Artificial Plants & Vines

A Note Regarding Artificial Plants

As the years have passed, our company has narrowed it's focus almost exclusively towards living terrarium ecosystems. With that in mind, we've dropped most of the artificial decor from our lineup, as we continue to expand our wood decor & live plant departments. Artificial plants are an appropriate choice for standard (non-live) enclosures which will house animals, where adding live plants would be impractical. Below, we'll briefly run-through our thoughts on the use of artificial decor in living environments.

Where Artificial Plants Are Appropriate

Artificial positionable vines are frequently useful in a living terrarium. Sometimes finding an awesome piece of natural wood decor just isn't in the budget, or it's too difficult to find one which will fit a specific design goal. In that situation, artificial vines are an easy choice. Certain types of live plants (epiphytic vining/trailing species, bromeliads, etc) will grow just fine on an artificial vine if conditions are right. Some folks also use artificial hanging plants in especially difficult-to-plant areas of a background, or in a dimly lit section of a terrarium's substrate level. They might not look as good as the real thing, but artificial plants will get the job done.

Where Artificial Plants Aren't Recommended

It's important to note that live plants perform a critical function in a bioactive terrarium's ecosystem. An enclosure with a live substrate base kit will not perform nearly as well without live plants. Plants are considered a primary producer, which is an organism which can process simple substances (in this case, fragmented/broken-down waste) into nutrients used for growth. Depending how you look at it, plants are either the first or the last step in a complete live vivarium's functioning ecosystem. Without these autotrophic organisms to actually process waste elements into nutrients, the waste elements can accumulate over time. With that explained, artificial plants should never be used as the primary decor item in an enclosure which is designed to be self cleaning and/or bioactive.

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