Page 18 - 2018 Your Home Your Way

18 THE BRANDON SUN • YOUR HOME YOUR WAY • 2018

A crowded hip hop bar during Plant Nite where people learn the craft of terrarium building. (Associated Press)

PLANT NITE REPLACES PAINT NITE

At a crowded, downtown bar only need a squirt or two of ing a few years ago, and that’s to live with little light or water-
one recent Saturday night, the water.” when I saw these things (terrar- ing.
lights were dim, hip-hop music The two-hour lesson, called iums) getting popular,” said Likewise, terrariums have a
played and most everyone had a Plant Nite, was part of a pro- Diandra Escamilla, a 28-year- devoted following on many so-
drink in hand. gram that started in Boston in old Boston resident who at- cial media websites, such as Pin-
The bar itself was covered 2015 and has spread to 32 states tended Plant Nite. “I was seeing terest, Twitter and Facebook,
with succulents, and the table- and Canada. them everywhere, on social where plant-lovers exchange
tops with accoutrements like It’s operated by a company media — my friends started pictures, ideas and opinions of
paintbrushes, plastic spoons and called Paint Nite that capitalizes having them, so I started to get the miniature glass gardens.
planters of potting soil. on the do-it-yourself movement interested.” The latest terrarium trend
A good-sized crowd was here and a clientele willing to pay for Terrariums are hot. Many took off in the beginning of the
to learn the craft of terrarium an experience — such as a major retailers — not just gar- decade, according to Maria Col-
building. primer on building terrariums dening stores like Home Depot letti, author of “Terrariums —
“Now, these succulents are for your home. — are selling them. Some Gardens Under Glass: Design-
very hard to kill, I promise,” said These miniature landscapes IKEA and West Elm stores, for ing, Creating, and Planting
Lindsay Webber, the efferves- are encapsulated in containers instance, have offered build- Modern Indoor Gardens” (Cool
cent 28-year-old instructor of made of blown glass, ornate clay your-own kits full of electric- Springs Press, 2015).
the class on terrariums. “You’ll pots or a variety of other mate- colored rocks, tiny animal “Everyone thought it would
only have to water them once rials. figurines, moss and popular suc- be a phase and even drizzle
every two weeks or so, and they “I started getting into garden- culents — hearty plants adapted away,” Colletti said.