GH,
Very cute and colorful!

Patti

Never seen anything like that before..very creative.

Edna

How did you do that? Eduarda had red ones at Christmas and I want to do it, but when I went to buy pots I couldn't figure it out. Did you have to drill bigger holes? When I tried they wouldn't tip. Is the secret a skinny stake? Yours is cute!
Rude here, I should have said, wow, neat! first, then asked how : )

I just made one the other day. I used a tall piece of re rod any thin type of metal will do. I used plastic pots myself. Pound the pole firmly into the ground.Hubby did have to use a drill to enlarge the holes abit. The largest pot on the bottom.Fill with soil then the next pot again fill with soil and so on till you have the pole filled. the pots will tilt and stay. Check out the garden junk forums there are alot of pics and posts there. Many are making them the past couple of weeks. thats where I got the idea.

Yes! I first saw them on Garden Junk and did a search and it pulled up about a dozen different ones plus careful directions. There are some really fabulous and creative ones, mine is just a little copy-cat attempt.

I went to the store intending to get plastic pots, the dollar store used to have a good selection - but they had none suitable left. ALL of their glass/ceramic pots had no hole except these! I bought 5 with an extra yellow one and painted it orange with house-paint I had already for my birdhouses.

It was just a tiny bit awkward figuring out the order to do things and getting them to tip - but I was determined.

Rebar would be ideal but these pots are so small and I happened to spot the purple dragonfly on a stake... had to have it too. The stake had a little 'leg' at the bottom that I chopped off with side-cutters (wire pliers), and later just jammed that little piece into the top pot. I threaded my EMPTY pots onto the bottom and then drove it into the ground about 2 feet. I could have used a helper, say 3-6 years old (grin), to hold the pots upwards as I filled each one starting with the bottom one... but I managed. Actually the child could have filled them better than I did. I did pack the soil really tightly so it doesn't wash out but that would depend on the plants selected, mine are portulacca and can take a little rough handling. I wish they were open for the photo! I was going on the HOPE that I would be able to drive the stake in with just my hands. With the decoration on top I couldn't pound it like I would have rebar. It resisted at first, then I hit a soft pocket and it slid in almost too fast. I hope I didn't pierce the city storm drain (see my page for long tirade!)

As for the question 'how do you get them to tip', lay them out on the ground - on the rod - and play with them for a few minutes. It's just geometry, you can do it. The lowest one is flat.

Hey! I had a laugh on myself; later that evening I looked out the kitchen window and could only see the orange one and it looked like it was on the ground. I thought my weak little stake had given way. I rushed out there - and everything was fine. Hee hee, I had to laugh, my yard art fooled me!

I would love to make one larger, with old unmatched weatherbeaten pots but I went out to my shed and I had over 100 awful black plastic 1 gallon pots, but only 2 pots I could even consider decorative. Oh, well, a good excuse to shop!
GH-

Very cute thanks for the tip about Garden Junk I would like to see differnet ones. I was also wondering how you got them to tip maybe I will fill mine with some pusalane I love those flowers and it would not dry out as quickly.

These are also awesome with wave and/or cascade petunias in them!

I really like your tipsy pot display. Goin to send to my daughter, her kids will love it too. I just might try that yet this year. Is your pots clay or plastic? Good job! Thanks for sharing!

Debbie, in answer to your query, I used terracota pots with a large drainage hole on the bottom, not just the regular hole on the side. In fact they were pots from garden centre plants I had saved over the years and when I got a few I did the tipsy pot planter. I didn't have to drill anything, because the hole on the bottom was large enough to insert a bamboo cane to serve as a stake. I'm impressed at your memory, I did have them around Christmas time filled with red pansies. Unfortunately our weather is too hot and dry for them to survive our Summer, so they are currently deactivated and will stage a comeback once the weather cools down, sometime in Fall :-)

My inspiration for this didn't come from the Garden junk forum (this time), but from a French magazine which had a real posh one - the pots were covered in fabric, the set was then assembled and they were used to hold loaves of bread for a country themed picnic. Really nice. Once I saw that I had the idea to reuse my little red pots for the same effect but using plants instead. I only noticed they were getting very popular in the Garden Junk forum a lot later.

Eduarda

hi crazy, isn't purslane a relative of portulacca?
dollladie, I thought of petunias... but couldn't find them in the 6-pack.
shirl, they are ceramic, though I'd wanted plastic. (afraid of falling over - but they haven't!)
Eduarda, how did the French magazine support them? Since it was a picnic they thrust the pole in the ground - or was it on a table? Inquiring minds want to know!

Folks, I saw some cute lawn decorations at Ace Hardware yesterday - a little better quality than my dragonfly pole - woodpecker, butterfly, etc. Very pretty ones, $5 each. You'd have to fill as I did above, no way to take the decoration off.
GH-

GH, I don't have the magazine close at hand, but I seem to recal they used a shepperd's hook thrusted in the ground - real easy. They used these small print flower fabrics, which are typical of the Provençal style, to cover the pots inside and out, using a glue gun to secure the fabric in place. The fabric was wrapping the pots not in a straight manner, but making some ruffles and drapes, if you know what I mean. They used two or three different fabrics all in shades of white and blue and the overall effect was very pretty. In the US you can easily go for a very similar look using quilting fabric.

I don't see why this can't be done using a large pot or other type of container to drive the shepperd's hook through (for siting in a place with no soil, such as a porch) and then varying the type of decoration on the pots - Halloween (with small pumpkins and scarecrows sitting on the pots, maybe a mum or two), Christmas, Easter, etc. You get the idea. Oh, the possibilities!

Eduarda