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Catablog· DIY· Gardening

How to Make a Flower Tower

April 8, 2013

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot; however all opinions are my own.

Remember my Project: Outdoor Living plans?  Well I’ve already gotten started and made my first Flower Tower!  And vertical gardening is not as intimidating as it looks!  I’ve actually now made two and each one gets a little better and a little easier.  And I’ve gotta say, these are awesome statement pieces for my patio!  My backyard is VERY plain but with the addition of my flower towers, it looks SO much prettier!!  These are horticultural masterpieces that I think would probably cost at LEAST $300 if you bought them pre-made.

How to make a flower tower

Beautiful right?  I wanted to use petunias for this project, but they aren’t quite in season yet.  So I bought pansies and dianthus in red, white, and blue.  I am hoping that by the time the 4th of July comes around, this flower tower will have reached mature age and the tower will be full and heavy with flowers and greenery.

Flower Tower 2

I’m going to be honest here and say that this wasn’t the easiest project.  I followed the instructions given on the Home Depot’s Garden Club page and struggled quite a bit (Watch their video.) I felt like I was forcing the flowers in the little holes so much that I damaged some of the stems.  After I was done, I spent some time thinking and came up with an alternative method of putting this together.  I tried the new method on another tower and it was indeed a lot easier.  I’m going to share both methods with you, but my own method I will share in a few days.

flower tower 1

Here is how I made the tower:

Preparation

I first visited my local Home Depot where I got all my stuff.  (I’m going to talk about that in more detail in my next post.)

Here is the list of supplies:

  • Large Flower Pot, at least 13″ wide
  • Potting Soil
  • Flowers
  • Galvanized Wire Fencing with 4″ openings
  • Landscape Fabric
  • Utility Knife
  • Tin Snips
  • Zip ties

You can also use gardening gloves, a trowel, and a watering can.  I am an earthy girl so I never use gloves (although I did buy them).  I didn’t use the trowel that much with this method but I did with the next one.

building a flower tower

Step 1:

Open up your wire fencing and unroll it about 3 feet.  Snip it apart and form a cylinder that will fit in your container.  It should fit inside the container and go almost to the bottom.  The fencing should overlap a little so you have a nice secure cylinder.  And then use the zip ties to hold it together.  Then cut off the remaining tail.  I actually trimmed the height of my cylinder a little bit because I knew I didn’t have enough flowers and it looked very high.

wire fencing for flower tower

I was excited to do this project and have my kids help me.  I have three little kids under the age of 5 and they are basically my shadows all day long.  Anytime I can get them involved in a project, it’s great.  It sometimes tries my patience, but it’s rewarding to both of us to have them participate.  This was definitely one where they participated.  My 4-year-old helped with the zip ties, my two-year-old drew with sidewalk chalk, and my baby played in the dirt.

building a flower tower 1

Step 2:

Cut a length of landscape fabric by measuring it around your container and cutting it to size.  Then put the landscape fabric inside the cylinder and fold over a few inches.  Also make sure the fabric overlaps so no dirt can escape.  Then cut a slit in the top fabric and use a zip tie to hold it in place (trim the tails off.)

  wire fencing and fabric for flower tower

zip ties for flower tower

 

Step 3:  Fill the cylinder with dirt about 1/3rd up, add water.  Then fill another 1/3rd, add water.  Then fill to about 1″ from the top and add a little more water.  The water will help the dirt compact down and will also help it to stay in place when adding the flowers.  Add a little dirt in the container on the outside of the cylinder to fill in the gaps.


Here is a video of this step with my kids helping me.

And the second video of filling the dirt around the sides.
Step 4:  Now for the fun part!  Cut a slit in the landscape fabric.  Then use two fingers to dig a hole for your seedling.  Then carefully put the flower in your hole and secure it well.  This was the hardest part for me.  Since the seedlings came with their own amount of dirt, I found myself swimming in excess dirt.  Also it was hard to get a good amount of flowers in.

adding flowers to a flower tower

I started on the bottom row and moved around and up.  The middle row I put two seedlings in each spot since it was a large area.  But the top row I could only put one because I knew I needed to save room for my top flowers.  After all the flowers were in place, I watered it thoroughly.  You can see here that it’s looking very droopy.  I took this picture below right after finishing the planting and the other pictures above were a couple days later.  You can see that it takes a few days for them to re-hydrate and for the roots to start forming again.  The flowers perk up more and more each day.  And it will take time for the flowers to really strengthen and cover all the bald spots.  You can’t see it that well in the picture but there are a few bald spots that I hope will get covered up in time.

