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As far as I am concerned, we can never have too many house plants. Here are a few creative ways I have come up with to display them.
Currently, the count stands at 145. House plants that is. This number grows every year by leaps and bounds. The problem begins when I take them all outside in the summer. They love being outdoors. Fresh air, sunshine, "real" rain. Bugs.
While they are outside, I am often stuck inside. Sipping my coffee in the morning or early evening I tend to notice all of the empty spots. The "bareness" of it all. I begin to start thinking "I could sure use some more plants in here."
And so it begins.
Never once occurring to me that everything outside must come back in again, I merrily proceed to fill all of the bare spots with new plants. Hanging plants, floor models, small, large and everything in between plants.
And then fall arrives.
"Uh oh"...I look around as if in a daze. "Where am I gonna put all of those guys that are outside?"
I have to get creative. This is the fun part. Everything goes, there is no right or wrong. Whatever appeals to you, do it!!
Hang them from the ceiling. Staggered effect works the best, front, back, front, back and alternate high, low, etc. I use chains I buy in lengths to stagger the heights of my hanging pots.
Attach brackets right onto the window frame. Carefully, of course, you could split the wood.
Take down the curtains and hang pots on the curtain rod. Watch the weight though, or they might go "boom".
If you're lucky enough to have deep widows, hang pots from the frame itself.
The old shelf across the window trick. Helps if you have wide frames, but is a great space saver. You can also then hang pots from under the shelf!!
Little hanging pots hanging from a big hanging pot. In this case, a Spider Plant, you can hang 4 plants from one 8 inch pot!!
Put little pots IN bigger pots!! Here I have an African Violet, Hoya, Haworthia and a Cereus in a pot of Clivia.
I also have every available windowsill, table and chair covered with plants. When the fluorescent lights blew in the bathroom, I replaced them with grow tubes, and now I can hang plants in there too!!
You see? Where there's a will, there's a way. There is no such thing as too many house plants. A little creativity, and a very understanding Hubby, and the sky is the limit. The best part is, I get to do it all over again this coming summer!!
About Lee Anne Stark
I am an avid gardener who shares my gardens with 2 other equally avid gardeners. I garden for fun and relaxation, never paying attention to the rules!! During the long, cold winter months I occupy my time playing with over a hundred house plants, my six cats and two dogs.
Posted by 53023 (from Greenville, SC) on April 1, 2008 at 2:07 PM:
This message was edited Apr 21, 2008 12:17 PM
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Subject: Really Good
Posted by pearlsanna (from Bridgetown
(Barbados)) on March 31, 2008 at 10:38 AM:
I wonder why i never thought of hanging smaller pots on bigger ones or putting small ones in big ones. Really fantastic ideas thanks a lot.
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Posted by threegardeners (from North Augusta, ON) on March 31, 2008 at 1:22 PM:
Always glad to help people enlarge their plant collection.
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Subject: another idea
Posted by rosa18 (from Bartlett, IL) on March 31, 2008 at 10:31 AM:
Here is another idea that I plan to do soon. I saw this in an antique store I was in. She had old architectural brackets set on each side of the window, with an old shutter set on top of the brackets for the shelf. Great idea for wide windows, and very pretty too.
Plan to do this in my bedroom with a wide window and place orchids on it.
Love your articles LeeAnn!
Jill
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Subject: cute story
Posted by jimneyj (from Kansas City, MO) on March 31, 2008 at 9:56 AM:
you had some good ideas thanks. I do not believe you an have too many houseplants. :) I though I would share a cute story. Several years ago my children accused me of making our house a jungle with all the plants. Espcially some of the large palms and rubber trees I have. (Thought I should live in the tropics and not in Missouri (MIiery) One day I was at one of the dollar store and saw a much of little stuffed animals. Tiger, lions, giriffes, elephants, ect. So I bought several of them as they were very cheap. Anyway when the while the children were staying with visiting their mother. I put all the animal around the plants. Making my little jungle for really. The children got a big kick out of this when they saw all the wild animals. They said now our house is a real jungle.
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Posted by threegardeners (from North Augusta, ON) on March 31, 2008 at 1:21 PM:
That's a cute story :)
My 6 cats create a pretty good jungle effect here.
