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Gardening Recipes
 
Craft Projects Photography

Carnivorous Plants in Hanging Terrariums

March 29, 2011 By radmegan 8 Comments

I used to keep a lot of beta fish as pets. I had a row of fish bowls lined up on my counter top, and a couple of hanging fish bowls above my couch. I adored the bright and colorful companionship of my fish, and lived with them for many years. As my sweet swimmy friends would pass away, I would clean up their bowls, and put them into storage. I’ve re-used a few of my fish bowls for other projects (like the table-top water garden), but hadn’t thought about the hanging fish bowls until this past weekend when I decided to combine a few small carnivorous plants to make hanging terrariums.

Flowering

I have lots of carnivorous plants in my garden, and right now is the perfect time of year to start re-potting the plants that have outgrown their containers! Since I was already in the re-potting mood, (and had re-discovered my nifty hanging aquariums), I selected a few specific carnivores, and got to work making terrariums.
Materials
The plants I selected were (clockwise from top): Two small Sarracenia (trumpet plants) that I had grown from seed, and knew would stay small this year, two types of Pinguicula (butterworts) with lovely cheery flowers, and some Drosera capensis (basically a sticky-armed carnivorous weed in my garden.)
Drosera

Carnivorous plants grow naturally in soil with very little nutrients, so instead of using a nutrient-rich potting soil which would likely kill them, I used a mixture of peat moss, sand and perlite. I wet the mixture with pure water (rain water, distilled, or reverse osmosis), and securely planted them in the plastic vessel.

Re-Potting Pinguicula
The shallow roots of the Pinguicula


Terrarium
I planted my Sarracenia in the center of the terrarium so that it could grow up and out of the opening. Normally, I keep Sarracenia in plastic pots sitting in trays of water. I re-pot them every year, and will more than likely remove this Sarracenia from the terrarium next year, as it will become too large for the container. I added a plastic Saber-tooth tiger to the mix for good measure and hung my terrariums outside in the garden. These plants love bright sun, and lots and lots of clean water, so I placed them in a highly visible area (so that I won’t forget about them and allow them to dry out too much!)
Hanging Terrarium
As you can see, one of my plastic fish tanks is much more clear than the other… when washing your PLASTIC fish tanks, take care not to use a highly ABRASIVE sponge as it will completely scratch up the plastic. (Duh Megan!)
Looking in on the Carnivores
View from the top


Back-to-Back

Since these terrariums are clear, they also look pretty cool hung back-to-back.

For carnivorous plants, check your local nursery, major home-repair shop (like Lowes or Home Depot) or look online! If you are interested in making your own hanging carnivorous terrariums, or keeping beta fish above your couch like I did, here’s where I got the hanging bowl:

Thanks for reading and have a great day!


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Filed Under: Gardening Tagged With: carnivorous plants, container gardening, fish, Gardening, living walls, plants


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Comments

  1. Vivian says

    March 29, 2011 at 10:20 am

    Amazing photos!

    Reply
  2. Janee Lookerse says

    March 29, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    Awesome. LOVE IT. I’m adding the hanging fish bowls to my birthday list. GENIUS.

    xoxo
    J
    yellowbirdyellowbeard.blogspot.com

    Reply
  3. Craft Medley says

    March 29, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    SO cool! You’re always such an inspiration to read Megan :)

    xoxo Maria

    Reply
  4. radmegan says

    March 30, 2011 at 6:14 am

    Thank you all so much! Vivian- I appreciate it :)

    Janee you are so sweet! When’s your birthday lady???

    Maria you are so encouraging! Thank you dear!

    xoxo
    radmegan

    Reply
  5. LaurelsArt says

    March 30, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    I’ve been arguing with my husband about getting a beta for our living room coffee table. He thinks Kitty would just have a feast. These containers are a great idea for the beta, and for his green thumb!

    Reply
  6. radmegan says

    March 30, 2011 at 12:48 pm

    LaurelsArts! Yes!!! These bowls are perfect for homes with kitties! And if you can get one for yourself, and one for him (and NONE for kitty!) almost everyone’s happy :)

    Have fun!!
    xoxo

    Reply
  7. Jeffrey says

    June 11, 2011 at 8:59 pm

    Do you think it would be possible to combine this idea with the table-top water garden and create something like a hanging water garden?

    Reply
  8. Anonymous says

    October 1, 2011 at 11:29 am

    Great idea for plants but its really not fair to keep a betta in that small a bowl.

    Reply

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