How to make a succulent terrarium

Succulent terrariums are a fun way to display succulents in your home and are surprisingly easy to make. You need to take a little bit of extra care with succulents which are planted up this way but with the right care your terrarium can last for months until it over grows and needs replanting.

So what do you need before you get started:

• A glass bowl or jar or vase
• Some medium size stones for drainage
• Some succulent soil
• Topdressing
• Succulent cuttings 
• Decorations

The first step is to put a layer of medium size stones in the bottom of your glass container, this provides a little bit of drainage for your succulents. Of course if you have a glass container with drainage holes or feel brave enough to drill some this is even better.

Next up is a layer of your succulent soil. You don't need it too deep, a couple of cms will do.

After this I like to put any large stones that I am using for decoration. I use stones that I have collected on the beach with kids. You don't need to do this if you would prefer not to, I just favour the natural look and find some larger stones can add nice texture and interest.

Then I put in my top dressing. Again I favour the natural look so tend to go for natural looking aquarium gravel but you can use any colour you like. It doesn't even have to be gravel, you can use sand for instance, for a desert look.

Next up are your succulent cuttings, I like to use some rosettes and some that grow tall like crassula perforata but you can use which ever succulents you like. Figure out where you want to place your plants, you can move them around until you find the spot that looks best then just stick the stalk through the topdressing to the soil.

Then for the fun bit, decoration! You can totally let your imagination run wild with this, go minimalist or stick a bit of everything in!  You can use moss, little fairy houses and mushrooms, crystals, shells, drift wood, so long as it fits in the bowl the sky is the limit.



For this one I have used some coloured glass and a little plastic bunny.

And there you have it, your own succulent terrarium! In a few weeks the cuttings should root and you can give them a little drink of water. Just remember because you have no drainage holes less is more on the watering front!

To help you out with ideas(and because I love showing them off) here are a few terrariums I have made in the past: