
My mom is always commenting on how much she loves our front yard, so I decided to give her a piece of it for Mother’s Day. Specifically, I decided to make her a terrarium with succulents propagated from our garden. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making terrariums ever since I saw the 2008 film Penelope with Christina Ricci and James McAvoy. Weird, I know: It’s a modern-day fairy tale about a girl cursed with a pig snout…but it was FULL of gorgeous, enchanting terrariums thanks to the exquisite vision of director Mark Palansky (I admit that I’m a bit biased: Mark is a friend). One small problem: A terrarium is, by definition, an enclosure. Being closed, terrariums recycle their moisture, making them an ideal environment for plants that enjoy high levels of humidity, such as mosses and ferns. That means, of course, that they’re not a great home for succulents, which prefer dry conditions. So, instead of making a traditional terrarium, I made an open-air terrarium, which is to say: I put together a succulent arrangement. Continue reading