Some of these I've seen before, but I LOVE the chair planter! Such great colors! And your tinman is awesome...I've got all of my cans together, I just need to make him. How did you connect your cans??

Sounds neat! I tried similar but with 2-litre bottles on my patio (haven't seen 3-litres for ages! lucky you to have them) and found out that they have to be watered frequently, in spite of having added moisture-beads! I was watering morning and evening and still lost a few plants on the bottom where the water evidently didn't reach. I'm now trying a sort of osmosis-method of watering, with strips (from an old t-shirt) pushed down one side of the plant bottle, with the other end of the strip in another bottle filled with water. This seems to be working - they are drinking about a litre of water a day (we've been having 90+ degrees), and the plants on the bottom sections are no longer dying from drought. I'm going to try your hanging method -- unless you tell me it failed and your plants went kerplunk! :) Seriously, I think that using the cap is a really great idea. Sure beats the macrame-type hangers I used.

I'm eyeing my neighbor's dogwood tree, it's pink and a little different from most, but I've read you need a can't remember how long hardwood cutting about the size of your thumb which would be a larger branch off his little tree, it's been there for years and stays pretty much the same size. I wouldn't take one without asking, and one isn't likely to break off. I found out this most unusual rose I remember as a child is still growing on my farm. In the spring, I'm heading down and try to get some photos for an id. I thought maybe it was something similar to a rose, but no, my second cousin who farms the place says it is a rose and there are several there among some brush. When young, I noticed brownish discoloration (think some fungicide might handle that) on the pink blooms, and it seemed to bloom on tall shoots that may be thornless and come up individually right out of the ground, not bushy like most roses. My memory could be fuzzy, I was just a kid. So I want to try that. One of the roses that has rooted, and there seem to be 5 or 6 that have rooted of that particular one, came from the bush on a vacant lot that does have an owner. I just helped myself to the cuttings but did ask if I could dig some lily bulbs this fall. The wife got suspicious when I asked about the rose and is worried I might dig it up. I told the go-between that I would not do that and meant it. I was thinking of giving her a rooted cutting if it grows into anything that would survive in her yard, but she might get mad and could call the police on me, so I won't offer her one. The go-between advised me not to dig up the lilies even though the husband said I could. I asked if it was because I was white and they didn't like me. No, she saw me "doing something" to the bush (she lives clear around the corner). I was poking through the brush to answer a question here about growth habit one time, and another time I was photographing the foliage for the same person (on one of the forums here), but I did snitch the cuttings. I can't say that I feel guilty about that because the rose is doomed if they don't do something to save it, and they don't have a clue. I'd be glad to help them with what I have learned, like I noticed there are several suckers, but why bother? I'll just buy some lily bulbs or someone else will share some with me. Yeah, I'm thinking of other things to propagate by cuttings, too. I rooted a geranium, those are easy, as are African violets and begonias, but I want something different. If I come up with any novel ideas, I'll track you down :-). There is an unusual pink lilac, was told it was Queen Isabella, it's not like another pink lilac I saw out in the neighborhood, blooms later and foliage is different from the common lilac, not like Japanese tree lilac either, would love to try to propagate some of those. I've been wanting to try propagating for years, wasn't sure how to go about it, tried a mulitflora rose in 2003, but it cooked in my sunroom. Now I know why, and it is an invasive thing anyway. Pretty though.

What an amazing project for elementary school kids. If they all started saving 2 liter bottles and took them to school to collect, by January they would have enough and then the greenhouse, reuse/recycle, planting lessons could begin. They could grow flowers to plant at the school, or even vegies. My MIL goes through one 2 liter per day (minimum). I bet it wouldn't take long to get enough to experiment with. So what if it only lasts a year or two. Just keep saving for replacements.