1 - Thanks for the link - a great deal of excellent information. I really don't know how big these orchids might get or even what type of terrarium would be used. I'm very much in the planning stage right now. Here is the reason the issue of a terrarium has come up at all. Previous orchids brought into our home have died. Numerous people have told me that orchids thrive on 'benign neglect' - but, either my 'neglect' has not been 'benign' enough - or - the other complication is destruction by house cats. As originally stated, these 3 orchids are still in the original pots with the original plastic around the plants. I left them like this because I realized that, with the plastic around them, the cats left them alone. Initially I considered putting them - individually - into very large and tall glass vases. That is, the entire plant, pot and all would go into the vase, which would be a type of terrarium. From other feedback, this does not seem to be the best option. (I got the idea from the orchid display at my local Trader Joe's. Unfortunately, I found out that their 'system' is to water a blooming orchid well, put it in the vase and leave it alone until the blooms and or the plant died. At that point they toss that plant and start with another plant. 2 - I live in southern California - inland. Also, we usually do not heat our home as much as others. It may get up to 70 degrees in the winter, but is more likely to stay at about 65 - 68 during the day. At night it goes down to 60 or maybe a bit lower. In the summer we don't use air conditioning, but do use a swamp cooler or evaporative cooler, meaning more humidity than homes with air conditioning, but still not a lot of humidity. In the summer the inside of the house is often 75, maybe even 78 or 80 during the afternoon. This would a slow climb from the morning. Typically we let the evaporative cooler run all night, getting the house down to about 60 degrees. If we keep eastern windows covered during the morning, the house stays cool until the afternoon. - thanks, Cecilia

Thanks hottielover14, I have some tropical sundews, a Nepenthes sanguinea, a bunch of baby hybrid Sarracenias and a Sarracenia rubra to go with my Venus Flytraps. I have to grow them all indoors under those 4 40 watt shop light tubes right now. Drosera spatulata clump in 5 inch pot. Drosera adelae forest in 6 inch pot, the progeny that cloned from a single plant about 10 months ago. Drosera capensis, a sundew that gives the term carnivorous new meaning. This plant single handedly caught and ate 7 flies in one day. Drosera graminifolia or, the Brazilian Grass Sundew that gives mosquitos nightmares. Sarracenia hybrid seedlings about 6 months old. Recently repotted, they are suddenly putting on a growth spurt. Still a far cry from the foot or more adult size they will attain in about 4-5 years. Sarracenia rubra about a foot tall. Nepenthes sanguinea recently repotted in 8 inch pot. The roots are only 2-3 inches long, but the plant has grown from 3 inches across to about a foot across with 5 inch pitchers in about 8 months. It is loosing a few older pitchers at this time. Peat moss and perlite would be OK for your plants, however; Nepenthes would prefer a well drained mix of two parts perlite to one part peat, or one part each of peat, coconut husk, and orchid bark, like my sanguinea is growing in. They need very well drained medium that still maintains moisture without promoting stagnant conditions. Venus flytraps would prefer one part peat to one part perlite and damper conditions than the Nepenthes.

The LED lights are from Ebay from a company called LED wholesalers INC. This will be the first time I use the lights for an application other than supplemental light. The lights come in varying wattages but I use the least expensive panels because I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars and I really don't need lights that are that powerful. A 90W LED light is the equivalent of 400-600W HPS light. A mix of red and blue LED's is the best for growth and flowering while white just adds extra brightness. The colour of the light is not very noticeable unless it's in a dark room and the lights run cool/warm instead of hot and are very slim and light which makes them easy to install. I also found some really cool LED aquarium lights that are a strip of lights sealed (water tight) in a tube and are used to simulate moon light at night. I may add two small strips to the inside of the tank to boost the blue portion of the light spectrum under the white panels. I want to see how things grow first but if they look like they need some more light I will invest in some aquarium lights. http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380108250821&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT I think people could be upset with what they get if they don't do some research. If you want an extremely bright grow light you will have to spend the money. There are 1000W equivalent daylight panels out there but they are really expensive although prices are starting to come down slowly. So far I am pleased with my single red/blue panel and my Hoyas have been growing very well under it although they do get some light from a south facing window that is about five feet away. You do need to keep the plants as close to the panel as possible to maximize it's effect. My panel is quite high above my plants but I only wanted it to provide light to the taller plants as they climb their supports. What exactly were the negative comments about LED grow lights? I can always post my experience with these lights after a few months or some time during the winter. If my plants don't bloom or grow well we will know that they are not bright enough. Mike Here is a link that might be useful: LED Wholesalers INC on Ebay

For that matter, keep researching the posts on this forum. There are all sorts of Qs addressed throughout. Does make for quite a bit of reading but that is what research often comes down to. Also don't be disappointed if it take a while for Qs to get answered. This forum can get extremely slow. I think the big problem is that once one has made their terr, there just isn't much reason to keep popping in. I wouldn't worry about: "I dont know if I will forge ahead and try to make a terrarium or not. I don't want to invest a good chunk of time and $ into something that won't end up the way I envision." After all, let's face it ... even if it were to turn out "exactly" as you envision, there's no surety that a year later you wouldn't be thinking ... "Geez, I wonder how it would be if I ...." or "I really like the way it turned out but now I want..." That's just life. DO take the time to plan everything out to be a low maintainence as possible -- especially if you do use a waterfeature (personally I wouldn't in a 25 gal tank -- takes up too much of the floor space), make sure to design things so even after its finished you have EASY access to the pump and any filters -- or you will wind up cursing yourself for gross stupidity. Keep it simple to start. Yes there are all sorts of cool things to use in a terr, but you will be absolutely shocked at how fast all that space just disappears. Put the critter on the "back burner". For now focus on creating a well established terr -- and don't forget -- if this might someday be used for a critter, NO pesticides can be used PERIOD. Good luck and let us know how things are going! :)