DIY Hanging Window Frame Tillandsia (air plant) Terrarium and Wall Art

For Christmas this year I received a broken window frame, six hanging tear drop terrariums, and a gift card to a local plant store.  The idea was to make this rather large 6 piece hanging terrarium, which doubles as a very nice living art installation.  It was a fun challenge! I'm extremely happy with the results, and hopefully this guide will help anyone similarly interested in making a hanging piece of living wall art.  If DIY is too much, items similar to this are available online (particularly on etsy.com, of course) 

The Frame

 

I used an old window frame that was bought for $10.  Since it is an old window frame that looks as if it just fell out of someone's wall one day, it had the following issues:

1) there was broken glass in it
2) there were metal spikes holding in the glass
3) it was covered in what was likely lead paint
4) it was full of splintering wood
5) it was structurally unsound
Do not scrape lead paint or remove glass without appropriate protective equipment! I am not an expert and cannot give you guidance for that.  I fortunately had the help of someone who does know what he is doing, and so the glass was tapped out safely, the glass holding metal pieces removed with pliers, and the lead paint scraped off.  In terms of the structure of the frame, we had to remove a few old screws and some rotting wood, then drilled in new screws and added supporting wood pieces in one or two places.
Better idea: for a little extra money, see if you can buy a frame that is already cleaned up, or have a friend who has a workshop who can help you out.
I painted the frame a dark yellow, and after a coat or two it was looking like new!  Well, it looked respectable at least.

The Glass Globes

I used six of these glass tear-drop shaped terrariums and hung one from each section of the window using medium Sisal string.

The Scenery

 

I was given a mixed bag of various dried mosses and red sand that combined nicely to make for a variety of terrarium settings.  Be creative with what you put into these; rocks, twigs, sand and moss can all look good in pretty much any combination.  Do not put too much moss in as it traps water and that can potentially hurt the air plants.  I tried to keep all my moss towards the back of the globes and the air plants in front so that there is limited contact between them.  

The Plants

I went to my local flower/plant store and bought an assortment of Tillandsia plants.  Similar to my thinking with succulent gardens, I bought a variety of types and whichever ones survive best I will keep.  There are a large number of species of Tillandsia, and the variety of foliage makes the hanging terrariums more interesting.
Plant Care:
I soaked the plants for about 20 minutes before putting them into the globes.  Looking around online there is debate as to whether tillandsia must be soaked regularly or if very intense misting is sufficient to water them, but either way they do need regular watering (despite being called air plants they do not actually get sufficient moisture to survive on humidity alone). Do not water them in such a way that they are left in standing water; either heavily mist them or soak them for 20 minutes and then let the water run off before returning them to their terrariums.  Do not place these plants in direct sunlight! They like bright indirect light.   

 Mounting the frame:

The window frame is quite heavy, so we needed a rather large hooked screw to hold it up on the wall, along with a stud finder to make sure the screw is actually secured well into the wall.  Drywall is not going to support something this heavy.  We put two eye-hook screws into the top of the frame, then tied a rope through them and hung it up.  Make sure you get rope and screws that are strong enough for the weight of the window frame you use!

For my posts on succulent terrariums, click here

For my post on making a Wardian Case terrarium from old picture frames, click here

For my posts on outdoor gardening click here

Nature Does Art: Fall Colors

Fall is back, so I thought I'd do a post (possibly more) on nature doing art.

Wedding Shower Favors: Rose in Small Vase

Recently I made guest favors for a wedding shower.  We have a red rose bush in bloom which had lots of flowers, but none of them had long stems.

To work around this, I got lots of small vases (actually votive candle holders, very inexpensive), so the roses would seem to be the correct size.

To make it a little extra classy, I put polished river rocks (the sort of thing you would find to fill vases/glass lamps/etc at pottery barn) at the bottom of the vases.  I had considered glass jewels or the like, but decided it would be too ostentatious.




I also got another candle holder so I could try floating a rose.  It worked

out pretty well.

To make the blooms last longer, cut the flowers in the morning and at an angle

All Cut Flower ideas here.

