DIY foliage decor for the viv

My local craft store periodically has a 50% off greenery and foliage sale and I thought it would be neat to try and make some decor for my corn's viv. I'm sure I'm not the first person on here to do this, and I have a couple questions that I'm hoping could be answered here.

1) Are there any materials (like certain plastics and such) that I should steer clear of when selecting which foliage pieces to buy?

2) Does anyone have any advice on how to anchor the foliage? I thought about sticking the stems into Styrofoam blocks but I'm not sure if that would be a heavy enough material to keep the plant from falling over, or if Styrofoam is bad to have in the viv in the first place.

I use a lot of craft store plants in my viv and haven't had any problems so far. Some things you'll want to watch out for are any exposed wire. Make sure the flowers won't come off and expose any pokey bits. Cut off any solid loops (some garlands have them to help with hanging). Also keep in mind the fabric floral is a little more time consuming to clean, but will also look really nice, so you'll just have to choose your battles. I have several fabric plants along with some plastic ones as well. Wash them well before putting them in the viv too, of course.

As for anchoring it in, I haven't done that yet (I'm lazy and just lay the plants on their sides, lol). I'd say though, if the plant is small enough (or your viv big enough), you could use a small pot filled with pebbles (real or glass) or maybe use hot glue or silicone to attach it to some decor (or just wedge it in someplace). I'd be weary of floral foam, the rough stuff tends to rub off into little dusty bits, and the other stuff turns brown after a while.

Hope that helps!

Yes it does! It answered every question I had! Thank you I have some decision making to do now.

I saw some neat ideas today at a fish store. They had pieces of driftwood with small plants hot glued down in the crevices. It looked great and gave me some ideas for future projects with my snake's vivarium.

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Oh, and I've seen people do the styrofoam base with plants for leopard geckos. That person covered the styrofoam with grout to make it heavier, added some acrylic paint details and sealed it with modge podge. If you look up the Lizard Landscapes website, they have great instructions for all sorts of projects.

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Originally Posted by zakdat

Oh, and I've seen people do the styrofoam base with plants for leopard geckos. That person covered the styrofoam with grout to make it heavier, added some acrylic paint details and sealed it with modge podge. If you look up the Lizard Landscapes website, they have great instructions for all sorts of projects.

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Covering the styrofoam with grout is a good idea, I'll have to look into it. Thanks!

I know one thing that didn't work. I tried hot glueing fish pebbles together to make a base for my plants. It didn't work. The stones pop right off of the hot glue.

Hot glueing stems into holes drilled into wood should work fine. I have a manufactured plastic plant like that in my one viv.