The most beautiful terrarium I ever possessed has been waiting for me in the woods behind my tool/rabbit shed. I made my first terrariums in 1992 with my class of seventh graders and for twenty two years since I have been buying attractive glass containers and experimenting. I have bought books, I have Googled, I have done this and that and the other thing. I estimate I have created or supervised the creation of more than thirty terrariums, less than seventy five. Most of them have turned into a bottle of wet dirt or a bottle of grass. Then this afternoon I was collecting moss for entirely another project and discovered this glass bottle with soil, moss, and ferns inside - one frond emerging from the mouth of the bottle. Perhaps I should have left it in the woods. But for just a little while, I have brought it indoors where it perches on a north facing windowsill. It stuns me.
On the other side of the garden, a neon pink aster is blazing forth. You can read about it at http://www.abnativeplants.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/96/index.htm
I just call it
Glamour-ata glamour-ata, love the color, loves the bees upon it, love the contrast with the zinnias nearby, love the fact it blooms when everything else other than black-eyed Susans are well past blooming. My September was full of ignoring but enjoying the garden. The sulfurs (yellow butterflies) are here, the wild asters and goldenrod abound but I have done very little to support the garden other than water the rhododendrons and think about the to-do list come hard frost. How lovely that the flowers thrive and surprise me nevertheless.
