A Wardian Case

[zozo]

Still had a couple of old shaby looking wooden mini greenhouses slowly fauling and softening away in the garden.. I never realy used them for long because they had to many gaps and to much ventialtion to work as a green house. At least holding plants in it that required a lot of moist didn't work realy well.

Noticed that the glass after all these years was still intact and actualy a pitty to trash them.. Also

Had a set of already opend cans with food grade epoxy resin, just enough for a small project. And thought give these little green houses a pimp and make 'm look a bit more antique with a victorian touch. Sanded the wood clean.. Gave the wood a proper epoxy coating and kited the glas pieces back in with silicone. And added some casted brass feet. Now it is actualy 100% water proof, could use them as ittle aqaurium if i wanted. 🙂 And structuraly darn solid and never rot again.

Anway i decided to set one up as Wabi Kusa.. Actualy do not realy know if it is legit to call it that.. But it is definitively going to be a Wabi Greenhouse.. 🙂

It is rather small 30 x 14 x 19 cm , 30cm with lid..


The hardscape wood in it is a cut piece of what i think Black populus bark. There still are some tiny pieces of dried out mosses left on it from it's days on the forest floor where i found it a while ago and i realy like the structure..

The plan is to grow small Microsorum phillipine at the right wood base, small crypt parva, mosses, maybe some utricularia and a hygrophilla pinatifida at the left.


Still have a Bulbophyllum orchid and some Pyrossia fern in the other one


Both absolutely non aqautic to put to the wood higher up.



Still have some room at the left for a small rock, not yet decided on this. Have to look around for that, or maybe leave rocks out of the play and slope the substrate.. And still need a small leaved trailing plant for on the wood at the left. Maybe some Gloso. Also was thincking about HC? But i like to keep all from the same regions and not mix biotopes. All tho at least not to much.. Dunno yet.

The skeleton stands.. I'll keep you updated on how it progeresses..

 

[zozo]

🙂 Microsorum philipine, with a bed of what ever livermoss, the Orchid is a neglected Bulbophyllum sikkimense and has only one leaf left, definitively in need of rescue. I hope this does.. A bit if Pyrossia nummularifolia (tree fern).. For a start, the rest at the left i still have to think about and look at it. Not yet sure, should i ad a rock?.. The crypt parva still is in the pot.. It's going to carpet the left side with some taller plants in the back.. In the mid thinking of UG.


Still not sure if the bark is from the Black Popular? But here you see the color popping when it's wet.. From the underside there is still a dry spot, looking dull grey.
But wet this is a very vibrent textured bark.. Not yet decided on what mosses.. 🙂 But i will definitively try some Fissidens..


🙂

 

[zozo]

Some other little rareties i've preparing emersed for years in a closed bottle will also go in.

The 2 top ones are Microsorum pteropus Needle leef.. Aledgedly the most difficult java fern var. to culture emersed.. And it shows, i'm not sure for how long but did put these little pieces at least 2 years ago in a bottle.. And all this time, still tiny, looking rather unhappy but living.. So now they go into a bigger invironment, see how they do. Bottom right is Fissidens that grew emersed for i forgot how long in the same bottle.. Same story it lives. it grows, but not at a rate to write home about.


Bottom left are some pieces of rhizome i took recently from a small Bucephalandra motleyana,

In place next to the Orchid.. The needle and the fissidens.. And a needle above the orchid.. Not yet sure if the top one is at it's best spot.


🙂

 

[zozo]

This is going to be a very interesting little project.. 🙂 Slowely getting shape..

Since i have 2 of these little greenhouses, i decided to place one greenhouse behind the other.. Plant them both and plant the last one in a back ground contrast to create a sence of depth when looking at the fron one. To get a bit more of a diorame style jungle ambiance.


Planted some crypts in it. C. parva and C. indonesii.. In the back there is a rhizome of H. pinnatifida, still very tiny and i hope it'll pop up soon. Also added some Lomariopsis lineata and some more very small java fern and some mosses.



Th ehigh temps and high moist realy does it good, planst seem to love in there and already see results in less than 2 weeks.. It looks like t orchid already is shooting out a flower bud, bellow it's only leaf.. There you also see a very small java fern i planted in the orchids moist sphagnum.


Piriosa tree fern 🙂 and some fissidens on the wood..


And since i found that piece of bark in the woods i see little green dots of moss appear all over the place.. the bark seems to be littered in moss spores from the forest.



I guess it wont take very long before all is nicely covered.. 🙂

 

[Natasha]

Very nice, looking forward to seeing how these develop. 🙂

 

[AllieG]

Me too, these mini greenhouses look great

 

[zozo]

Bulbophyllum sikkimense flowering.. Not yet fully there but already looking intruiging.. 🙂




Moss spore caps.. 🙂


And Pyrrosia nummularifolia growing new leaves next to some Taxiphyllum(?) moss..


All is doing great and looking good, but still needs time to grow in. Especialy the freshly planted UG needs some time and show and hopefully flower... Also the background greenhouse works out great in creating depth.. Still need to make that one a bit greener over time, not yet decided with wath. Definitively more moss. 🙂

 

[zozo]

Thanks Tim.. 🙂

 

[Guest]

Looks awesome...Henry Goes Steampunk's younger brother 😎

 

[zozo]

Henry Goes Steampunk's younger brother 😎

Indeed now you say so, it kinda is.. The little brass feet were indeed bought at the very same time as Henry's brass lion feet. Back then it was just a visionary fantasy purchase that finaly found its place. 😎

 

[Oldguy]

Fantastic project, a Warden Case with a difference.

