And here are the cloches. :-)

Jeri

Looks great, Jeri. I learn a new word, "cloches". We have all-week long rain in spring/fall with high humidity so my mix of perlite/light potting soil is too wet (I don't cover). I wonder what's the best mix for rooting in a humid & rainy weather? Thanks in advance.

I have recently become fascinated with something new to me:

Wardian case - I saw a neat gothic style one on hpotter (never heard of this company prior)

I am thinking of also buying a medium sized ready made terrarium.

Cloches are cute, especially the apothecary jars.

Has anyone had experience with Wardian cases. Could a miniature rose with moss survive.

I have the perfect place for the all above: on a table near a window in my study (french doors opposite the window).

I love those cloches. I wonder why the dogs have left them alone? Too heavy to play with?

Mauvegirl, your best bet for an indoor rose would probably be a micromini, something like "Si" or "Baby Austin".

Cloches, Terrariums, all those things, are not a suitable long-term environment for roses. You'll wind up with fungal disease and spider mites.

For a "terrarium" to be used for starting cuttings, you can use a large, translucent air-tight plastic storage container. You can see these in use at the Gold Coast Heritage Roses Group website, in a PROPAGATION article.

You can find this sort of container at Target, and probably at Wal-Mart or K-Mart. DO look for one with a translucent lid.

Jeri

Here is a link that might be useful: Gold Coast HRG for Propagation Info

I believe Wardian cases were how roses were originally shipped from China to Europe. The trip would have taken several months.

Back in the dark ages, when I first started rooting cuttings, peanut butter came in large, glass jars. They were about the same diameter as those cloches, but roughly half as tall. They worked well for cuttings stuck in the ground.

Jeri's right. There is no such thing as a tropical rose, so don't put them in a terrarium. "Si" is such a tiny thing that it will do nicely in a sunny window. I use horticultural oil for spider mites on indoor plants. I've used it once on a jasmine plant and never had to use it again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rose

OMG, cloches! For YEARS, I've been searching for cloches! Jeri, your photo of cloches in use, their interiors awash with condensation, bring back memories from my very early childhood in Ohio.

Friends of my parents had many cloches in various sizes. They also had a rickety greenhouse that was always pungent with warm, earthy odors. But most wonderful of all to my young mind were the cold frames -- holes in the ground covered with many-paned old windows. Windows into the earth!

It was a magical place where cloches and decrepit greenhouses and windows at ground level seemed to me to be essential tools of wizardry, vital to the workings of a kind of alchemy. I'm convinced that those early spring days in that rural setting engendered my fascination with gardening -- even the grunt work associated with it I love. Those mysterious cloches of heavy glass did a number on me . . . Thanks for precipitating the flood of fond memories.

I note with interest that lovely drapery of Platycerium fronds in your photo, Jeri. Are you able to grow that plant outdoors year around?

There's something fascinating about old greenhouses like that.

We had a cold frame for years. Not dug into the ground -- that wouldn't be prudent, with dogs around -- but up on a table. And it did quite a good job, too.

I do love the cloches. There's something really wonderful and retro about them -- and they DO work.

As to the staghorn -- Yes. That's a very very big old P. bifurcatum. We came by it "3rd-hand," but it has grown a lot since it came to us. I'll take a pix of "Big Mama" later today. It's attached to the garage wall, and drapes over a limb of a seedling avocado, which also has a "pup" of the original on another limb.

We have those, and two P. superbum, against the house wall -- and yes. I was serious when I said we basically have no winter chill. Platiceriums and Plumerias and Brugmansias live outdoors here through the year.

VERY rarely, we get enough of a freeze to nip back something like a Thunbergia ... but for the most part, we know where the cold "flows," so we've learned to avoid problems like that.

I think you can find Cloches on line, but it looks like the good ones are very pricy. We were lucky to get these at Tuesday Morning -- a sort of odd discount store -- for something in the neighborhood of $20. ea.

Jeri

Jeri

I had a 5 gallon glass container that had held distilled water (I have seen them for around $17.00 at antique malls). The plan was to take it to a glass shop, have them cut the bottom off and round the edge to create a large cloche. It had the advantage of an open top so that I could choose to close it off with plastic wrap and a rubber band or leave it open to reduce either humidity or temperature. The problem was that I tripped over it in the dark and smashed before it was finished. Any way it may work for one of you.

Cath

The ready made cloches & terrariums sold online are expensive.
I guess if you break down the cost of rocks, soil, moss, horticultural charcoal or whatever having your tiny ecosystem entails.

Of course, if you have a tight budget and no Dalmatians you can just use clear plastic water or soda bottles cut in two with holes punched in the bottom part.
In my climate I've found I'm better off not covering anything. I prepare a bed with garden soil well amended with coarse sand and compost, and plant my cuttings there in fall once the weather has cooled down and the air is humid. It's slow, as I have to wait a year for my plants to reach planting out size, and it doesn't work for everything, but I get a lot of stuff. Our relatively mild wet winters are what make it work.

Here's a big "duh" from me, Jeri. I seem to only be able succeed at propagation when I use cloches, but I never thought of putting the little pot under there. I always stick them in the ground - then have to dig them up, not a pleasant task since I'm afraid of hurting them, but it worked fine once. Now I'll try to stick them in the clear cups and see if that works just as well. Even as humid as it is here, leaving un-cloched cuttings in cups in the shade did not work for me. They all rotted. I was thinking that the "natural" organic situation of the garden soil might help the process. All those friendly organisms playing nursemaid to the babies. I don't want to think about the unfriendly ones. :(

I've currently have 4 or 5 cuttings under each "vase" in this pic. The two similar ones I got several years ago at Tuesday Morning for $9.99 to use for decorative purposes. They're sitting under the canopy of Reve d'Or. I guess a mayonnaise jar could work, too.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Remember, Sherry, to make holes in the bottom of the cups.

We bought a HUGE package of very cheap, rather flexible disposable clear plastic cups at Sam's Club. Clay made a stack of about a half-dozen cups, and drilled 3-4 holes of maybe 1/4-in diameter in the bottom, so that they will drain like "real" little pots.

We like the clear plastic, because we can SEE the roots developing -- which is wonderfully encouraging. And the cups are wider at the top than at the base, and very smooth, so rooted plants pop out very easily.

Clay keeps a bucket of soapy water, and when he empties a cup, he tosses it into the soapy water, to clean it some, ready for re-use.

Jeri

I got some like that, too, and they were impossible to puncture due to their flexibility. Great idea to stack a few together and drill the holes. Thanks, Jeri and Clay!! You're so smart.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

He's an engineer. He's really good at practical solutions. :-)

How large your cloche needs to be depends upon how big your cuttings are, in the cup -- but this seems to be a good solution for us.

Cuttings in plastic bags and the like -- ALWAYS rotted for us. And as the weather gets cooler, he will take more cuttings, and put them in the greenhouse -- but you could accomplish much of the same with storage-box "terrariums."

Check the Propagation pdf among the Articles, on the Gold Coast Heritage Roses Group website for a broader overlook.

Jeri

Here is a link that might be useful: Gold Coast HRG for Propagation Info