to the Glasshouse (and more carbon)

It has been a relatively mild winter here in southeastern Ohio.  No snow days off for the school across the street, no major ice storms causing trees to lose limbs and roads to shut down.  It has been noticeably winter, though, on and off, and that means brown and grey, with the occasional brilliant blue of a sky here and there.

When we lived in Seattle, we used to walk to the botanical conservatory at Volunteer Park on the colder, dark grey days of winter, to enjoy the balmy warmth and colors of the rooms full of orchids,  ferns, and bromeliads.  When my friend Jen asked if we wanted to join them on a field trip to the local world-renowned Glasshouse Works nursery, we jumped on it.  It is tucked off of the main drag through a tiny town, and you'd never know it was there if you never veered off of that main street.  What  you find is a mini oasis, run by two men who love - LOVE - what they do, and dote on every single plant there.

  

We were there to look for plants for terrariums (carbon cycle!), but everything is packed into one greenhouse right now and will be until spring, so we had to squeeze, tread carefully and peer through other things to find the little plants.

praying mantis egg case!

We didn't mind.  It was all so amazing and lush.

By contrast, when we drove to the top of the ridge to Jen's farm, the trees were still covered in ice from a frigid night earlier in the week.  Down in town we'd lost the ice by the end of the day, but not here.  It was like the fairies had visited...

We put our terrariums together (rocks - carbon! charcoal - carbon! plants - CO2-carbon!) out on the deck, and we could hear the sun warming up the iced trees, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle...

Eliza's jewel orchid

Ari's earthstar

Ani's terrarium

I'd never added actual plants to mine before - I usually go more for  "oooh, there's some pretty moss growing on my avocado peel!", so it will be interesting to see if this fares better than my low-tech (and no charcoal) terrarium.

my terrarium, with a small ficus