For the last 40 years it has been completely sealed from the outside world. But the indoor variety of spiderworts (or Tradescantia, to give the plant species its scientific Latin name) within has thrived, filling its globular bottle home with healthy foliage.

Bottle gardens work because their sealed space creates an entirely self-sufficient ecosystem in which plants can survive by using photosynthesis to recycle nutrients.

The only external input needed to keep the plant going is light, since this provides it with the energy it needs to create its own food and continue to grow.

It was Easter Sunday 1960 when Mr. Latimer thought it would be fun to start a bottle garden “out of idle curiosity”.

He said: “At the time the chemical industry had changed to transporting things in plastic bottles so there were a lot of glass ones on the market. Bottle gardens were a bit of a craze and I wanted to see what happened if you bunged the thing up.”

Via Daily Mail.