Hi, Amorton. Okay, a personal #1 beginner's and lifelong gardener's plant for sunnier areas: Salvia guarnitica, species name, but also known as "anise sage," "that blue thing," etc. Available at almost all nurseries these days because it's so wonderful. A deciduous perennial that grows up spring after spring, spreads nicely over time, but not obnoxiously, and brings continual rewards for very little effort. You can look it up and read about it. There are named selections, 'Black 'n Blue,' etc., but the species is excellent (no matter which, you'll end up sharing with visitors who want a start). It's a deciduous perennial plant, so will live on in your garden year after year, coming back each spring with nice green foliage and then spikes of little deep true-blue flowers from late spring to hard frost in the autumn. It grows about 3-4 feet over the summer. It makes a wonderful supporting player for virtually anything else in the garden and is a great favorite of hummingbirds. If you have it in your garden, you can count on a hummer moving in and defending that territory against all comers. It can be tucked behind lower plants, in front of tall ones, between still others (like behind those daylilies and alongside roses). It's virtually problem-free but, in this climate, it'll look better later in the summer if you now and then pinch off the dead flower stems (very unobtrusive if you don't) plus a few of the leaves below. That'll keep it nice and full, growing new leafy spikes up from below. Your fingers and a glass of wine or sweet tea as you stroll around after dinner are all you need for this. :)

Probably the easiest are those that do not require any kind of a dormancy [or rest] period. Ones which instead like warm moist conditions all year round. Drosera [sundews]: some good candidates: D. capensis, & D. spathulata lowland Nepenthes: such as N. gracilis, N. ventricosa, N.ampullaria ***be forewarned that pretty much all the neps will at some point outgrow a small terr [15 gal or less] - and most rather quickly [w/in a year or two]. Pinguiculas [butterworts]: ex. P. primaflora Sarracenia [terrestrial pitcher plants] ***same problem as w/ neps Utricularia

Unfortunately, truth be told, there really aren't any for a closed terr. This question comes up every so often -- not surprising as there are some neat cacti and succulents out there. That being the case, rather than simply omit any reference to desert terr, it seemed wise to address this issue. Cacti as a whole do not make good terr inhabitants. The main problem is moisture. Most cacti and many succulents come from extremely arid environments. The terrarium is just the opposite - the whole idea is to maintain humidity. Faced with the higher humidity & stagnant air, cacti and many succulents do very poorly and soon suffer from fungal/bacterial problems. Light is another problem. Most require very high light levels. But in the close confines of a terr, this results in high temps that would "cook" them. Now an open terrarium would be a different situation. It would likely be very challenging but might be possible. As people experiment with plants for such a terr, I hope they will let me know as to their successes and failures. Some possible candidate plants to experiemnt with if one does decide to attempt an open terr/desertarium might be: sago palms (while they are small, of course) Peperomias Jade plants

This does depend on a number of things, not the least of which are variables like the size of your terr, the conditions you will be able to provide, and the "look" you want. Many folks, not surprisingly, want at least a few plants that will bloom. Keep in mind that such plants often will need quite a bit of light. From the foliage aspect, there are a number of neat plants that can provide you with different textures/looks. A few plant examples: African violets [note: while growing AV's in a terr is almost effortless, some people do find it difficult to get them to bloom] small "northern pines" are slow growers small variegated ivy baby tears Ferns