Like the popular pachysandra, ivy, and myrtle which carpet the bare ground with green, there are indoor-style ground covers that serve the same purpose in a diminutive manner. To the lover of terrariums, dish gardens, and similar small-scale replicas of outdoor plantings, they are indispensable. To anyone who loves the miniature, the delicate, the modest in plants, they are a joy.
Laciest and most modest of these indoor creepers are the selaginellas dainty, fern-like plants with finely cut, mossy leaves and a commendable demure habit of growth. Like the ferns, the selaginellas bear no flowers, but reproduce from spores; and they also prefer shady, warm, moist, humid spots to grow in.
Selaginella Uncinata
Of them all, my special delight is Selaginella uncinata. Once set in the soil in an indoor garden and left to its own devices, it stalks along on stilts with inch-long rootlets which connect the horizontal wandering branches above with the earth beneath.
Atop the stilts, the leaves lie in precise arrangement along the stem and are perfectly flat. Their iridescence, when shade-grown, is metallic blue-green.
Another pet, somewhat hardier and easier to get started with, is Selaginella Kraussiana. This one is clear shamrock green, and the leaves radiate out from all sides of the stem. It branches willingly, hugs the ground, and quickly forms a soft green carpet for it.
If you’ve seen and been tempted by green mounds of cushion moss in the woods, you’ll covet Selaginella Kraussiana Brownii as I do. A more perfect circle couldn’t be grown. And if you peek and poke below the soft green leaves on top, you’ll find that the branches are supported by aerial roots which are almost transparent.
The insensitive person who dubbed Selaginella Emmeliana “sweat plant” should be flogged with its fronds. Except that it revels in high humidity and exceedingly moist soil, it’s not related to that unpleasant word. It is an erect grower, not a creeper; a small-scale fern of bright green, minute perfection.
Another erect selaginella and a bolder fellow, by faróis called Martensii. I’m a slave to the variegated form, with ferny fan-shaped dark green branches spotted, splotched, and tipped with creamy white. When grown to a ripe old age, its aerial roots will pull it down to a level more horizontal than vertical.
Terrarium Creepers
Some choice terrarium creepers are also found in the pilea family, a group of plants with captivating variety, and some curious virtues. Aptly nicknamed “artillery plant,” Pilea microphylla has flowers that explode with clouds of pollen.
Its oval green leaves are smaller than the eraser on a pencil. Pilea involucrata and repots are slow-growers with dark, quilted, hairy leaves and constant fuzzy flowers hugged close. In the interest of international goodwill, they’re called Pan-American friendship plants.
Pilea depressa is a charmer with tiny, round, thickish leaves cupped just enough to form a fairy’s wash basin.
It’s only a short step from pilea to pellionia, they’re close relatives in the nettle family. And I can’t play favorites here. P. pulchra is, perhaps, the gentlest, with its Puritan gray-blue oval leaves carefully patterned with black veins. On the other hand, P. daveauana scampers like a Hallowe’en prankster and is brightly colored bronzy brown and chartreuse.
If you keep your terrarium or dish garden in a coolish spot, you’ll want to hunt out the smallest of all mints, Mentha Requienii. Its green leaves are pinhead size, with an un-proportionately large peppermint scent. It blooms mauve. For a tiny, precious, protected spot in a rock garden, this most miniature mint is hardy out of doors.
Outdoor Creeper
Another and better-known outdoor creeper that is a terrarium asset is “Gill-over-the-ground” (Nepeta hederacea variegata), a bouncy little plant with scalloped green leaves brightly embroidered with white.
There are two other old favorites I wouldn’t be without the miniature creeping fig (Ficus pumila minima) sufficiently small to keep in scale with even an ash-tray planting; and saucy, rampant helxine. It may be called “baby’s tears,” but it has more of a wicked wink, for me, as it goes racing over the ground.
These creeping plants have so many decorative uses. They’re natural for terrariums, of course, because they love the close, moist, shaded environment. You can plant creepers exclusively by building terraces at different levels, so they will show off.
Or they’ll cascade down a small-scale wall, or creep up a soft piece of rotted bark. They’ll carpet the soil around and between larger, upright plants. Or set one of the smallest to border a small “pool,” and dip its fingers delicately into the water.
Outside the confines of a terrarium, many of these ground covers are ideal for dish gardens. Some make a delightful showing in pots, planters, and hanging baskets. Some are effective in flower compositions. And sometimes the less rapacious varieties can be planted in the pot at the base of a tall-growing plant, like pittosporum, for effective design.
44659 by E Mcdonald