Customer Reviews

The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I checked this new book out from my library to see if I wanted to buy it later on down the road, and I do! The book is beautifully photographed, and it contains very useful information. When I am ready to to start making my terrariums, I will purchase the book. I particularly like the section on appropriate plants-this way I won't have to go to the nursery and wander around like a dumb-dumb! Terrariums are the new hot thing in crafting...so I plan to get started soon.

This book has many great pictures but is kinda skimpy on the information. Your time/money is better spent reading articles and buying containers than buying this book.

Subtitle should be: Now you, too, can put a glass cloche over an already-potted plant!

I gave this book three stars because in aspects it deserves one star and in other aspects it deserves 3. Obviously, I was feeling generous.

One star aspects:
The terrariums themselves. You know, THOSE THINGS FOR WHICH THE BOOK IS NAMED. I don't know, maybe you've chanced to notice the cover. Perhaps you've said to yourself, "huh, that looks pretty much like a normally potted orchid placed in a glass apothecary jar." I said to myself the same, but thought perhaps the more elaborate/interesting/inspiring terrariums would be inside the book...like maybe Tovah wanted to keep the cover simple; uncluttered. But apparently Tovah truly believes that inspiring terrariums are potted plants neatly placed in glass container. Or--to get really creative!--an airplant in a martini glass on a bedside table.

Three star aspects:
There is some good information, such as a lengthy list of plants that work well in terrariums (and sometimes she even specifies closed or open terrariums, which is helpful), and some pretty good assembly instructions (though you can find equally good instructions on the internet)

Unfortunately for Tovah, when I first got the book I happened to open right to the section on where to place your terrarium so it receives adequate light to grow. Then I saw these sentences: "The suggestions here are aimed at terrariums with plants. If your case is filled with nonplant treasures from the forest--in other words, inanimate objects--then it's not necessary to concern yourself with the details of positioning in relation to light sources, and so on."
"What a fascinating and insightful tidbit of information, Tovah!" I chortled aloud, "So my rock treasures from the forest don't need light to thrive?". Of course, my initial instinct was to laugh heartily and point out the ridiculous sentence to everyone I knew. But then I remember the agonizing trial of writing my thesis and the antics of trying to add 45 more words here or there. So rather than laugh at Tovah's expense, I must rather sympathize, and know that I would have done the exact same thing. And perhaps, at one time or another, we have all done the exact same thing.

I purchased this book for inspiration and instructions on creating terrariums for myself and gifts for friends. Sadly, I had to return it due to lack of content. Although the photos are beautiful and inspiring, the basic instructions and general content are lacking. The text tends to repeat the same thing over and over. I was really disappointed because I was really looking forward to having this book and had waited several months to order it.

This book is a good over view of terrariums. the author gives a good account of how to make a terrarium but she does not show a wide range of different habitat types. many of the terrariums that are shown are best suited for carniverous plants and few were of forest habitats with ferns. But she does have lists of plants that you can use in a terrarium which is helpful and what i was looking for.

Beautiful pictures and glossy pages...basically telling the author's love for individual choice of a plant in a pot under glass. Really? You call that a terrarium? There isn't much variety and if I read "Wardian" and "cloche" one more time I was gonna scream!
Extreme repetition throughout the book - if all they were going to write about was how pretty they can be and where you can place them and how wonderful they will look and the trinkets you can put in them...could have been done in one chapter. I didn't need that instruction at all--wanted very much to learn more about HOW to get started, tools, supplies, HOW TO, etc.
Disappointed to see that when you get to the "how to" pages waaaay in the very back of the book, it's in black and white with NO pictures step-by-step!!!!
Nice book to leave on a coffee table... :-(

The New Terrarium is an outstanding guide for anyone interested in creating their own terrariums.

You will learn about the myriad of possibilities for terrarium containers. You will learn about the different types of rock, sand, moss, soil combinations appropriate for different types of plants. You will be amazed at the hundreds of plants that can do well in a terrarium.

Best of all you will learn how easy it is to create your own terrarium that is simplicity itself in its care and maintenance. You will quickly learn that building a terrarium is not just for those lucky few with a "green thumb": anyone, kids included, can be successful building a terrarium that will last for years with little care or maintenance.

The text is easy to read and well thought out. The photographs in the book are absolutely gorgeous! Just flipping through the photographs alone will inspire you. My wife and I have owned the book for 2 weeks and we've already created a dozen terrariums for our home.

We couldn't be happier with the purchase of this book and highly recommend it.