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Re: plant ideas sought

At 01:06 PM 4/6/97 -0700, you wrote:
>
>I have an unused Aquarium and I was thinking it might be fun to
>use it for plants and get something growing in my very dark bedroom.
>Any thoughts on small, easy plants that might work? It has two bulbs 
>in the top, apparently around 25 watts each, and is around a foot tall.
>I'd especially like flowering plants, if possible.
>
>Wendy
>
Hi Wendy:

The gesneriad family of plants is perfect for this kind of set-up.  Consider
miniature African violets, Episcias, miniature sinningias (gloxinias).  They
all like it warm and will flower under reasonably low light.  Baby's tears,
creeping fig, codonanthes and alsobia dianthiflora make nice groundcovers.
The last two are also gesneriads. 

Consider leaving the plants in their pots which will keep them small.  If
you don't like the look of the pots fill in around them with peat moss or
sphagnum moss.  Then you can take out any that are declining (the sinningias
will eventually go dormant) without disturbing the others.

You can also plant directly, even landscaping the terrarium with rocks and
tiny mirrors for pools, etc.  I put a half inch layer of perlite in the
bottom for drainage but be careful not to overwater and do not fertilize too
often so the plants do not grow too fast.

Check Ron Myhr's picture gallery at http://www.pathcom.com/~rmyhr/ for other
suitable plants.

Good luck.

Ruth Z
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