium with some water and gravel when they're raising frogs - as you can tell by the listing above, that is not the kind of "effort" that I have in mind when I talk about terrariums and plant cases. Good Growing to all. - Jonathan

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