The Wisconsin Gardener

cc We're moving indoors from living fossil trees that you can plant in your own backyard to a dinosaur terrarium that you can put on your windowsill. This is a great project for kids or the kids in all of us. We're at Bolz Conservatory at Olbrich Gardens in Madison. I am with Jennifer Sterling. Jennifer is the Youth and Family Programs Coordinator. You teach a class in this. I do, I teach a class called Dinosaur Domes that we teach kids about ancient plants. Then we pull in dinosaurs to have a lot of fun. They get to learn a little horticulture. They learn some paleontology. And they go home with a terrarium. Correct. Well, show us one of your terrariums and then we'll go ahead and make one. This is an example of a terrarium that we made here at Olbrich. As you can see, it's complete with dinosaurs. Of course! We've got a couple samples of plants. We've got ferns, liverworts, and some moss. These are all examples of not only ancestors or descendents of ancient plants from the Mesozoic they're also plants that love a moist, humid environment which is why they're in a terrarium. Which is what we're creating when we create a terrarium with a closed lid on it like this. Okay, let's talk containers. I have a feeling it has to be clear glass. It does. One of the keys is that it has to be clear. Glass is preferable to plastic because it doesn't scratch. Okay. You want it clear so that the sunlight can get through. Here's a sample of different sizes. You can use anything like an old wine glass, as an example. This is an old sugar bowl that has a lid. Look at how great that is for somebody who has a small apartment or small space. Exactly, right. Garage sale time, what a great idea that is. They don't have lids so the only problem with this one is you want to make sure to moisten the soil more often. Well, and looking at these already I would say plant size is going to be important depending on the size of your container. We will have more information about good choices for terrariums on our website. Good, and that's excellent because that is one thing you want to consider. You have a lot of room to work with in this container so you can have ferns and other plants that grow a little bit larger. This is a terrarium that we've started. You said this was actually a cookie jar. This was a cookie jar, yeah. It's got a sealed bottom, which is different from other kinds of planting containers. Don't buy something with holes in it. You want the sealed environment for these. Because this is like a miniature ecosystem. It is, you want to have kind of a closed ecosystem where the moisture funnels through. Well, looking at the bottom this is our first layer, and that's this right here? Correct, this is charcoal. You can get that at a horticultural supply store or gardening center. It filters the water so that it keeps it sterile and keeps the environment clean. Because it is a closed system. Then, the next layer, these are just aquarium rocks that you can buy at a pet store. They're real pretty, and add some nice color. A variety of colors, blues, reds and then you know, more natural tones. We chose the more natural tones. You just put about an inch layer of each. Your next layer that you're going to put in is the actual potting soil medium. Okay, it's a soil-less sterile potting mix. Yep, and we've moistened it so it's wet. Ahead of time? We've pre-moistened this, so it's already wet. You're just going to add a layer. I suppose how much you add is going to also depend on the size of the roots of the plants you're putting in. Exactly, so with the mosses and the liverworts they don't have much of a root system, if any. Okay, so those are easy. With a shallower bowl, they makes sense. Something like a fern you can see the plug is a couple inches so you're going to need that much space in the soil. These are all plants that you've either collected from the greenhouse here at Olbrich or here at Bolz Conservatory. Exactly. Some of these come in on the tropical plants we get so I don't know the exact varieties of the ferns. We would never recommend that you get them from outside. Not in the wild, especially something like liverwort which is very, very fragile. Okay, shall we try this one then? Let me just put a little more soil in. It's going to need a deeper base, right. With the taller plants, place them toward the center so that it has a little bit more room to grow. There? Yeah, perfect. This one doesn't have very many roots so we don't need to break up the root ball. You can just pack the soil gently around it. Then you're going to need a piece of moss. You said this probably lays right on top? It doesn't really have much of a root system as you can see so we can just layer it right on top. The liverworts, which are one of my favorites. The liverwort is similar. You're layering it around. Putting it up to the edge makes it look really pretty. Then you can always add rock to landscape it. If you were going to use the Selaginella here on the corner of the table this is truly an ancient plant from the Mesozoic would you use this a little differently maybe? That one, you might want to use in an open container. You can see how it trails so that would be perfect for this wine glass. Kind of let it hang over the edge, or something like that. Again, we'll have a list of different choices and different heights for different containers. Correct. In this, we're missing something. We're missing the major component. Yes, the Tyrannosaurus! You can get these at any kind of craft store or any store, any more. Most people wouldn't have trouble finding dinosaurs so we could put him maybe in front here like that. Just place him, or one or two, or depending on the child, six. Right, exactly. You've made your little environment. Now where am I going to place this? You're going to want to place this where it gets indirect sunlight. Not in a really bright location because these are all low light plants. They're going to get real hot in direct sun. You also want to keep it away from heat vents in the winter so it doesn't dry out. That's the main component. It needs sunlight, but we don't want it to get too hot. What about things like watering and fertilizing? Fertilizing, you shouldn't need to worry about. For watering, the lid on it helps keep it moist. However, you want to check it regularly. Maybe once a week, take the lid off so the oxygen can kind of circulate through. You'll want to just check. As the soil get dry, that's when you add a little bit of water. A little bit. Yeah, just a little bit. We're not pouring, or gushing No, no, just a little bit. We don't want to grow mold, we want a dinosaur terrarium. Yes, exactly. This is a great, fun project and a great maybe winter project too. Good idea, thank you, Jennifer. You're welcome.