Think big, plant small

Langan, who owns Mulberry Creek Herb Farm, a retail greenhouse and wholesale growing operation in Huron, Ohio, with his wife, Karen, got his first fairy gardening plant request about 15 years ago. As the popularity of fairy gardening grew, so did Langan’s frustration with the trend, as he kept seeing four cute but culturally incompatible plants plunked in a pot together.

“As an industry, we don’t put shade-loving begonias and calibrachoa together in one hanging basket; that’s not horticulturally wise,” Langan says. “Yet somehow we’re allowing our customers to make ill-fated selections for fairy gardening. I got really frustrated because, one, they were mixing and matching plants that were culturally incompatible; and secondly, they weren’t miniature, so they quickly outsized the accessories.”

Besides looking small and cute, Langan knew plants must be culturally suited for small spaces. He began cultivating a line of easily-pruned dwarf plants, launching Mulberry Miniatures (originally called Faery Plant Kingdom) three years ago. He now has a collection of 130 varieties of miniature plants.

As more small-scale growers emerge, the plant industry is catching up with the mini gardening trend, which had been driven largely by accessories. Breeders are actively producing varieties specifically for mini gardens. By keeping up with popular plants, garden centers can help customers make successful selections to drive the trend even further.

Location, location, location

Obviously, plants for mini landscapes must be small.

“When we started, you couldn’t give away 2-inch pots,” says Kelley Batson Howard, who owns Batson’s Foliage Group Inc., which launched a line of 2-inch Ittie Bitties in 2011. “Now, there’s popularity for any item in the smaller size.”

But it’s not just size, or even scale, that matters. For plants to succeed in mini gardens — as in any landscape — they must be able to thrive in the climate conditions.

“The first question we ask [customers] is: Where do you want to grow this? How much light do you get there?” Langan says. If a terrarium only gets morning light through the window, he recommends tropical shades. For outdoor fairy gardens, he suggests hardy varieties — using color-coded labels that indicate hardy sun or shade and tropical sun or shade, to help customers select appropriate plants.

Hardy perennials work best for garden railroad landscapes, rock gardens and hypertufa troughs. Hardy sun varieties, specifically, thrive in rocky gravel with drainage, though Langan advises humid southeastern states to avoid them.

Tropical shade perennials make the best terrarium plants, making this the easiest group to cross-merchandise — also making it the best-selling category for Langan.

Versatile varieties that thrive indoors or out, in terrariums or fairy gardens, make mini plant inventory more manageable for both garden centers and customers. Central Florida Ferns focuses on versatility in its 2-inch line of Pixie Plants.

“There’s a big difference between plants that can go in an open-top terrarium, an enclosed terrarium and a fairy garden, and some plants you wouldn’t use in either,” says Matt Roberts, sales and marketing manager for Central Florida Ferns. “We make it easier on ourselves, and everybody else, because most of the ferns and foliage we do are interchangeable between terrariums and fairy gardens. They work well outside in shady areas, as well as indoors in bright, indirect light. They don’t need humidity, but they thrive in it.”

Plants fit for miniature worlds

Miniature landscapes typically follow a proportion of one tree to two shrubs to one groundcover separated into multiple clumps for repetition.

For grassy/mossy groundcover, opt for low-growing, small-leafed creeping varieties like the popular Selaginella. Howard recommends Ittie Bitties’ ‘Aquamarine’ and Tiny Tears pilea, and Quercifolia, which are suited for either terrariums or fairy gardens. Groundcover picks from Pixie Plants include angel vine, wire vine, baby tears, variegated and mini oak leaf ficus.

For color, Roberts recommends Pixie Plants’ rex begonia, syngonium, nephthytis, gesneriads, peperomias and alocasias. Ittie Bitties include several varieties of hypoestes that also make colorful bushes.

Taller (but still slow-growing) palms and ferns look like forest trees, Roberts says. Neanthe bella palm, maidenhair, autumn and Boston ferns are popular at Pixie Plants. Howard recommends Ittie Bitties’ ficus varieties for both fairy gardens and terrariums, while Langan points garden centers toward dwarf elms and conifers from Stanley & Sons or Iseli Nursery.

Considering miniature plants in the context of small-scale landscapes illuminates new possibilities.

“Plants that used to be thrown away by breeders because they would have gotten lost in a six-inch pot or a mixed container, now have a purpose,” Langan says. “You look at those plants in a different way — ‘Is this a groundcover? Is this a shrub?’ — instead of just being a cute 3-inch peperomia.”

