Fittonia, Nerve Plant

Fittonia, commonly known as the nerve plant, is also a tropical rainforest plant.

It is one of the most easy to raise terrarium plants. It has mutile variants. I take photos with my workmates' hand holding it to show you the size you need for a small terrarium. I have fittonias in green, red, yellow and the green leaves with white vein looks best in terrariums.

The Fittonia plants sold in small nursery pots are usually grown from cuttings. When you remove one from its pot, you will often find that many of the stems have developed their own roots and can be separated easily.

For a small terrarium, you usually only need two or three rooted stems from one pot.

Fittonia is also very easy to propagate from cuttings.

In a humid moss terrarium, you can cut off a healthy stem and insert it directly into the moss. It can often take root and continue growing. When the humidity is high enough, you may not even need to insert it deeply. Simply placing the cutting on the moist moss may be enough.

I often wrap the roots of a Fittonia cutting with sphagnum moss and place it inside a lava rock with a hole in it. I then put the rock inside a closed terrarium.

This method makes the plant very easy to move. You can change its position whenever you want without disturbing the rest of the landscape.

Fittonia does need some fertilizer. You can place a few solid, slow-release fertilizer granules near the roots and wrap them together with sphagnum moss.

As long as the humidity is high enough, Fittonia can grow in many different positions.

It can also trail downward over rocks or driftwood, creating a small potted-plant effect inside the terrarium.

You can try this arrangement in your own terrarium and see how it grows.