Posts by Alexander Whaley

I killed my first terrarium orchid by treating it like a fern in a jar — stagnant air, soggy mix, no view of the roots. Once I fixed those three things, my mini orchids started putting out new...

I killed my first terrarium fern by treating it like a windowsill pothos — sunny spot, potting mix, splash of water. It crisped in a week. The second time I tuned three things: humidity, light, and...

I’ve kept Haworthia on bookshelves and north-facing sills where most succulents give up. I learned fast that this plant plays by different rules — it survives dim rooms that would stretch or rot...

I learned the hard way that a narrow-neck bottle turns simple terrarium layering into a game of tweezers and gravity. My first attempt slumped, mixed, and flooded because I treated it like a wide...

When I built my first carnivorous plant terrarium, I grabbed a bag of peat and called it a day. Two months later my Venus flytrap sulked, algae bloomed, and the roots smelled sour. I fixed it once I...

I’ve built more succulent terrariums than I can count, and my earliest ones looked cute for a week before turning into soggy graveyards. The culprit wasn’t the plants — it was the decorations I...