How mini plants are made

Many miniature plants emerge as sports, or naturally occurring genetic mutations of larger plants. Instead of disregarding those “oddball curiosities,” as Langan calls them, horticulturists are collecting, propagating and patenting them.

Growers are actively producing small varieties to meet increasing demand, cross-breeding plants like African violets and hostas into smaller sizes. New varieties coming to Pixie Plants through tissue culture include Mini Alocasia Fairy, Mini Alocasia Polly, and a mini oak leaf ficus.

Langan mentions new varieties from Terra Nova Nurseries, including a series of fairy-sized Heucheras, which pack traditional color into 2-inch pots. Using Hana Bay Floral’s orange Nertera, Langan created a mini pumpkin patch at Halloween — which became so popular, he added it to the Mulberry Miniatures collection.

Rather than producing new varieties through tissue culture, Howard finds “throwback” varieties that “get lost or drop through the cracks because they don’t perform well with tissue culture.” Then Batson’s Foliage applies growth regulators to manipulate dwarf sizes, reintroducing old pilea, fittonia and begonias to a new generation of mini gardeners.

Langan says he doesn’t use any growth regulators on his plants. He’s heard complaints from customers who get frustrated when a once-cute plant like hypoestes “outgrows the growth regulator and then goes, ‘poof,’ and explodes out of the container.”

But can it grow?

Growers hear a common question about mini varieties: “Do these plants grow or stay this small?”

Unlike plants that outgrew ’70s terrariums, modern breeders are developing varieties that stay smaller longer. Plus, shallow containers and closed terrariums retard growth naturally. But all plants eventually grow.

“These are living plants that do grow,” Langan says. “Yes, golden baby tears will spread and cover the pathway, and yes, you need to keep it pruned. That’s the fun of doing this — that manicuring, pinching and shaping. Instead of a chainsaw, a wheelbarrow and a rake, you’re using pinking shears and a spoon.”

Obviously, mini plants still require care and pruning, but garden centers should be careful not to water or fertilize them as they do larger sized plants.

“...Miniatures really benefit from natural/organic fertilizers,” says Langan, suggesting that garden centers cross-merchandise with natural fertilizers. “I always joke that fairies hate chemicals.”

Opportunities abound

Small size contributes to the growing mini gardening trend by bringing higher returns per square foot, adding cross-promotional potential and making gardening accessible to small or feeble hands and gardeners constrained to small spaces.

“The best thing about the miniature trend is the opportunity to bring new generations of gardeners into the fold,” says Howard, suggesting fairy garden classes or parties to unite young and old. “The industry was waning, wondering how to reach the next generation, and miniature gardening has done that.”

With popularity exploding across demographics, the trend keeps growing. When Central Florida Ferns began trials of 2-inch plants on half a bench five years ago, “we thought this was just going to be a niche thing, one or two cases a week,” Roberts says. Now, Pixie Plants sell 100 to 150 cases a week in spring, growing 90 varieties across seven benches that hold nearly 40,000 pots each. Similarly, at Batson’s Foliage, Ittie Bitties production has increased at least 25 percent annually, with nearly 70 varieties.

“The 2-inch size is taking over our greenhouse, pushing out larger sizes,” Howard says. “Anything cutesy sells, and new hard goods each season help give the trend longevity.”

Though 2-inch plants can stand alone as impulse buys or small gifts, successful garden centers embrace the entire trend, cross-merchandising plants with seasonal accessories, small pots, and quart-sized packages of bulk soil, gravel, natural fertilizer and sheet moss. Tiny items bring high returns, contributing add-on sales without requiring much shelf space.

“Two years ago, I probably would have told you, ‘This is a fad that’ll quickly run its course,’ but I’ve changed my thoughts,” Roberts says. “I think the small plant market still has a long way to go. It has a lot of potential because you can use 2-inch plants for anything.”

Picture them planted in teacups, given as party favors, or used in miniature indoor living walls, in addition to fairy gardens, terrariums and other miniature worlds. The possibilities are endless.

“This is not a fad,” says Langan, who considers miniature gardening a crucial “gateway” to get children hooked on plants. “It is a growing trend. We can make it a really successful trend if we help customers be successful with small plants.”

Brooke is a freelance writer living in Cleveland and a frequent contributor to Garden Center.