BIG thank you to @berje_inc for having us for this very special Earth Day terrarium workshop! Berjé has been ethically & sustainably sourcing plants and natural raw materials for use in the flavor and essential oil industry for over 70 years! It was an honor to work with them for “bring your child to work” day!

This journey was well-worth almost being consumed by the bog 🧙‍♀️while Alyssa happily waited in the 🚙. An ode to the flowering and non-flowering plants of sphagnum moss-dominated wetlands! 🌼Marsh Marigold’s showy golden blooms pull the curious in from afar, and if not careful, into the bog as well (flowering) 🐎Field Horsetail! The early-evolutionary cone-bearing fern allie I’ve been long searching for an encounter with! (non-flowering) 🌸Three-leaf Goldthread, a common evergreen herb of moist woods and sphagnum bogs is flowering its dainty white flowers (flowering) 🌲Wolf’s Claw Clubmoss spotted in the forest surrounding the bog- a place I’ve explored 100 times! (non-flowering) As the leaves shift and the seasons change and I grow, there are endless discoveries to be made in the wilderness ✨🍄‍🟫⛰️💚

Yesterday we briefly explored Minnewaska and were amazed to see sphagnum moss in different colors and context than ever before! I have lots of research to do!

The dark and enchanting story of the smoggy Victorian town where terraria were born 📜🦋⚗️

LAB GROWN MOSS! It doesn’t look like much… but I tried a new method in November: brushing the shedding leaves of Leucobryum glaucum onto acidic soil, misting it, and placing it under grow lights in a closed tub. I just read in the book “Ecological Guide to the Mosses & Common Liverworts of the Northeast” by Sue Alix Williams (2023) that some mosses have evolved with weak points on their leaves so that the leaves fall off and produce new moss! Those shed leaves are now forming new tufts of pin cushion moss! This experiment will help me understand the growth rate and habits of one of the most popular moss species for terrariums 👩‍🔬 #labgrownmoss #bryology #pincushionmoss #indoorgrown #mossexperiment #leucobryum #terrarium #terrariummoss

I wish these photos even came close to capturing the magic I experienced today in this enchanting transition from pine plantation to native forest!! Every time I’ve entered this especially dark forest I’m called a little bit deeper— first to a field of moss where the sun beams down through a gap in the canopy caused by a few down trees. Here lies the mossiest area I have ever seen. Today, I went deeper, downhill where the forest floor changed from “pins & needles” (pin cushion moss & pine needles, I just made that up 😉) into mounds of sphagnum moss. Now the overstory is no longer evenly spaced Norway spruce, but native black spruce and white birch— two common bog species. There are rhododendrons and highbush blueberries, goldthread and partridgeberry. Suddenly the eerie pine plantation opens up and comes alive, and within steps it feels like a different world. #poconos #pineplantation #naturalhistory #bog #sphagnummoss #foraging

I can’t believe how much I have learned since I started making terrariums a year ago!!! Some of my very first terrariums are turning 1 year old and getting their first watering/grooming! 😲💦 Some observations about this 1 year old baby: 🌿Hypnum/ fern moss has grown very “leggy” while pin cushion moss has grown slow, steady, and bushy! 🌱 Tiny Jersey ferns are beginning to sprout in the soil, a species I never ID in the wild but continuously observe in my propagation bins 🪦 Teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens) did not survive long term, the species requires more space and more light 🍓 The berry from the partridgeberry cuttings pictured in slides 3+4 (Mitchella repens) fell, slowly decomposed in the soil and 1 year later has sprouted the sweetest little partridgeberry sprout!!!!! Although it’s not the most attractive terrarium, it’s a testament to my transition from a person who thought they could never understand science, to a person dedicated to daily mossy experiments and explorations. 🥂Cheers to new growth!!!! #terrariumbirthday #bryology #naturestudy #partridgeberry #teachingterrariums #pincushionmoss