The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature [Hardcover]

Tovah Martin (Author), Kindra Clineff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 24, 2009

If you live in the city but want to be close to nature . . .
If you call the countryside home but have no time to step outside . . .
If you are confined to an office fifty hours a week . . .
If your home needs the soothing touch of the natural world . . .

In The New Terrarium, Tovah Martin, one of America’s favorite gardeners, introduces you to the whimsical yet practical world of gardens under glass—a no-fuss way to bring snippets of nature indoors. Wherever you are, in whatever little time you have, terrariums are the perfect tool for nature lovers and gardeners everywhere.

With gorgeous photography, The New Terrarium reveals how this classic garden tool has been reimagined in a modern way. When encased in glass, plants thrive with almost no help from outside their little enclosed world, so you can host a plant almost anywhere—in your apartment where the air is dry or in your cubicle where there’s little natural light. Tucked inside something crystal and contained, the bounty of the forest or treasures from the beach or the meadow can merge seamlessly into your home or office environment. It’s amazing how some frothy fern fronds or colorful blossoms can transform a room by giving it a burst of vibrant green life.

With clear, simple step-by-step instructions and photographs to inspire and guide you along the way, Martin shares her years of experience growing and tending terrariums and shows how terrariums can enrich your life, including:

• different venues for cultivating your terrarium
• plants that flourish in these gardens under glass
• ideas and designs for creating your first terrarium
• how to care for and maintain the environment you’ve made

Martin has designed a unique range of imaginative terrarium projects, including ones that are suitable for children, enliven the seasons, incorporate plant propagation, and show off a nature collection. Whether you are a gardener or city-dwelling nature lover, The New Terrarium is the perfect way to spark your creativity, while helping you to bring your favorite plants into your home and giving them a place to thrive.

When nature is out of arm’s reach and you crave a little greenery, The New Terrarium can show you how to bring all the benefits of the outdoors close to you.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

TOVAH MARTIN is one of this country’s best-known garden writers and lecturers. She is the author of Tasha Tudor’s Garden, Tasha Tudor’s Heirloom Crafts, Garden Whimsy, A Time to Blossom, Heirloom Flowers, and View from a Sketchbook. A guest and contributor to the PBS television series Cultivating Life, she is also a contributor to Country Home, La Vie Claire, Nature’s Garden, Country Gardens, Garden Design, and Horticulture as well as many other publications. She lives in Roxbury, Connecticut.

Photographer KINDRA CLINEFF specializes in editorial, lifestyle, and travel photography. She regularly produces feature assignments for Nature’s Garden, Country Living, Coastal Living, and Yankee Magazine, and her images have appeared in numerous books and calendars. She lives in Topsfield, Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter; First Edition edition (February 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307407314
• ISBN-13: 978-0307407313
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 0.8 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Horticulture

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sadly disappointer, April 4, 2009

By 

Lady Slipper - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature (Hardcover)

I bought this book eagerly as it was well advertised as a sensational and new outlook on terrariums. However, I was sadly disappointed. The writing style - while easy to read - kept repeating the same things several times. A significant chunk of the introduction to terrariums could been hacked to make the prose less repetitive. Instead, I would have appreciated more details on the types of plants that can be used in terrariums. The pictures in this book are numerous but the imagination behind the terrariums is lacking. A considerable number of the photos simply depict potted plants contained in glass. I have done a fair amount of research on terrariums and the pictures on the web are far more creative and inspiring. In short, I recommend that anyone looking for information on on terrariums simply stick to the internet. Several sites carry good information on making terrariums and the 'Terrarium' flickr group will provide more inspiring photos than this book.

41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The New Terrarium, March 28, 2009

By 

Diana L. Pederson "Book Reviewer" (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature (Hardcover)

The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature
The New Terrarium

What do you picture when talking about a terrarium? Do you have the memory I do of my summer vacations? We summered up at Green Lake for many years. Dad would cut firewood in the woods behind the cottage. Mother would walk back with us kids so we could explore the woods. She gathered moss, decayed wood, a few pine cones, and the tiny British Soldier fungi we found on downed logs. These were carefully protected on our trips home. Then, she'd carefully arrange these treasures in a brandy sniffer terrarium. It served as a vacation reminder until the next summer.

This childhood memory left me with a permanent yearning for a terrarium. Unfortunately, I didn't seem to acquire the knack of putting these together successfully. I've tried various containers including my current 20 gallon long aquariums purchased originally to over winter some carnivorous plants. I've even tried with so called no-fail plants and failed.

Last summer I heard a rumor of a new book on terrariums. It was ordered as soon as amazon.com started taking pre-publication orders. It finally arrived at the end of February. This is one of the few books I've started reading at 11:00 p.m. and stayed awake until I reached the back cover--at about 3:00 a.m.

Tovah Martin and Kindra Clineff (photographer). The New Terrarium. Clarkson Potter Publishers, New York, 2009.

Tovah Martin starts out by defining a "terrarium" and showing us how a simple terrarium can help to connect us with nature even when indoors. She states:

Terrariums can be implements in a makeover. When glass enclosures enter the scene, not only is gardening possible inside your home, it's downright glamorous. The ante is upped as far as aesthetics go. You've elevated houseplants to an art form. ... (page 23)

She discusses all the different terrariums possible in Part 2. This includes anything from a cold frame outside protecting tender plants to canning jars or even to a full size Wardian case inside. The emphasis is on finding some way to keep a plant, enclosed in glass, near your bed, dining table, living room, or that cubicle office, far from a window, where you spend your days.

Now that she has you craving a terrarium she provides instruction to complete the process. She discusses the different containers possible followed by ideas for where a terrarium might fit into your lifestyle. The information includes the basics of planting and maintaining your personal creation. Her ideas will challenge you because she doesn't limit potential plants to our traditional houseplants. She even suggests using some of our perennials such as Heuchera (coral bells). I really appreciate her emphasis on making the terrarium something that satisfies you--not something another person might want.

The final Parts (5 and 6) provide a discussion of suggested plants - ranging from moss to orchids - with a discussion of where they might do well in your home. Of course, emphasis is on matching the plant to your décor and your indoor climate and light conditions. Then she provides some project ideas.

I find the "extras" in this book as important as the main text. Her case study section walks you through creating several projects suitable for a child to those best suited for adults. Her resources include names and addresses for various garden centers, some online sources, and a listing of plant societies that may be interesting to you.

The pictures provided are almost sufficient to make owning this book valuable. When you combine the pictures with the text, you have a book that will send you shopping for some glass containers and plants. I wonder if this book might challenge garden shows - indoors and out - to add a "terrarium" section to their show catalogs.

Do I recommend this book? I don't know why an indoor gardener would want to be without it, if only for the project ideas. May I suggest you order this book from your favorite bookstore or from amazon.com? I am confident that you will enjoy it as much as I do.

om? I am confident that you will enjoy it as much as I do.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Snail's Pace, September 18, 2010

By 

luftgarden - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature (Hardcover)

I must add my voice to those who found the content in this book lacking: what could have easily been expressed in one sentence was painfully stretched out across 2 or 3 pages of text. It reads as if a teacher were explaining an utterly simple concept to a very slow student - which is frustrating if you're anybody except the very slow student.
I usually consider the internet to be a good starting point to get a few ideas about a subject and that when you want to go into any depth books are typically more concise, contain more information, and are more accurate. In this case I found the opposite to be true. The book's cover is enticing but there's really very little behind it except filler and fluff.