flower tower before hydration

This is also where experience and time will tell me if I did this in the best way.  As the summer goes on, I will care for my flower tower and see how much the flowers grow and cover the ‘scaffolding’ of my tower.  I was afraid that the particular varieties of flowers I chose would not grow that much more and spread out, so I wanted to make sure there were enough flowers in my tower to start with.  This is where Petunias would come in handy because they definitely grow and spread out.  If I had used Petunias, I probably wouldn’t have worried.  I probably would have put a flower in every other space.  As it was, I put two flowers in each space, except the bottom and the top rows.  I may have used too many flowers.  But like I said—time will tell.  I think it’s off to a promising start.  I will amend this post in a few months to show you the progress.

Flower Tower

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Click on this picture to see lots of other amazing garden ideas!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

 

 

Filed Under: Catablog, DIY, Gardening 31 Comments

Comments

  1. Heidi @ Mom's Crafty Space says

    April 8, 2013 at 4:54 pm

    This is SO super cool! I’ve seen these before, but never with such clear directions on how to do it yourself. Thank you! Definitely going on my to-do list!

    Reply
    • Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says

      April 10, 2013 at 8:48 pm

      I had never seen it until I saw it on the Home Depot’s Garden Club site…they are actually very easy and fun to make!

      Reply
  2. Megan says

    April 8, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    This looks fantastic!

    Reply
    • Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says

      April 10, 2013 at 8:47 pm

      Thanks Megan!

      Reply
  3. carolyn ~ homework says

    April 8, 2013 at 11:57 pm

    What a fantastic project. I’m adding this to my to-do list!

    Reply
    • Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says

      April 10, 2013 at 8:47 pm

      Thanks Carolyn! It’s a summer must!

      Reply
  4. Ashley @ Simply Designing says

    April 9, 2013 at 1:30 am

    Yours turned out BEAUTIFUL! And I love your choice of flowers! It is so pretty!!

    Ashley

    Reply
    • Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says

      April 10, 2013 at 8:47 pm

      Thanks Ashley! I think we chose similar flowers 🙂 I want to try another one with petunias and do it more like you did.

      Reply
  5. Angie @ CCC says

    April 9, 2013 at 4:22 pm

    Love this Heidi!!

    Reply
    • Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says

      April 10, 2013 at 8:46 pm

      Thanks Angie!

      Reply
  6. Michele @ The Scrap Shoppe says

    April 9, 2013 at 8:05 pm

    This is such a cool concept, Heidi! Love it!

    Reply
    • Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says

      April 10, 2013 at 8:45 pm

      Thanks Michele!

      Reply
  7. Heather says

    April 9, 2013 at 10:33 pm

    Stunning – love the height of the flowers that is made with the wire!! Pretty!

    Reply
    • Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says

      April 10, 2013 at 8:44 pm

      Thank you! I actually made it a little shorter but I want to make a taller one!

      Reply
  8. Amy Anderson says

    April 10, 2013 at 1:40 am

    So pretty! I need one for my porch!!

    Reply
    • Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says

      April 10, 2013 at 8:44 pm

      You definitely do! And then you’ll want to make a bunch!

      Reply
  9. Deneen says

    April 10, 2013 at 1:44 am

    So pretty! Great idea to brighten the patio!

    Reply
    • Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says

      April 10, 2013 at 8:43 pm

      Thanks! I can see it through the glass door and it makes me happy. 🙂

      Reply
  10. Alice says

    April 13, 2013 at 8:41 pm

    Do you remember about how much this whole project cost? I live in an 2 unit apartment so I share my front yard with others but I would love to put two of these flower towers in front to spice it up a bit and they look so nice! I am really limited on finances right now though so I wondered if you had a cost estimate. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says

      April 17, 2013 at 5:12 am

      It kind of depends on how many flowers you get and how much they cost. The cost of the other supplies was about $40-$50, and once you have the supplies, you can make a bunch.

