Forget a message in a bottle, how about a whole ecosystem? A five-minute guide to terrariums and their nasty history
The solution to garden-less gardening began as a happy accident, has its roots in Victorian society and, also, the colonisers of Africa. The result, terrariums, are now beloved by hipsters everywhere, writes Lotte Brundle.
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Who knew you could pop a plant in a sealed bottle and it would live — nay, thrive? The Victorians did, apparently. And now so do hipsters everywhere. If you’re not yet aboard the terrarium craze, then let me catch you up. It is basically a self-sustaining ecosystem whereby plants in glass containers generate moisture in sunlight, which condenses onto the glass and thus allows the plants to water themselves. If you’ve ever wanted a plant, but stopped yourself because you knew you’d forget to water it, this is for you.
The first known terrarium was created by the London-based botanist and doctor Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward in 1829 after he had placed a chrysalis of a sphinx moth in damp soil in a bottle, for observation. After he sealed it, however, he forgot about it, as one often does with moths in bottles. After a week, fern and grass seedlings had sprouted, which got him to thinking.
Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward — the man we have to thank.
The upper classes in Britain were particular fans of the invention.
The trend became popular in the Victorian era, particularly when it came to transporting exotic plants on boats from overseas — which led to a boom in agricultural industries worldwide. In 1834, a man called George Loddiges was in charge of the first live introduction to the UK of Gleichenia microphylla (the very delicate coral fern). It came from Australia, all the way to east London and was the first plant to be shipped here in a Wardian case — they were then known by this egotistical moniker, not as a terrariums. Loddiges estimated that before this he would lose 19 out of every 20 plants he imported during a sea voyage, compared to 19 out of 20 surviving when using a Wardian case.
An amateur botanist, Allan Alexander Maconochie, is said to have invented something similar a decade prior, but never published his findings, so Ward got the credit. As they say: you snooze, you lose. Ward’s 1842 book Of the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases and the display of his cases at the 1851 Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations took his discovery global.
The upper classes in Britain and Kew Gardens were particular fans of the invention as terrariums protected plants from the city’s pollution (the result of so much coal burning, courtesy of the industrial revolution). So too were a slightly less kosher (read: incredibly evil) group, the European colonisers of Africa, who used the method to bring goods like spices and coffee to Europe.
An illustration of a Wardian case, in situ in a Victorian home.
Terrariums today come in all shapes and sizes.
Until that point Africa had been vastly unexplored due to the risk of malaria, but with terrariums the cure quinine — which came from the Cinchona trees native to South America — could be brought over to Europe to essentially immunise travellers. Without this, the historian Daniel R Headrick argues in The Tools of Empire: ‘European colonialism would have been almost impossible in Africa, and much costlier elsewhere in the tropics.’ Thus, a dark side of the terrarium came to be. The colonisers drank the quinine ‘tonic’ with gin, creating the gin and tonic, just to add insult to injury. In happier news, the banana from which the seedless Cavendish banana was developed was carried to Chatsworth, also in a Wardian case, so at least it wasn’t all bad.
Terrariums today are great ways to keep plants indoors while hurting no one. Open terrariums, as opposed to closed ones, also exist. Moss and ferns are usually kept in closed terrariums, which replicate their native tropical environment. Open terrariums are better suited to plants that prefer less humidity. I made one using an old rum bottle (very pirate-esque) but you can use any kind of container with clear glass walls.
Terrariums like bright but indirect sunlight and small-leaved ferns and moss thrive inside them. Making one is a fiddly process, but very rewarding (perhaps don’t drink some of the rum first, like I did). Best start with a drainage layer of small rocks or gravel, then add compost and your plants. A small pokey device is handy – perhaps a chopstick or other long thin item. Finish with a few sprays of water and enjoy for life. The experts at London Terrariums have some more detailed tips for the terrarium virgin. (The key, they say, is keeping things moist.)
Lotte made her terrarium at a masterclass run by London Terrariums at Rhum Tavern in London in partnership with Kraken Rum. The masterclasses will take place throughout the rest of the year with tickets priced at £55 per person. Click here to find out more.
