You can create wonderful miniature gardens in large plant containers. These gardens can have all the features that belong to a normal garden such as trees, shrubs, and flowers. You can create a miniature garden using plants that have been created to be dwarfs genetically, or young plants. You can also use regular plants with growth that has been slowed. Keep reading to learn more.
Best Plants for Indoor Miniature Gardens
Young plants can serve your purposes for a miniature garden for only a short period of time. Once they grow too big, you'll have to transplant them to their own pot. Be sure to place plants together that have similar needs; if their needs are all different (one needing more water and one needing dry potting mix, for example), they will not survive. If you crowd the roots, the above ground part of the plant will remain small. To slow growth, plant them only a few inches (8 cm.) away from each other. If you use little stainless steel woven baskets to put the plants in before planting in the main container, their roots cannot spread out and grow, but they can still absorb water and nutrients. Plants well suited to this type of display are:
- Coleus (Coleus)
- English ivy (Hedera helix)
- Rubber tree species (Ficus)
- Hawaiian schefflera (Schefflera arboricola)
- Aucuba (Aucuba)
- Ti plant (Cordyline fruitcosa)
- Croton (Codiaeum variegatum var. pictum)
- Various species of dracaena (Dracaena)
Miniature Plants for a Miniature Garden
Mini plants are also in fashion. Do you want a miniature rose garden on your windowsill? The cultivar 'Colibri' will give you red flowers, 'Baby Masquerade' is orange, and 'Dwarf Queen' and 'Dwarf King' are pink. Some other plants that are offered as minis include:
- African violets
- Cyclamen
- Begonias
- Peace lilies (Spathiphyllum)
- Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima)
- Impatiens (Impatiens)
- Azaleas (Rhododendron)
- Leafy cacti varieties
Don't count on these to last forever, though. In the nursery, these plants were quite often treated with a chemical that inhibited their growth. Once in your hands, they will eventually grow normally. You can also purchase complete systems for cultivating miniature plants, with complete instructions, from garden centers.
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