I’ve received quite some interest for my last post on making DIY hanging terrariums on my last post, and today I will be sharing with you some tips on making them.

2 Tips for making a hanging/floating terrarium with succulents – the do’s and don’ts

These hanging terrariums are very popular, no doubt because they look so elegant and adds such a nice touch as a simple decor to your home.

My DIY hanging terrarium with succulents and cacti.

There are tons of DIY blogs and websites offering tutorials on how to make them, but today I want to highlight 2 do’s & don’ts that will save you from running into the same mishaps that I had.

Okay, to cover the basics, most tutorials will tell you to first fill the glass ball with a bottom layer of pebbles (for drainage), then some active charcoal (to keep whatever moisture contained in the ball “clean”), and finally another layer of cactus soil to actually plant the succulents.

Pretty simple right?  I thought so as well and before I know it I was at the gardening centre buying all different kinds of succulents and cacti.  I don’t know if you saw this coming but when I returned home I realized all of my newly bought succulents were too big for the glass balls.  The opening of the glass balls were too small for me to even fit the succulent inside their supposed home.  Therefore,

#1 Do! – Make sure the tenant fits the home!

When you go succulent shopping, making sure you bring the actual terrarium (glass ball) with you! This way you make sure the succulent will fit through the opening of the glass ball.

This one is my favourite one. A happy cacti couple lives here.

#2 Don’t! – Go easy on the soil. 

Of course you need soil layer, but actually from experience I would use the existing soil that comes with the store-bought succulent plant (unlike most tutorials that suggest first preparing a soil bed in the glass ball).  After the succulent is inside the glass ball, THEN I would add extra soil to fill up the extra space around it to secure the succulent so it doesn’t wobble around.  If you do decide to have soil bed, don’t over do it!  Otherwise you always end up with too much (soil bed + existing soil from the succulent) and there is not enough height left over for the succulent itself to grow upwards.

I think what’s most elegant about these hanging terrariums is that there is a lot of air, light and space.  The DIY hanging terrariums I have made so far could really have improved on these 3 aspects… but hey, I had to learn from trial and error and that’s how I found about the do’s and don’ts that I’m sharing with you today.

Make sure there is enough space for the succulent to grow!

What do you think? What was your experience like making hanging these hanging terrariums?

** If you are interested in making these hanging terrariums, I have a lot of these glass globes leftover for sale. You can leave me a message in the contact page to enquire about purchasing them!