      Reply
  11. Cherine Berg says

    May 11, 2013 at 3:35 pm

    I think it might be easier to fill the “fabric-wrapped tower” slowly, adding the flowers in each row, and then putting in potting mix to cover each row. Start at the bottom, fill with potting mix as far as first row of flowers should go. Cut holes in fabric and push flower roots though the cut hole, continue doing same all around the tower. Fill with potting mix just to cover the flower roots, add water, add more potting mix if needed. Sprinkle potting mix with flower bloom fertilizer. Then cut holes in fabric again all around the tower, making another level; insert roots of flowers, cover roots with potting mix, water, fertilizer, etc.. Repeat until all the tower rows are completed.
    By making tower using this method, you don’t have to “fight” with the potting mix coming out. It would be easier because the potting mix isn’t packed down with water.
    I you want to make this tower using flowers that are “already bigger” and really pretty, you would have to use the above method. This is more difficult because the root ball is larger, along with the green foliage, and flowers. Here is the tip for larger ones: To insert flowers though fabric, gently wrap wax paper around the green foliage and flowers (not around potting mix). Place plant inside the tower, and push/pull gently the wax paper through the cut hole. As soon as the “green foliage & flower” are pulled through to the outside of tower, gently peel off the wax paper. Continue same step all around tower, then cover roots balls with potting mix, add water, fertilizer, etc.. Continue for each level of flower needed on tower. I have done this on flowers baskets, and it works great.

    Reply
  12. Megan says

    May 15, 2013 at 3:38 pm

    What if you add the dirt as you add in the flowers that way you don’t damage the roots and you don’t have to fight all the extra dirt. then you can add dirt flowers more dirt and water then add dirt flowers and more dirt. Im making this tomorrow and I think that I will try it that way at first and see how that goes and will let you know!

    Reply
  13. Kelly says

    June 11, 2013 at 3:04 pm

    I just built one of these about a month ago. I too felt like I was damaging the flowers as I forced them in. I used petunias and ended up topping the whole thing with an established basket. None of the flowers have died, and while they’ve grown some, they aren’t really filling in like they should.

    I like the idea of starting from the bottom and covering with dirt as I work my way up. I’ll try that next year.

    Reply
  14. Marsha says

    June 24, 2013 at 2:58 am

    Hi ladies! I made this tower recently..the taller version, and I’m not happy with how the flowers are turning out. i too feel like I’m damaging them trying to push the flowers through. I’ve tried with petunias first..which promptly died except for the very top. Then this passed week, vincas. The leaves are quite droopy. And I cut them back so they could reblossum after they “focus” on establishing and getting nutrients. Some of you all mentioned an alternative method..layering so to speak, the flowers and dirt from bottom to top. Also, do any of you have an idea of getting the tower watered? I have water pouring out of the holes. I’m half temped to start over….

    Reply
    • Marsha says

      June 24, 2013 at 3:13 am

      I just thought of something for the watering problem. Drilling holes itno some PVC piping and putting it down the center of the tower. You could then run the water in be it straight from the hose..or place a funnel on the top to pour water in.

      Reply
    • Lorraine says

      May 22, 2020 at 5:03 am

      PVC plastic with holes punctured all around inserted in the middle of the pot water from the top should work.

      Reply
  15. Pam says

    May 14, 2014 at 9:31 pm

    This is gorgeous! There’s only one thing that I love more than crafting, and that’s FLOWERS!!!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Shopping at Home Depot - HoneyBear Lane says:
    April 15, 2013 at 12:54 pm

    […] I want to share with you my experience shopping at Home Depot for supplies to make my Flower Tower with lots of pictures.  Have you ever been to the Home Depot?  That sounds like a crazy question […]

    Reply
  2. Shopping at Home Depot - HoneyBear Lane says:
    April 15, 2013 at 12:54 pm

    […] I want to share with you my experience shopping at Home Depot for supplies to make my Flower Tower with lots of pictures.  Have you ever been to the Home Depot?  That sounds like a crazy question […]

    Reply
  3. How to Make a Flower Tower...Take 2 - HoneyBear Lane says:
    April 18, 2013 at 12:05 pm

    […] been working with the Home Depot on a Dig into Spring campaign and my project was the Flower Tower!  If you go back and read my first post about it, I show you the original directions.  Now […]

    Reply
  4. An Easy Tiered Planter and Other Plans - HoneyBear Lane says:
    April 22, 2013 at 4:57 am

    […] you’ve been following along for the last couple of weeks, you’ve seen my large Flower Tower and my mini Flower Tower.  You’ve seen my backyard plans, and my shopping trip to gather […]

    Reply

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