From the side.

I can't help on the ID, but what a healthy looking plant and with such a rich color! Nice find!

Purple,
I believe that's Pilea involucrata 'Norfolk'

Planto

yes, that is a pilea. When I very first got into houseplants it was one of the very first plants I bought, but it soon died on me...but I was a begginer, I probably did a million things wrong to it...but it is a very neat looking plant, I just love the colors on it.

-FPT

Thanks for the inputs! I had no idea when I posted this that there are (according to Wiki) in excess of 600 Pileas. Precise ID via photo is probably beyond tricky.

I've had several before and the leaves always felt puckery and papery, like puckered Fittonia. The leaves on this plant are relatively smooth, soft, flexible like Coleus. It closely resembles the involucrata 'Norfolk' suggested, but I couldn't find any pics of that with the same leaf shape, more pointy and thinner.

Like any other plant, I'm sure it will be happy in a fast-draining mix but am curious if it is by nature a tiny plant. It's unreasonable to imagine that I would never need to edit or rearrange a fairy garden, in which I intend to include this plant, but if it were to grow as fast as a Coleus, it would have to be removed after a short time. Don't think that will be a problem though, I didn't see any large plants that looked like this one when googling. It also looks like it would propagate easily if it were to need a trim for height in the future. If it gets too tall even though I'll be pinching it, will put that theory to the test.

Purple, your Pilea is gorgeous!
I've never seen Pilea with dark leaves like yours.

I found a Pilea on Google called P. repens, Black-Leaf Panamiga Urticaceae.
Pic and info are listed on, Plant of the Week website
I haven't been to GW, so didn't know you adopted new plants yesterday, Jan 22.
I'll search for a thread w/a list.

BTW, what is a fairy garden? lol. Toni

Glad you like it, Toni. Here's "the" fairy garden, all incredibly tiny plants, little paths, a little house, furniture, almost disgustingly cute. For example, the plant pictured at the top of this thread is about the biggest size of any plants in this:

Purple..your fairy garden IS adorable.
So, the object is use plants on the small side?
Very cute decorations, too.

Is the picture recent and is the garden in or outdoors?

I've never heard of a fairy garden before, but it's something to consider.

Rutroh, sorry, I should have said again here that this is not my fairy garden. If you consider the background, if this were my setup, I'd be too busy tending this warehouse of plants to chat. Took this pic at a store called Dothan Nurseries, my new fav place! It pushed yanked me hopelessly into the fairy garden world.

A fairy garden does not necessarily have to have fairies in it, or anything but plants, but mini "things" can definitely often be part of them. I like when they have some moss. There's no rules of course but I think the usual goal is to make it look like a real landscape in mini, like people do with model trains, the way they make towns and glue on tiny trees... You can use plants that just don't get big, or little pieces of slow-growing plants.

lovely Pilea. Saw these for sale recently but they were too highly priced due to the fancy pots they were in. Ridiculous, they were just tiny plants.

Purple, sorry, thought the Fairy Garden was yours.
Did you notice if the table had drainage?

I wonder how a succulent FG would do. There's quite a few succulents that remain small. Toni

No I didn't notice, and that's something I'm curious about, what the bottom surface of that box is, and how they water w/o disturbing those tiny plants and decorations.

Succulents are a standard for fairy/mini gardens, Haworthias, Echeverias, Crassulas, Portulacaria, Sedums, Portulacas... I also want to put some bigger plants in there and pinch them bonsai-style so they stay proportionate. Like Coleus, Scheff, Dracaena, Gardenias, mini rose, wax Begonia, need to look at my plants with this consideration and see what else would work.

I've been looking at way too many pics for ideas, and spent way too much time Saturday taking stock of mini items I have around the house. I found things of 2 different scales, really tiny, and regular tiny, like Barbie size. So already I am planning 2 gardens. DH said he will make boxes for them soon and we are debating about what the bottom should be instead of wood. I think I've settled on sheet metal scraps. Won't rot or take up any extra interior space, and I can put as many holes in as I feel like I need.

Between just having a lifelong affinity for tiny things, raiding my storage tote of Barbie items, and some of the cute little Lego accessories, I realized I have a great assortment of stuff to get started. Then I started looking at websites that sell mini plant stuff and dollhouse stuff... One could really lose control of reality (if not spending much money is supposed to be your reality!)

I'm not really into fairies or gnomes. One of them is going to be a park with a grill and picnic scene. The other will be the extra small stuff and I'm not as fixed on that theme yet. I may be going back to that store today where they had the fairy garden, not sure yet, must have more tiny plants...

The other thing I learned looking at all of those pictures was the existence of fairy doors. Now I know I just said I'm not into fairies, but one doesn't have to have a little fairy statue to have a fairy door. If you have a tree with a hole or "v" in the trunk/roots at the bottom, you can put a little door there, and maybe even a tiny garden around it. So cute, must have! As luck would have it, the giant pecan I can see out the window where I sit to type has a perfect spot for one of these. As soon as it's up, I'll take a pic.