After a new terrarium has full shade for a week to ten days, begin to give it more light. Move it into better light, and wait a few days to see how the plants are doing. If they appear to be losing color and leaning in an ungainly position, move them still closer to strong light. Once the lighting requirements are established, you can move this garden under glass to any similarly lighted spot in your home.

Providing just the right moisture for terrarium-grown plants is important, but if you have followed the initial directions and have found a good growing site, watering will be no problem. As with other plantings, too much water encourages rot; too little causes thin leaves to shrivel.

If plantings appear dry, water them with a pitcher or one of the new bottle and tube watering devices. They will benefit also from a mist with a fogger or atomizer filled with clean water. Siphoning water through a small tube makes it easy to add moisture precisely where it is needed in a terrarium. Covered terrariums growing in filtered light seldom need watering more often than once every four to six weeks. Use a half-strength solution of fertilizer for every other watering.