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The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays For Plants And Nature (2009)

by Tovah Martin(Favorite Author)

3.61 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0307407314 (ISBN13: 9780307407313)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Clarkson Potter

review 1: ter·rar·i·um [tuh-rair-ee-uhm] 1. a glass container, chiefly or wholly enclosed, for growing and displaying plants.2. a glass container, often a globe, in which plants are grown.No one is certain when terrariums first began. Ms. Martin points out that the concept was probably in use during the 1600's. In 1830, by accident, Dr. Nathaniel Ward took it a step further when he slipped a moth pupa in a glass bottle and plugged it with a cork. Little did he know at the time but a fern started to grow in the enclosed environment. Roughly six months later this fern plus a tuft of grass were healthy and he hadn't done anything to encourage their growth. By 1841 he had published his findings, presented a scientific paper and started to develop more elaborate glass home... mores or 'Wardian cases' as they would become known.Very popular with the Victorian people at the time, this fad took off by leaps and bounds. Fast forward to the 1970's and a resurgence of this special form of gardening became popular again. Terrariums, tye-dying, and macrame were some of the 'crafts' people worked on. But we were limited in what we thought we could make. When you refer to any of the older books on this subject they always showed a definitive amount of ideas.Okay, so what you can see by reading the definitions above, copied directly from a dictionary, is that one statement refers to glass containers that are sealed and the second one just says glass containers in which plants are grown....nothing about that they have to be enclosed.What I enjoyed about THE NEW TERRARIUM was just that...it gave you NEW ideas for terrariums. It stretched the boundaries to include plants in open containers that could not survive a humid environment. It showed you how to use a simple plant and pot with a glass cover. Nothing elaborate but a great idea for a beginner. In a nutshell, you are not limited to coming up with new ideas. Is the book perfect? No. But I have personally used this as a reference for building thirteen terrariums, all of them unique.Lastly, a special thanks should be given to the photographer, Kindra Clineff, for some awesome pictures. They are clear, concise and colorful. Without these fantastic images the book would only be half as good.
review 2: I picked up a glass terrarium this spring for free at a swap, and have already killed one plant in it.I decided a book on the topic would be a good idea. They're unusually not that easy to find. I grabbed this one at the library, and was very pleased with it. It's perfect for someone who knows nothing about terrariums (like what plants will and won't live within one) and it gives lots of fun ideas for creative usage.I'm currently looking for an orchid to put in my terrarium; the perfect place for a plant I thought I could never own because they're dangerous to pets. less

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