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Subject: IN SEARCH OF:
Posted by buffy704 (from Vermillion, SD) on March 31, 2008 at 6:09 AM:
I saw a little tree at a landscaping center but it was to far from home and I was on a plane-so I couldn't get it. I can't seem to find another one in any of the books that I get. the common name is willow,hakuro nashiki/std--scientific name is salix 'hakuro nashiki'/ It grows in my zone. Height about 6 feet. width 3 feet. This finely branched spreading shrub is grafted on a standard. Green foliage is edged and speckled in pink and white. Any body know where I can get this in a tri state area of South Dakota??? any place where I can order it from?????
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Posted by dianne99 (from Brookville, KS) on March 31, 2008 at 6:30 PM:
Maybe this should be on another forum. Did you look in PlantFiles: Nishiki Willow, Dappled Willow
Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki' sounds like it to me and there are several vendors. Good luck!
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Subject: Oh my, oh my!
Posted by doccat5 (from Fredericksburg, VA) on March 29, 2008 at 11:37 AM:
You really are an enabler! LOL
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Posted by threegardeners (from North Augusta, ON) on March 29, 2008 at 11:51 AM:
hehehe :))
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Posted by Sharran (from Calvert City, KY) on March 29, 2008 at 3:15 PM:
Fun article! Reminds me of myself, thanks.
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Posted by sallyg (from Anne Arundel Co., MD) on March 29, 2008 at 8:33 PM:
Wow, I had never thought of hanging little hanging pots from the big one. But I can say I did the little pots IN the big one--a banana in a basket gave me a nice safe place for a few little pots tucked in around the banana stem.
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Posted by Sofonisba (from Putnam County, NY) on March 29, 2008 at 11:13 PM:
I'm the same way!! I make my own pot hangers from ribbon and decorative string so I can put a big saucer under the hanging plant. I used to get water all over the floor before that!
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Posted by AnalogDog (from Mountlake Terrace, WA) on March 30, 2008 at 2:59 AM:
Great article. Wish I could get my DW to see things the way you do....
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Posted by rubyw (from Crozet, VA) on March 31, 2008 at 8:35 AM:
Aaaaahhhhh......A woman after my own heart. You are describing me perfectly. Well, some of you may as well benefit from my dollars spent. Just recently I caved in and called a Professional Organizer. She has been here twice so far. I learned a few very helpful tidbits.
I had loads of plants sitting on the floor in front of a glass door that we don't use to enter or leave. I also had several carts and a medium sized table in our spare bedroom filled with more plants. Somewhere in our conversation on the Organizer's visit she mentioned that when a person begins running out of floor space, they should begin organizing upwards. Since my houseplants were basically taking over a lot of space in a tiny house, I thought of going upwards with them.
I ordered two Baker's Racks that I put in the spare bedroom. By positioning them facing each other, I had room for most of the plants on the 4 shelves of each rack. This is all in front of the standard sized window in that room. It worked very well to give me back some floor space.
While the houseplants are outside this summer, we will be taking out the one window in that room and replacing it with a sliding glass door that will open on to our front deck. When the plants come back inside, I will have enough sunlight coming through the double doors and I will be able to position the racks with their backs to the door. It will be very pretty indeed.
Loved this article. Thanks bunches.
Ruby
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Posted by Sofonisba (from Putnam County, NY) on April 2, 2008 at 12:22 AM:
Ruby, what else did the organizer say? I've always wanted to hire one too.
I'd love to see pictures of the finished sliding glass door with racks full of plants.
Harper
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Posted by rubyw (from Crozet, VA) on April 2, 2008 at 7:18 AM:
I hope that no one will mind me answering this question here. After this initial answer, we will go to dmail regarding the organizing, if that is okay with sofo.
One of the things she started me doing was to have plastic bins for alike sorts of things. Also to label each side of the bin with the contents. What was bothering me the most about disorganization was a spare bedroom that we have that has just been used sort of for storage for about three years now. We do not have a bed in there and thus it became a catch all place. One of my bins is for gift wrap and bubble wrap. Another bin has all my seeds together in it. There are two bins that are holding the little gifts that I buy when they are on sale and give to people throughout the year.
In that room I had a boat load of magazines. They were taking up 4 shelves of a barrister bookcase. She pulled a cartoon out of her satchel to show me regarding a person having all their magazines with them in heaven, because that is the first time that they had a chance to read them all. I had been fooling myself about reading all of them one of these days. So, the first thing I did was begin getting rid of them.
I need to come back later and finish this. I need to scoot along for the moment and shower for an appointment later this morning. Am making note now to dmail you Sofonisba.
Ruby
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Posted by Sofonisba (from Putnam County, NY) on April 2, 2008 at 11:54 AM:
Okay with me ruby! Take your time. That's so funny about the person reading their magazines in heaven.
