Garden cloches are the fancy term for a glass dome that you place over plants sensitive to cold. The word actually means “bell” in French. The glass enhances the light and heat for the plant and protects it from direct contact with snow or ice. These are most useful for small plants and starts.

The glass cloche was originally used to protect frost-tender plants in the garden, but these old-fashioned bell jars are useful -- and simply charming -- for your indoor garden, too. Cloches act as mini-greenhouses, containing humidity given off by plants, as well as protecting them from drafty heat/AC vents -- often the cause of dry air indoors.

A cloche is a bell-shaped glass cover that works like a mini-greenhouse in the garden. It offered frost protection to small plants and relief to newly planted seedlings trying to develop adequate root systems.

Hundreds of years ago, glass cloches were adopted by the French, English, and Dutch for their gardens. Some cloches were shaped like miniature greenhouses, but most were bell-shaped. A cloche was useful for protecting plants from cold to extend the growing season of certain crops.