How to Make a Succulent Terrarium: A Beginner's Guide

Succulents Hate Humidity

Succulents come from dry places and store water in their leaves. They want dry air, dry soil between drinks, and moving air. A closed jar is the opposite: humid, damp, and still. Seal a succulent in one and it rots, usually within weeks.

Closed Jars Are for Tropical Plants

Closed terrariums work beautifully, but for humidity-loving plants like ferns, moss, and Fittonia. If you want to understand how those work, read what a terrarium is and how it works. For succulents, always choose an open container.

What About Shop-Bought Succulent Terrariums?

Many sold in gift shops have succulents glued in place, sitting in decorative sand, or packed in with moss. They look nice for a few weeks, then rot or starve. If you bought one, replant the succulents using the steps below.

Wide Opening, Low Sides

The best containers are wide and shallow: a glass bowl, a fishbowl with a big mouth, or a low geometric terrarium with open panels. The wider the opening, the better the airflow and the faster the soil dries. A wide mouth also lets you reach in to plant and water.

Containers to Avoid

Skip tall, narrow vases and bottles with small openings. Air barely moves inside them, the soil stays wet at the bottom, and the plants stretch up toward the light.

Size

A bowl at least 6-8 inches across fits three or four small plants with room to grow. Bigger is easier, because more soil dries more evenly and you have more room for mistakes.

The Best Beginner Picks

• Zebra Plant (Haworthiopsis attenuata): the best terrarium succulent. Small, slow, striped, and happy in less light than most succulents.
• Haworthia cooperi: plump, translucent leaf tips that glow when light shines through.
• Gasteria: thick, tongue-shaped leaves, very slow, and tolerant of bright indirect light.
• Echeveria elegans: a pale blue rosette that adds color, but it needs your sunniest spot.

Good Accent Plants

String of Buttons (Crassula perforata) adds stacked, geometric shapes. A small Sedum adolphii brings golden color in strong light. A tiny Pincushion Cactus makes a nice spiny contrast if you use tweezers or tongs to plant it.

Succulents to Avoid

Skip fast growers and large plants like jade, aloe, and Aeonium, which soon outgrow the bowl. Avoid trailing plants like String of Pearls, which need good drainage and rot easily in glass. Hens and Chicks need cold winters and full sun, so they struggle indoors under glass. For more on general care, see our succulent care guide.

Drainage Layer

Start with about 1 inch of small gravel, lava rock, or LECA. This is not real drainage. In a normal pot with a hole, a gravel layer does more harm than good, as our succulent care guide explains. In glass with no hole, it acts as a small catch basin for the odd extra spoonful, and it only works because you water so little.

Gritty Soil

This is the most important part. Use a cactus and succulent mix, then add extra pumice or perlite so the mix is about half grit. Regular potting soil holds far too much water for a pot with no hole. Our soil guide and potting soil guide explain the options.

Top Dressing

Finish with a layer of small pebbles, grit, or coarse sand. It keeps the base of each plant dry, which helps prevent rot, and it looks clean. Avoid colored decorative sand mixed into the soil, because it packs down and holds water.

What You Need

An open glass bowl, gravel, cactus soil, pumice or perlite, pebbles for the top, three to five small succulents, a spoon, and a small brush. Long tweezers or tongs help with cacti.

Step-by-Step

1. Wash and dry the bowl.
2. Add about 1 inch of gravel.
3. Mix cactus soil with pumice or perlite and add 2-3 inches on top of the gravel.
4. Remove the succulents from their pots and gently shake off the old soil, especially if it is dense peat.
5. Arrange them with taller plants at the back or center, leaving some space between them.
6. Plant each one so the base sits just at the soil surface, and firm the soil around it.
7. Add the pebble top dressing and brush soil off the leaves and glass.
8. Do not water for about a week. This lets any roots damaged while planting heal, which is the key step for preventing rot.

Placing the Plants

Leave a little space between plants so air can move and each one has room to grow. A crowded terrarium looks full on day one but quickly gets damp and stretched.

The Brightest Spot You Have

Succulents need a lot of light, and glass filters a little of it. Put the terrarium in your brightest window, ideally east-facing with a few hours of gentle morning sun, or a spot right by a south window in winter. Read our light guide for help choosing.

Watch the Heat

Glass gets hot in direct afternoon summer sun, especially if the bowl is deep. If the soil and glass feel hot to the touch, move it back a little or shade it during the hottest hours. Open bowls handle sun much better than closed jars, but they still warm up.

Use a Grow Light in Dim Homes

If your windows are dim, a small grow light 6-12 inches above the terrarium for 12-14 hours a day keeps succulents compact and colorful. Haworthia and Gasteria cope best with lower light, so choose them if light is limited.

How Often

Water only when the soil is completely dry all the way down. In spring and summer that is usually every two to four weeks, and in winter every four to six weeks. Push a wooden skewer into the soil and pull it out: if it comes out clean and dry, it is time to water. For more on watering basics, see how often to water houseplants.

How Much

Use a spoon, a squeeze bottle, or a syringe, and water around the base of each plant only. For a small bowl, a few tablespoons per plant is usually enough. You want the soil around the roots damp, not water pooling in the gravel. If you can see water sitting at the bottom of the glass, you used too much.

Avoid Spraying

Do not mist succulents. Water sitting on the leaves and in the rosettes leads to rot, and misting does nothing for the roots.

Rotting or Mushy Plants

Soft, translucent, or black leaves and stems mean too much water. Remove the affected plant right away, let the soil dry out completely, and water less next time. See mushy stems and root rot for more help.

Stretching and Leaning

Succulents that grow tall, pale, and lean toward the window are not getting enough light. That is leggy growth, and it cannot be reversed, but you can move the bowl somewhere brighter and replant the top of a stretched plant as a cutting. Our succulent propagation guide explains how.

Shriveled Leaves or Burn Marks

Wrinkled, deflated leaves mean the plant is thirsty, so water a little more often. Brown, dry, or white patches on the side facing the window are sunburn, usually from a sudden move into strong sun or a hot summer window.