Hermetospheres

Experiences with plant life in closed glass containers

Year: 2023

  • A vulnerable orchid

    A vulnerable orchid

    Aerangis hyaloides is popular with orchid collectors for its lush, brilliant white flowers. For me, this was also one of the reasons to choose it for my Madagascar container. Other reasons were its small size, its supposedly undemanding cultivation and its suitable temperature, humidity and light preferences as an understory species of lowland forests. My…

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  • In honour of João Barbosa Rodrigues

    In honour of João Barbosa Rodrigues

    It is the first orchid I ever planted in a hermetosphere, and the fragile beauty of its flowers strikes me again every time. Initially it was planted on one side of the substrate with a small portion of its creeping rhizome. It has since worked its way across the entire diameter of the glass to…

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  • What makes a flower attractive?

    What makes a flower attractive?

    Tillandsia ionantha has been popular as an ornamental plant since it arrived in the greenhouses of Belgian horticulturist Louis Van Houtte (1810-1876). This is where Jules Émile Planchon (1823-1888) found the specimen he used for his botanical description of the new species (Planchon 1855). As currently circumscribed, T ionantha is widely distributed in Mexico and…

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  • Unexpected guest

    Unexpected guest

    When creating and observing hermetospheres, I focus on plant life. However, one must be prepared to encounter unexpected guests. This is what happened to me once before, when a whole container was overgrown with a fungus within a few hours. With the latest guest, I got to know an entire new and extraordinary life form.…

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  • The flower destined to stay closed

    The flower destined to stay closed

    So far, this jar represents little more than a series of failures. Originally, it was supposed to represent the Mexican Gulf province of Veracruz. There, in the cloud forest of the Sierra Madre Oriental, at an altitude of around 1500m, are the only known locations of Pinguicula emarginata. The species had been recommended to me when…

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