I recently made a new friend that lives in the northern U.S. Devin loves to grow his tropical bog species along with aroids that are at least somewhat aquatic inside his home in a system he refers to as a "riparium". Devin's ripariums even include a few fish which make the indoor plants even a more beautiful display. Devin has some really great ideas that have inspired me to turn an empty 55 gallon aquarium in my office into a thing of beauty again. Many aroids including Spathiphyllum species will grow in this type of setup that is fairly inexpensive to set up and maintain. My grand kids have been after me to put fish in my tank so in the next month they'll get their wish............and I'll get mine! What makes Devin's idea so unique is the terrestrial plants are actually "suction cupped" to the back wall of the aquarium and don't have to have their roots drowing in soil but you can put aquatic plants in the water portion to see an entire aquatic bog scene! You just hide the pots with rocks and other ornaments such as driftwood. In his 65-gallon aquarium which is says "is looking pretty good these days" he grows dwarf taro, Colocasia fallax 'Silver Dollar' and other neat species. These links go to a few of Devin's photos and I promise I've just been inspired! http://hydrophytesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/11-ix-09-tank-i-m.jpg http://hydrophytesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/scratch-colocasia-ii.jpg http://hydrophytesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/scratch-colocasia-i.jpg You can see more of Devin Biggs' photos and find some "inspiration" at his web link: http://ripariumsupply.com/ I "borrowed one from his website to show you! There is a Philodendron species known as Philodendron riparium but I have no idea if this species will grow in water........but I do know many aroid species do during the periods of heavy rain in South America. I'm making a point at the International Aroid Show in Miami on September 19 and 20 to learn about all the aroids that can populate my tank. You'll like Devin's photos!
thanks for the links, steve! it's funny you post about this...i picked up an aquarium off of freecycle specifically to create an area with high humidity so i can grow microsorum thailandicum and other ferns. the riparium set-up would accomplish that and i'd have the added bonus of having plants that like growing in water and an extra added bonus of having fish in there, too!
What is really cool about Devin's idea is you still have the plants that do best in pots still in the pots. They're just suction cupped to the back wall with the pots hidden. Neat!
Hey Steve I just signed up. This looks like a pretty cool forum and with a good deal of traffic. How did I miss it before? Thanks for pointing me to it. Hey I guess those riparium tanks are pretty cool, but that guy forgot to fill them with water the rest of the way. ;) Steve when I ran the search that brought me here I also saw your recent posts on semi-aquatic Anthurium, including rupicola and that other one. I sure would like to source those. I wonder if there might be any hope of finding them in the US, or if Ecuagenera might be able to acquire and export some(?).
