Adam explains how to maximise houseplant opportunities with this easy idea
A few weeks ago I got a new houseplant for the kitchen and then I got another, and another, and I seem to be in a bit of a pickle with them at the moment. The problem being that I can’t stop buying new houseplants! With windowsill space at an extreme minimum in my house, these poor plants are being relegated to far forgotten corners and as a result are suffering, however there is a solution! Instead of adding them to every window in your house, have you thought about taking them up in the world? And before you look to the skies for the answer, allow me to show you how to make a surprisingly super simple but extremely satisfying hanger for your plants.
Step 1 – form the base
Get yourself some rope of any type, you could use a soft cotton one or a thick jute string like I have for this one. It just needs to be something that is pliable and will bend and move easily, not something too thick. I’ve used a piece about 2m long for this project, but you may need to experiment with yours. Tie the ends together and form them into the shape of a rainbow and twist over the central piece to form a cross.
Step 2 – place your pot
Where you’ve made the ‘cross’ is where you need to place your plant pot. For this plant I’ve just got a small ceramic one, but you could easily do this with any type of pot you choose, but the weightiness of ceramic helps to keep it in place while you’re working with the rope, and it shouldn’t fall over. It’s best to do this without the plant in the pot, just so it doesn’t get in the way.
Step 3 – begin the twist
This is where it gets complicated… Take the top portion of the rope and thread it through the top of your crossed section and pull it upwards. This will pull in the sides of the rope towards the pot. Once you’ve done that then take this large loop and put it over the pot and lay it down.
Step 4 – grab and pull
After you’ve done this, you’ll have two ‘sides’ that you can see me pulling in the photo here. You need to pull these upwards and outwards at the same time, and while you do this, your rope will tighten and tighten around the pot forming a sort of harness around it, which is really quite secure!
Step 5 – lift it up
You’ll now have two long handles, and if you pull them up you can use these to hang your plant up. You might need to just fiddle with the rope around the pot to make sure it’s as tightly in place as you can make it – the last thing you want is your beautiful plant (and pot!) falling to the ground!
And that’s it – a simple plant hanger to show off your plants in style! This works particularly well with trailing plants such as tradescantia or a large string of pearls, but can easily do justice to any houseplant!
If you’d like to see a video version of this tutorial to get the full idea of what to do then you’ll find that on my Instagram page @viewfromthepottingbench
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