After more than ten years of designing terrarium kits, answering customer emails and talking people through the odd foggy jar, I've put everything I know into a book. The Art of Terrariums is a 40-page illustrated guide for beginners, and it's out now as an instant download.
If you've ever stared at an empty glass jar and wondered where on earth to start, this one's for you.
Why write a terrarium book?
Plants were always going to get me in the end. My dad has collected cacti for over 50 years, so I grew up around a greenhouse full of spines. I spent years working as a product designer before the plants finally won and I started The Art of Succulents.
Since then I've answered what feels like every beginner question going. Why is my jar foggy? Is that white fluff mould? Can I use tap water? The same questions come up again and again, and a kit instruction card only has room to tell you what to do, not why.
The book fills that gap. I wrote it, designed it and laid out every page myself, and it's the guide I'd have liked to hand every new customer from day one.
What's inside The Art of Terrariums
It takes you from choosing your first terrarium to fixing one that's gone a bit wrong. A few highlights:
Choose by light, not looks
The most common beginner mistake is picking the terrarium you like the look of, rather than the one that suits the spot you have in mind. The book compares open and closed terrariums on light, humidity, heat, watering and effort, so once you've pictured where yours will live, the right choice usually picks itself. For a head start, our guide to open vs closed terrariums covers the basics.
Design it like a designer
This is the part I enjoyed writing most. A good terrarium isn't a jar stuffed with plants until nothing else fits. The book breaks composition down into three roles, the focal point, the structure and the ground cover, and shows how the shape of your container should shape your planting. It's the same thinking that goes into designing our kits.
Plants that pull their weight
Thousands of plants could technically live in a terrarium. You only need to know the ones that thrive. The book gives you a dependable shortlist for open terrariums, plus ten of my favourite closed terrarium plants, each with a clear job to do, from Peperomia and nerve plants to asparagus fern and baby tears. Our top 10 closed terrarium plants post is a good taster.
Step-by-step builds, illustrated
Both builds, open and closed, are broken down into simple illustrated steps, from the first layer of gravel to the day the lid goes on. You'll also find the soil mixes I use myself, and plenty of reminders about the thing that sinks more new terrariums than anything else: too much water.
Help for when things go wrong
Terrariums don't always behave. Fog that won't clear, fuzzy white mould, moss turning brown, a mystery smell, tiny creatures in the soil (good news: they're usually springtails, and they're on your side). The troubleshooting section covers more than 20 common problems and questions across both types of terrarium.
A free tip to get you started
Here's one straight from the book. When you finish building a closed terrarium, don't put the lid on yet. Leave it off for the first week so the plants and soil can settle, and so you can see how much moisture is in there.
Put the lid on in week two, then keep an eye on the glass. A little morning mist that clears as the day goes on is a good sign. Glass that stays heavily fogged means there's too much water, so take the lid off for a few hours and let some escape.
It's a small habit that heads off a lot of the problems people email me about. If you've already run into one, our guides to foggy terrariums and refreshing a mouldy or overgrown terrarium will help.
Who is it for?
- Complete beginners who've never built a terrarium and want to get the first one right.
- Anyone who's been given a terrarium and would quite like to keep it alive.
- Kit owners who want to understand why their kit is put together the way it is.
- Plant lovers looking for a creative project to make and enjoy.
Read it anywhere
The book is a 40-page A4 PDF that downloads as soon as you've bought it. Read it on your phone, tablet or computer, or print it at home. There's nothing to post, so you don't need to live in the UK to get a copy. It's available to readers across Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and beyond.
A gift with nothing to wrap
Being a download also makes it a handy gift: for the plant lover on the other side of the world, the friend who's just been given their first terrarium, or the Christmas present you remembered at the last minute. If you're in the UK, pair it with one of our closed terrarium kits or a terrarium starter kit and they'll have everything they need for their first build.
Give your first terrarium a good start
Terrariums have charmed people since the Victorians first grew ferns in sealed glass cases. One of the most famous, a bottle garden planted by David Latimer in 1960, was watered just once more, in 1972, and kept growing for decades. Yours doesn't need to go 50 years without a drink. It just needs a good start.
