How were you watering the rex?

Will you be misting the ferns?

I've collected all the plants for this, but have yet to put them inside, as I am making matching pots for them in my pottery class. They will all be set on a square glazed ceramic tray I made in class to fit the Wardian case.

I have a fern, the small Rex begonia, a very small angel wing begonia, and a moss.

I can either open the door and water the plants individually with a long spouted watering can, or water into the ceramic tray and have the plants take up the water from their bottom drainage hole. Which would be best? Watering into the tray would be MUCH easier, but I don't know if that would work if they have different water needs.

You will find out what makes you and the plants happy as you go along. Wilt from being too dry or from possibly too much water (rot) will make you adjust your strategies.

Sometimes I add water to the bottom of the container just to add humidity and other times I must water the pots themselves (too dry).

The nice thing about terrariums (and Wardian cases) is that you do not have to water as often if they were exposed to normal "house" air.

Here is a very simple way I've kept six begonias happy as punch for a few months while waiting for an opportunity to either move them up and out or a bigger container. These are just two bottoms of the larger lettuce/kale/spinach containers (one inverted). I forgot to remove the label from the bottoms though - whoops! I had two smaller begonias in there as well but one was rotting (too small and not getting enough light) and the other was okay but not exactly happy.

The lid is almost in the lights! These are small pots (3 inch squares or smaller)

The black band on the top is the light fixture itself.

lid off one side

lid off the other side

Even tinier plants are in 2 inch, maybe smaller plants sold in a lot of nursery stores as Itty Bitty. With the normal lid off - 3 begonias and I think a Syngonium (maybe Caladium?) The tri-color Iron Cross begonia is right at the lid but shows no signs of rot. You can barely make out the sides of the container in this photo.

Thanks for the nice pics! I would have preferred all small plants. I bought 2 in 2" pots at a nursery far away, while I was still deciding what I wanted. Then the last 3 nurseries I went to have only had 4 inch pots.

I love your "hairy " begonias! I used to have some a long time ago but have not seen any such in a long time. I really like the ones on the left, third shot, and lower left, last shot.

The begonias in the first 3 pictures were from The Violet Barn. They are typically small on delivery so treat them as "babies" to begin with.

The last photo were of plants from the Barn Nursery in Chattanooga but a lot of nurseries will carry these as Itty Bitties.

You can keep plants small by keeping the pot size very small but requires a bit more attention since one day of being bone dry may kill it.

Here is an example of four different Black Coffee begonias in different size pots (and the small one is in a rinse cup).

Would like to see the case, and especially those pots, when you get it going.

I have a small case, maybe I will russle up some begonias and a fluffy ruffle fern, and get one going myself.

Oh, those are really pretty! I have never seen anything called "Itty Bitties" around here. I wish!

My phone no longer takes photos, but I'll get a new one in about a month. Most of the pots I made have had their first (bisque) firing, next I need to glaze them.

My pots are done, but in the interim, the rex begonia grew up too much! It's now too large to look good in the case. It would fit, but look squeezed against the sides, and that's not nice. Both the leaves got proportionally larger as well as the overall plant.

I'll have to look for one that stays small-looking, though I don't know how to determine that when buying one.

That's a shame that your begonia got too big (kidding). You can start a new begonia by a leaf and keep it in a small pot so that it will fit or like you mentioned get a smaller leaf rex - there seems to be many more available these days.

From these begonias in six inch pots

Or this (started a few weeks earlier than the above tray and allowed more soil in a community tray.

Here is one from Lowe's

and a couple more

This last one from Lowe's went into a tailspin - over watered at the store so I yanked it out of the pot so it would dry faster but lost all its leaves. New leaves are appearing now after a few weeks with bare stems.

And one from Walmart - this is a little larger leaf variety though (it was around $3.50 in a 3 inch pot)

Thanks! Maybe I'll try a leaf just to see if I can do it.

I didn't know they can be bonsai'd: just by keeping them a bit rootbound?

how do you tell which ones will stay small?

Bonsai can be done to many plants but often means trees and shrubs that can be adapted to growing in a tiny pot. If you constrain the roots then it can't grow to its full size.

You really can't tell which ones stay small unless you know them personally or it appears that the leaves get no larger (such as the few small rexes I showed photos of). Check out Violet Barn as they have some miniature begonias but be forewarned - even some of those can become big begonias.

When I looked closer at the 2 rexes I have, it is really long stems that make them large: not the leaves. Those have not really changed. But the long stems make them much taller and wider than before.

Reaching for light perhaps. Were they long when you purchased them?

Time for new smaller rexes or other plants to fit your case.

No, the stems were not long. Both nurseries where I got them were not brightly lit, though. If anything, in my house, even the indirect light is brighter.

Who knows what the light was like where these were started, though. For all I know they might not have been in the retail nurseries for long. I will keep my eyes open for a replacement.