The Miniature Garden umbrella can cover a lot.

Miniature Garden with houseplants

Story # 85,


The Miniature Garden umbrella can cover a lot.


      We have a lot of terms floating around ------ Dish Garden, Table Top Garden, European Garden, Fairy Garden, Gnome Garden, and Miniature Garden— indoor and outdoor.


      My conclusion is that Miniature Garden can include them all.


      Table Top Garden is a better name for Dish Garden and European Garden.  Miniature Garden is more inclusive than Fairy Garden and Gnome Garden.


      Miniature Garden could cover them all.  The only division left is indoor or outdoor.  A small garden display that can tolerate freezing temperatures and wind is very special and difficult.


      The winner of words is Miniature Garden with houseplants.  Of course, house plants can be put outside in summer, but acclimating plants to abrupt change in environment going out (Spring) or in (Fall) has its own set of problems.


      My Miniature Gardens will be indoor with houseplants.

I can see clearly now...

Miniature Garden at the trade show

Story # 53,


      I can see clearly now…..


           If you make something that people ‘remark’ about,
           then it could be remarkable. 

                          Paraphrasing Seth Godin


      Did you see it?


      If this is the buzz after a trade show, then something new and good must have happened.


       At the OFA International Horticultural Trade Show in July, there was a large segment of the 8,000 attendees that were collecting information about Fairy Gardens and Miniature Gardens.


      Presuming that this will carry into next year’s show with more products and players, I can see Sinningias flowing into this mix.

A Fairy Garden is .....

Miniature Garden

Story # 48,


           ‘A Fairy Garden is a garden that a dollhouse would have.’

                            Jeff Sorensen, Fairy Gardens, Inc.        

     This makes sense to me.  The garden would be proportional to the miniature scale of the dollhouse.


      This is the kind of stuff that Grandmothers do with their Granddaughters.  Grandmothers always wished that they had found the time to play when their kids were little.


       ‘A Miniature Garden is one where the fairies have not arrived.’

                         G. Hunter, Gary’s Specialty Plants

        The Miniature Gardens that I’ve seen have accessories like furniture, houses, arbors, pathways, animals, fireplaces, windmills…..

      They are a scene.  They are a landscape with small plants.


      There aren’t any rules.  You’ll know a good one when you see it.  Grandma Moses painted scenes that were out of proportion and she got by.

Will Sinningia 'Li'l Georgie' be in every Minature Garden?

Miniature Garden planter with cactus to be replaced with Sinningia

Story # 42,




                                                                               “Every Fairy Garden needs color!”
                                                                                        Nancy H.,  Jul 2012




      If you were designing a Miniature Garden from scratch you would look for a focal point, use miniature furniture and figurines and build varying heights and pathways for interest.  Miniature green plants could shape the landscape.  And when you are done you would say:  ‘We need color in here’




       The perfect plant would thrive as a houseplant, be continuous flowering and stay small to be proportional to the landscape.




      This miracle flowering plant will be hard to find.




      Nobody knows that Sinningia ‘Li’l Georgie’ is coming to take that spot.

Sinningia 'Party Dress' ----- What about the Buds?

Sinningia 'Party Dress' with buds

Story # 25, Part II,


      I had not seen Sinningia ‘Party Dress’ for myself ---- live in my greenhouse, until now.


      The flowers are big and whirling pink.  The buds are many.


      What’s not to like?

Sinningia 'Party Dress' --Will it follow 'Gabriel's Horn' into the Fairy Gardens?

Sinningia 'Party Dress' hybridized and grown by Thad Scaggs

Story # 25,


      Sinningia ‘Party Dress’ – Will it follow ‘Gabriel’s Horn’ into the Fairy Gardens?


      There are many named varieties of Sinningia flowers with the whirling flair of a party dress.


      Thad Scaggs, dedicated hybridizer of Sinningias and other Gesneriads, has shown his creations and selected a pink one to be the one and only ‘Party Dress’.  Thad has others, also, with names like ‘Florida Floozie’ and ‘Diva’.


      The double-calyx flowers are very unique and the extra outside petals appear to float around the center corolla.  The flowers have size and their weight cause them to droop down.  This gives the party dress look.


      So far production is limited to rooting tip cuttings.


      Will there be a series of ‘Party Dress’- type Sinningias produced in the future?

Sinningia 'Gabriel's Horn' -- Coming soon to your Fairy Garden!

Sinningia 'Gabriel's Horn' grown by Gary's Specialty Plants

 Story # 24,


      Sinningia ‘Gabriel’s Horn’ ----coming soon to your Fairy Garden!


      Sinningia ‘Gabriel’s Horn is worth looking for.  We know that it can get many buds and flowers.  It has double-calyx flowers that look like the pixies have arrived in the Fairy Garden.  The hobby of creating a Fairy Garden looks like fun and has evolved into an extra special niche with miniature landscapes and scenes with tiny furniture and characters.


       I could just declare that ‘Gabriel’s Horn’ is the ultimate plant for your Fairy Garden but that will be up to those of you who spend time thinking about and designing your gardens.  For you Fairy Gardeners, it is highly unlikely that you’ve ever seen a plant like ‘Gabriel’s Horn’ to consider it for your landscape.


      The plant is in collections of Gesneriad growers and shows up in Gesneriad flower shows but has never escaped into Fairy Land due to limited production quantities.


      Small flowering plants of Sinningia ‘Gabriel’s Horn’ will be available for sale at the Longwood Gardens’ plant shop soon.  Watch for the availability announcement in the right hand column.