How to make your own succulent terrarium centerpieces

Dragon Lady once showed us her monster movie wedding invitations, and now she’s showing us how she made her succulent terrarium centerpieces. I have a total hard-on for succulents, so I’m very excited.

I finished off the terrariums and my hands are killing me now — but they’re done, and they look awesome! I’m super excited. I have no idea how many will actually go home with people, but I’m totally cool with keeping these for myself if I have to, haha. And a lot of my succulents had shoots so I have a whole bunch of starters for myself! Our last fish died, so I’m planning on turning our 35 gallon tank into a giant terrarium, so this works out great. Here’s my tutorial for the succulent terrariums.

What you will need:

• Glass receptacles. I used the 6″ glass bowls.
• Succulents (I got mine from Succulents Galore) approximately six per vase if using a 6″ glass bowl.
• Activated charcoal
• Succulent/Cacti soil
• Sand (optional) — whatever and however many colors you want. I used a natural sand and an orange sand since our colors are orange and turquoise. This will contrast nicely with our tea candles which will be sitting in turquoise sand.
• Spray bottle
• Small paintbrush

Add a small layer of activated charcoal to the bottom of your glass receptacle. The activated charcoal acts as a resevoir for the water in a terrarium and is extremely important to prevent your plants from rotting and dying.

Select your succulents for the terrarium. Loosen the rootball before placing the succulent:

Arrange the plants as desired.

You can call it quits here, or add layers of sand as desired. Use your paintbrush to gently shake the sand and dirt off of the leaves. You’ll want to do this at each layer, otherwise you’ll mix the components. You’ll end up mixing sand anyway if you are using multiple layers, but I don’t mind the effect.

After you’re done assembling your terrariums, spray them well with water using the spray bottle. Spray down the sides as well to catch any sand or dirt.

Caring for your terrariums:

• These guys like partial shade as they were grown in a greenhouse. If you place them in a window sill, keep them a few inches back and rotate them every once in awhile so the leaves don’t stretch out.
• Be careful not to overwater your succulents; this is the easiest way to have a terrarium fail. I like to water when I notice the leaves are getting slightly wrinkled. Otherwise every 2-4 weeks is fine.
• If you incorporate tillandsias (airplants) in your terrarium, remove them before spritzing the succulents. You can spritz the tillandsia, but allow them to hang upside down. One of the biggest causes of tillandisa failure is rot at the base of the plant where the water can collect after you spritz them.
• Even more fun — loose leaves can be removed and sprinkled on soil. They will take root and grow another succulent. And you will have oodles and oodles of succulents!

Here are a few more just for fun! I have a total of twenty-one — three per table that each family can take home with them if they want.