Terrarium Project: Growing Fittonia on Driftwood to Make a Mini Tropical Tree

Lea
20 hours ago
3 min read

This is what the finished project looks like.

I like Fittonia (nerve plants). I made a similar design before by tying Fittonia onto a piece of wood, using the wood as the “trunk” and the Fittonia as the “leaves.”

Last time, I used shrimp wood.

This time, I chose a piece of driftwood that looks more like a real tree trunk. I also added some Fissidens moss at the bottom. I wanted to create the look of a small tree growing on a grassy field.

The final result turned out very close to what I had imagined.

How I Made It

The process is actually very simple.

First, find a suitable piece of driftwood and prepare some fishing line.

Take the Fittonia out of its pot and keep a little of the original soil around the roots. Wrap the roots with sphagnum moss, then use fishing line to secure the plant to the driftwood.

At this point, the basic structure is already finished.

But to make the roots look more natural, I added a thin outer layer of moss to hide some of the sphagnum moss and fishing line.

Sheet moss (Hypnum moss) works especially well here because it usually grows in flat sheets. Sheet moss cultivated by human can sometimes be a little loose, but it still works.

How I Hope It Will Grow

Fittonia is a tropical plant.

I expect the Fittonia to keep growing. The leaves should gradually hang downward, and in a humid environment, the stems may also produce many small white roots.

If everything grows well, the driftwood should slowly begin to look like a small tree in a miniature tropical rainforest.

One Thing to Watch Out for When Transplanting Fittonia

Fittonia (nerve plants) is very easy to propagate. Even a broken or cut stem can grow roots again.

When transplanting Fittonia, if you accidentally break off a stem, it is better to remove the broken piece from the plant.

If you still want to keep that broken stem in the terrarium, disinfect the damaged part first, then insert the stem into the soil.

In the humid environment of a terrarium, the broken Fittonia stem can root on its own and continue growing.

This time, I accidentally broke one stem. I thought removing it would make the arrangement look worse, so I simply left it where it was without doing anything.

A few days later, I checked again and found that the broken stem had started to rot.

So if a stem breaks, do not just leave it lying there like I did. Either remove it, or treat it properly and plant it back into the soil.

Why I Chose Fissidens Moss for the Bottom

I used Fissidens moss at the bottom of the terrarium.

Even when grown as a terrestrial moss, Fissidens moss handles wet conditions quite well and can tolerate direct watering.

Another reason I chose it is that it does not quickly overgrow or spread outward too much. It tends to stay where it is planted, which makes it easier to keep the shape of the landscape.

That makes it a good choice for creating the “grass” at the bottom of this project.

Below are more photos of the finished terrarium.

For this project, I chose green and white Fittonia (nerve plants).

But Fittonia comes in many different colors.

If you like this idea, you could use pink Fittonia to make a pink tree, or red Fittonia to make a red tree. Changing the color of the Fittonia can completely change the final look.