IKEA Orchid: Great Success

I got a Phalaenopsis orchid at IKEA last September, and have been quite amazed by the results.  The first set of flowers were about 3/4 bloomed when I bought the plant.  The remaining buds had no difficulty opening, and the flowers lasted something like 4 or 5 months.
Eventually of course, the flowers started dying and falling off.  When this happened, I started periodically giving the orchid food.
Then, as the stem started drying up, a new budding began.  This budding successfully grew into a new branch of blooms without the original stem dying away more than about four inches.
With only a month or so between the last of the original blooms falling off and the new buds appearing, the plant has effectively had flowers or buds for 8 of the past 9 months.  And, of course, the plant is pretty cheap if you buy it at IKEA.  If the new flowers last as long as the first set, the plant will have gone pretty much an entire year in constant bloom.  The one downside is that I still cannot re-pot it, since that could hurt the flowers.  Perhaps I never will get the chance, but that would be cool too.  And of course, for more information on how to grow plants, ask this guy.

A note on how I have been taking care of the plant:  It sits in moss of some sort (whatever IKEA packaged it in originally), and the entire pot sits on top of some shells (rocks would be fine) inside of a plant pot dish.  I fill the dish with water, but not so high that it touches the orchid pot.  This way the orchid is sitting above water, to keep it humid, but not sitting IN water, which would make it rot.  I water the orchid whenever the moss and roots seem dry, which is roughly every two weeks.  I water it by holding it over the sink and essentially running water through it.  The water soaks the roots and moss, then runs through the pot.  I make sure all the extra water is gone before returning the pot to the dish, again so that the orchid is not sitting in water.  Orchid food is pretty cheap and you only need a very tiny amount to keep them going (and I don't use it every time I water anyways; in fact I didn't use it at all the first 5 months or so that I had the plant.

  At the rate I'm going through this stuff, it will last a few years...

Succulent Garden

Plants make good art.  Bonsai, flower arranging, etc are probably the most common types, but terrariums and small succulent or cactus gardens also can be artistic.  My succulent garden has been growing for about three years or so now.  A succulent or cactus garden is sort of the opposite of a terrarium.  Unlike a terrarium, which is kept fairly moist and is usually at least partially enclosed, a succulent garden is kept mostly dry and open.  This makes them pretty easy to care for (just add water...rarely).  I use succulents instead of cacti because they are, for the most part, less pointy and sharp.  As a disclaimer, I don't know a ton about plants, but I'll list here what has worked for me.  For someone who DOES know a ton about plants, check out: http://theatrumbotanicum.wordpress.com/

Pot:

Ideally you want the pot to have a small profile because the plants most likely will not get too big.  The pot I use is about two inches tall, and maybe eight inches wide.  This gives me plenty of space for half a dozen plants.   

Soil:

Succulents (and cacti) need really well draining soil.  They cannot sit in water at all.  I actually used pure sand from our sandbox.  You can also use mixes of dirt and sand.  Using larger rocks at the bottom of the dish also can help.

Plants:  Most greenhouses or other stores that sell plants will have all their small succulents and cacti in a bunch, usually labeled something like '2 inch succulents.'  These are what I use for my garden.  Try a variety of plants, and don't be worried if some die right away.  The plants are all grouped togetherin the store, but different ones are easier or harder to keep alive (if you're at a greenhouse, the sales people should be able to help).  I will try to make a list sometime of the ones i have been able to grow and the ones that have died immediately.   

Decorating:

Once all the plants are in, I added a layer of red and white-ish rocks.  Originally (and unfortunately I have not kept it up) I made a series of red paths through the garden.  I also accented the green of the succulents with some purple amethyst.  As a final touch, i threw a rubber snake and a rubber horned lizard.

Beyond this example:  You can get much fancier than this garden example.  To add more depth, you can use larger rocks to create levels in your garden.  In that case, you need a way to add soil to the second layer.  This may mean a second dish hidden under the sand, or a hole drilled into the rock (make sure it can drain!).  You can also add additional plants that have different growing conditions by leaving them in their plastic pots and simply burying the pots (this is where the decoration layer of rocks comes in handy).  This way you can water just that plant more or less than the other ones depending on its needs.