Just over four and a half years ago (back in February 2017), I decided to build an Orchidarium to house some of my miniature orchids and supply my plants with automatic lighting, misting, and air circulation. Inside my Orchidarium, the automated plant care is provided by a misting unit, a hygrometer, LED lights, and fans.
Welcome to the fifteenth and final installment of my White Orchid BiOrbAir Terrarium Trial. I started this White Orchid Trial in March 2017, when I planted white flowered orchids inside one of my BiOrbAir terrariums. My White Orchid Trial BiOrbAir Terrarium was one of my favourite terrariums for a long time, but over the past two years I have been frustrated by tedious problems with condensation coating the inside of this BiOrbAir’s globe, which has spoilt the appearance of this enclosure and obscured my view of the plants inside.
Welcome to the fourteenth update from my White Orchid Trial BiOrbAir Terrarium. In this update, it’s a pleasure to share the sparkle of this Aerangis hyaloides plant’s glistening flowers with you. Yes – that’s right – this miniature orchid’s blooms really do twinkle in the sunlight! I’ve also got a crystalline Ceratostylis pristina flower that you might be interested to see.
I’m currently in the process of setting up a new terrarium, which is very exciting! Don’t worry, I’ll take you on a tour of my new Tall Orchidarium in due course. However, today I wanted to tell you about something unexpected that happened to me, while I was gathering together the materials for this new enclosure.
In February 2017, which (as I write to you in September 2019) was over two and a half years ago, I decided to create an Orchidarium with an automated misting unit, LED lights, and fans, to house some of my miniature orchids and provide them with automatic care. This wasn’t about creating a beautiful enclosure; I built this Orchidarium to house as many orchids from my collection as possible inside this enclosure and to provide these plants with automated care.
In February 2017, which (as I write to you in September 2019) was over two and a half years ago, I decided to build an Orchidarium to house some of my miniature orchids, with equipment that supplied the plants with automatic lighting, misting, and air circulation. Inside my Orchidarium, this automated plant care is provided by a misting unit, a hygrometer, LED lights, and fans.
Welcome to the thirteenth part of my Madagascar BiOrbAir Terrarium Trial – growing epiphytic orchids, which are endemic to Madagascar, inside the BiOrbAir terrarium. I first planted this Madagascar BiOrbAir Terrarium in March 2017. So, at the time of writing, in August 2019, this Madagascar BiOrbAir Terrarium is now two and a half years old. In this update, it’s a pleasure to show you a few of the twinkling, crystalline flowers of Aerangis hyaloides, alongside the beauty of the snow-white, pendent blooms of Aerangis citrata, as they fade.
Welcome to the twenty-second part of my BiOrbAir Review – Growing Miniature Orchids in the BiOrbAir! This trial update is not all about success. Since my last update, two orchids have declined – one more so than the other. One plant looks like it’s probably in the process of dying; while another miniature orchid just isn’t looking as healthy as I would like.
Spider mites are a serious pest of orchids, indeed they are a pest of a great many other plants too, but with the warm weather we’re experiencing in the UK, today I wanted to remind you about the importance of controlling spider mites on orchids and other indoor plants.
Spider mites thrive in hot, dry conditions.
Welcome to the thirteenth part of this my White Orchid BiOrbAir Terrarium Trial. I dedicated this terrarium to white flowered orchids back in April 2017 – which as I write to you today was exactly two years ago. In this update, I am delighted to share with you the glistening twinkle of Aerangis hyaloides flowers and the glamorous, snow white flowers of Amesiella philippinensis.
Sciarid flies are teeny, tiny flies, from the family Sciaridae, they’re also known as fungus gnats, or by their genera’s scientific names of Bradysia or Lycoriella. Although sciarid flies live outdoors, as the flies are so minute in size, you’re unlikely to notice these insignificant little flies outside.
In March 2018, I commissioned Rich, from Rainforestvivs (now The Rich Rainforest), to build this fabulous, custom built Rainforest Terrarium for me. I designed my Rainforest Terrarium to fulfil my requirements: I needed to provide an enclosure that would house as large a number of orchids as possible from my National Collection of Miniature Aerangis and Angraecum Species and my National Collection of Miniature Phalaenopsis Species, within the limited space I had available.
Welcome to the twenty-first part of my BiOrbAir Review – Growing Miniature Orchids in the BiOrbAir! Since my last update, I’ve re-arranged the planting, introduced some new plants, and replaced the moss inside this Miniature Orchid Trial BiOrbAir Terrarium. In this update, I’ve got some gorgeous Ceratostylis philippinensis, Phalaenopsis ‘Purple Princess’, Lepanthopsis astrophora ‘Stalky’, and Restrepia seketii flowers to show you!
Welcome to the twelfth part of my White Orchid BiOrbAir Terrarium Trial. This update focuses on the enormity of the disastrous effects and the simply catastrophic results of my overwatering earlier this year. You can see which orchids have survived, which plants are still battling and which plants have lost their battle. Sadly, there is no chance of any orchid flowers in this update, just orchid winners and losers.
Welcome to the eleventh part of my White Orchid BiOrbAir Terrarium Trial! In this update I will share with you the catastrophic results of over watering epiphytic miniature orchids, with advice as to how to avoid making this mistake yourself, and how to rectify this problem if you over water your own plants! First though, here’s an update on why I decided to run this White Orchid Trial:
Reasons for this White Orchid TrialI decided to plant up this White Orchid BiOrbAir Terrarium in April 2017, after receiving many requests from readers asking about white flowered, miniature, epiphytic orchids to grow in terrariums.
In March 2017, I created an Orchidarium, complete with an automated misting unit, LED lights, and fans, to house some of my miniature orchids and provide them with automatic care. In this update you can see how these automated features have performed over the past year, and you can also discover how the plants inside this Orchidarium have grown and developed.
Welcome to the eighth part of my Madagascar BiOrbAir Terrarium Trial – growing epiphytic orchids, which are endemic to Madagascar inside the BiOrbAir terrarium! Since I published the last update for this Madagascar BiOrbAir Terrarium, the plants inside this Madagascan terrarium have been growing steadily.
There are many new Madagascan orchids which are now growing inside this terrarium, these plants were introduced during my November 2017 reshuffle, which saw me move many of my orchids from one terrarium to another, so that I could group the plants more interestingly.
Welcome to the tenth part of my White Orchid BiOrbAir Terrarium Trial. In this update it is a real pleasure to share with you the flowers of Amesiella minor before they fade, the sparkling blooms of Hymenorchis javanica as they twinkle, and the magnificent flowering of Amesiella philippinensis, as these glamorous flowers finally finish developing and open at last!
However despite all this sparkle, it’s not quite as glitzy or glamorous inside this terrarium as you might think – at least one type of spider mite is currently affecting the plants inside this White Orchid Trial BiOrbAir Terrarium.
Welcome to the tenth part of my BiOrbAir Review – Growing Miniature Orchids in the BiOrbAir. The BiOrbAir is a specialised, automated terrarium, designed by Barry Reynolds. I first planted this Miniature Orchid Trial BiOrbAir Terrarium in August 2015, so at the time of writing – in February 2017, this BiOrbAir terrarium is 18 months old. Some, though not all, of the miniature orchids that are currently growing inside this terrarium were featured in the original planting of this terrarium in August 2015.
A year has passed since I set up my first BiOrbAir, an automated, specialised terrarium, which was designed by Barry Reynolds. I have loved and appreciated this special terrarium every day, and I will continue to do so.
Now, thanks to a wonderful and very generous, special gift, from my family and friends, who all enjoy seeing my first BiOrbAir terrarium, and have appreciated watching the plants inside develop and grow.