 

[zozo]

Fantastic project, a Warden Case with a difference.

Thank you!.. 🙂 A Warden Case (greenhous) indeed.. That's a term quite long forgotten actualy. At least in my country it is.. Searching for it doesn't reveal much about it.. Haven't red this term in decades.. I remember reading it a very long time ago in an old book about plants named a Ward Greenhouse in our language (Kasje van Ward). It intrigued me straight away.. Especialy the victorian styling.. Never forgot it since, realy searched a long time for the real thing to no avail.. And one day i found these little greenhouses in a wallmart. They once were painted with white wash i bought them and i gave them a diy pimp in the Warden style inspired by that oldtime memory from that old book.

Funny to read this term back at this community.. So i guess Warden? He most be British. British botanical history... Thank you for bringing that up.... It all comes together now..

And everything in it is realy growing like mad..

Fissidens.. 🙂

 

[sparkyweasel]

You might get better results searching for "Wardian case" 🙂
Named after Dr. Nathanial Ward, author of On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases.

 

[zozo]

You might get better results searching for "Wardian case" 🙂
Named after Dr. Nathanial Ward, author of On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases.

Thank you.. 🙂 So actualy Jalious Johny is to blame why the term never realy got any hold.

critiqued by John Lindley in the Gardeners' Chronicle, who wrote that "when it is opened and shut from day to day, it has no more right to the name [of Wardian case] than a common greenhouse". Lindley also wrote saying that Ward had an inordinate vanity and a desire to be 'recognised

So Dr. Ward is a bit the Nikola Tesla of the botanical society supressed into oblivion by his competitions envy..

Than actualy this, semi popularized under the noun Hermetosphere

Should be credited as true original Wardian Case instead.. 🙂

Interesting.. Thanks for the history lesson.. Kinda gives my project a nice background story to tell..

 

[zozo]

Now thinking about it.. This guy realy deserves a bit more credit.. In honor we should change our terminology and go from

"Dry Start Method"

to

"The Wardian Method"



And in Honor i felt like changing the previous questionable TT.. Into A Wardian Case.. Thanks again @Oldguy for bringing it up..

 

[Oldguy]

"The Wardian Method"

Zozo, glad you found my comment of use.

 

[zozo]

Zozo, glad you found my comment of use.

It absolutely did.. For me it was a long time mysterious quest to find it's origine and what it is about.. As said i only knew it from an old book i red decades ago and it was in my language refered to as "Kasje van Ward". And never, not even much later on the internet i couldn't find anything about it with using my language refernce, the only thing i had, didn't know where to look always hitting a brick wall. It intrigued me even more not to forget about it. But it never dawned to me that it was something British..

And now maybe over 30 years later it all falls in it's place.. To me that's something very special.. Thanks again..

 

[Oldguy]

Than actualy this, semi popularized under the noun Hermetosphere

House plants in former acid/distilled water carboys with a lamp shade on top were popular in middle class Britain in the 1960's. The choice of plants was very poor with variegated ivy being used. Despite working in the chemical industry I never managed to scrounge a carboy so I never made one.

Dr Warden brought many plant specimens back in glass cases that were named after him. Always thought that a front opening glassed case was a better bet for managing planting than a carboy. Yours looks first rate and is very inspirational. I have a few plants that should do good in one. Need to built the wood working shed first though May be cheat with a small aquarium, some angle profiled wood and glue. Need to cadge an aquarium. All best wishes.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

House plants in former acid/distilled water carboys

I tried to find one a while ago, there is some information (and some more Wardian case bits) in this thread from 2013 <"Humidity over moisture">, first page is worth a read as well for those who are interested in the DSM.

cheers Darrel

 

[zozo]

1 year later.. 🙂

Still going strong.. Tho yet the Crypts in there are propagating very good but didn't flower once.. No idea what the criteriums are, light?..


I'm actualy intentional giving it a beating and let it dry out more and more often. This actualy to go hard on the Microsorums in there. And see how far i can get them to addapt to less humid conditions. Than leave some leave tips to show signs of drouth and then sparsly give it some spraying to slowly dry off again. 🙂


I have planted about 5 different Mycrosorums sp. in it.


Till now it seems to work pretty good, sometimes not spraying for 2 weeks and still al stays vibrantly healthy, except some mosses are yellowing.


This is the Microsorum Mini Needle (Red arrow), growing extremely slow, reportedly the most difficult Java to cultivate emersed. But it seems to take the beating very well.
Next to it some small rhizomes from the sp. Taiwan.. Slow but both definitively growing. On top of the wood is some fisidens, strugling a bit, but i don't realy wory about it.


It also contains quite a lot of lomariopsis cf. lineata, most of it is down on the soil doing realy good. But this one higher up on the wood under the moss also dries out a bit regularly and it doesn't realy seem to mind.


I have yet no idea about the actual humidity levels in it, my mini Hygrometer is busted and need to buy me a new one. But its pretty dry for rather long periodes of time sometimes. I'm yet not confident enough, but my final plan is to take a Microsorum out to live outside the box and see how it takes it. 🙂 Would be awsome to have a Java Fern on the table top surviving with spraying it now and then. 🙂