Keep Poinsettias Thriving With This Self-Watering Display That Doubles As Decor

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It's common for people to buy poinsettias around the holidays, but once the festive season is over, many will just toss these plants because they don't know how to care for them. It is possible to keep your poinsettia alive all year long, but providing it with just the right amount of water is often the biggest concern. That's where self-watering pots can be rather useful. Rather than splurging on a run-of-the-mill, store-bought option, consider copying clever DIYer monstrofarm's idea. In a TikTok, this creator turned an ordinary glass vase into a gorgeous decorative self-watering display that will keep the poinsettia thriving for months to come.

To complete this DIY, you'll need a fairly tall glass vase, some Futureplusx Flat Glass Marbles, a length of Orimerc Capillary Wick Rope, a small piece of closely-woven mesh, and a short length of plastic tubing. Ideally, you want the glass vase to be about twice the depth of the root ball of the plant. However, if it's a little bit shorter, you can easily take the poinsettia out of its pot and just trim the root ball slightly, taking care not to handle those roots too roughly. If you don't have a suitable vase at home, a trip to your local thrift store could be in order.

The first thing you want to do is cut a length of the wicking rope slightly longer than the height of the vase. Fold it in half and hold it in the vase upright with the ends touching the base, then place some glass beads around it to keep it in position. Cut the piece of mesh so that it fits inside the vase, and cut a small hole in the center of the piece large enough to fit the rope through. Put this in place over the glass beads. This will keep the soil in place and make sure it doesn't settle down into the layer of glass beads.

Cut a piece of the plastic tube about ⅔ the length of the vase and insert it into one side. This will allow you to add water without wetting the soil and washing it down over the beads. Take your poinsettia out of its pot, trim the root ball if necessary, and place the plant on top of the mesh. Carefully pour water down the tube so the beads and the wicking rope are wet. To make the whole display even more decorative, wrap some ribbon or a piece of pretty fabric around the section of the vase where the soil is visible to hide it from view.

Once you've assembled your pretty self-watering display, all you have to do to keep your poinsettia thriving is to top the water up as the level drops. The rope will wick the water up into the soil where the roots can absorb as much as they need. Just take care to avoid some common mistakes with your self-watering planter, like not checking the water level often enough.

You will probably find that after a while, the water around the beads will start to get a bit murky, and you'll need to disassemble everything to give the vase and beads a good clean. This would also be a good time to replace the wicking rope, as it will also start to deteriorate over time.

As your plant continues to thrive, it will eventually outgrow its home, and you'll have to repot it into a larger container. In that case, you might want to head to Walmart for an affordable solution to keep your potted plant hydrated. This would also be a good time to clean the vase and find another small plant you can pot into it to replace the poinsettia, though you could also always return the vase to its original intended purpose and use it to display cut flowers.