Flower towers are the new rage for porches and balconies and patios. One of the big advantages is that you don’t need much space! You’re building vertically. And with a lot of these DIY designs, the sky’s the limit for height.
You can build a Mad Hatter Flower Tower, a Cascading Waterfall Tower, a Nesting Tower or even a Green Goddess Tower. They are all easy DIY projects that take very little time. What’s your fancy? What kind of light does your designated location get? Do you want greenery or primary colors … or pastels? Is pink your thing or would you rather stick with neutral tones for your flower pots? Are you into whimsy or elegant? Decisions, decisions!
14 DIY Planter Building Instructions
Choose from pots or planters ideas for your vertical design
Mad Hatter Flower Towers
Don’t they look like the cups and teapots at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in Alice? Very trendy this year and easy to DIY.
1. Sunshine Yellow Flower Tower
Isn’t this a pretty design? The yellow is just gorgeous. And it’s held together with dowels and zap straps. No, I’m not kidding. A Million Moments gives you step by step instructions.
The trick is, securing the dowel through the patio flooring. That makes the whole tower secure. And it can all be done in half an hour.
What kind of plants will you put in your creation? They’d also make great containers for strawberries or cherry tomatoes or any trailing food plant. Lots of choices of bedding plants at your local gardening centers.
2. Galvanized Topsy Turvy Pots
Galvanized anything is so farmhouse industrial and we love it. This fantastic topsy turvy pot creation is from The Pink Hammer. And it’s another super easy DIY project.
The best part? This idea is built from old, used pails. How awesome is that? If you don’t have any, just keep your eyes open at garage sales and thrift stores. They’re everywhere once you start looking.
Again with the dowel construction up the middle of the vessels, only this one is metal. There are very detailed instructions on the website but again, a simple project. And pick flowers, as the author does, that will drip over the edges. A charming example of a Mad Hatter design.
3. Stencil-Me DIY Flower Tower
A whimsical stenciled design from TirarasAndBowties really looks the most of all like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. She started with three clay pots, spray painted them and added some stencil work.
As you’ve seen in the previous ideas, they’re all held together with a rod or dowel. Wood or metal, although metal will last longer. This is really a simple DIY for you to try.
There’s a really good tutorial on the site – with photos. That always helps so much. You’ll see that she decided she didn’t like something, so she made a very easy change. That’s the way to do it!
4. Bird Bath Flower Tower
Home Stories at Oz has combined two garden items in one – a flower tower and a bird bath. Clever. And while Rome wasn’t built in a day, this idea was.
She used 62″ of rebar and buried at least two feet of it. The part that is the birdbath is just a discarded glass shade from a thrift store lamp. You just never know what you might find in thrift stores.
When you get all the pots painted and in position, then you get the glass lamp shade in position. You need to use “household/aquatic adhesive to attach the bird and to seal around the gap between the bowl and rebar hole”. And then find yourself a cute little ceramic bird and paint him to match your pots and you’ve got a fantastic duel purpose design for your patio or garden!
5. The Sage Advice Flower Tower
This Sage Advice tower idea is from DIY Show Off and is such a fun project! And it doesn’t take very long at all. Even less if you settle for one shade of color, though using gradient hues on the large one do give it a very finished look.
They use vinyl stencils to create the sayings – and there are links and hints and tips. It’s a great tutorial and of course, you would use your own quotes/words but try to make them all relate to each other.
Google some good garden quotes. Find something that you haven’t seen before (no need for ‘same old, same old’) And follow their detailed plan to create your very own design.
Cascading Waterfall Flower Towers
For this type of designs, you want to make sure you choose trailing flowers and vine flowers for your creation.
6. Pink and White Waterfall Flower Tower
The Home Depot Garden Club is our source for this stunning pink and white Cascading Waterfall design. It’s a lush, vibrant column of flowers that will make your patio, porch or garden pop.
First, you’ll shape a roll of wire squares into a cylinder as shown. Next, you’ll line them with a waterproof material (garbage bags work) and then fit them inside the pot. Fill it with soil and then cut X (or cross) shaped holes in the plastic with an exacto knife. This is where you will plant your flowers.
Stagger the flower placements and then plant them in the top of the wire cage, too. Pick a cascading blossom for the best effect. And sit back and enjoy!
7. Patriotic Waterfall Flower Tower
This red, white and (sorta) blue Cascading Waterfall Flower Tower from Dan 330 is just the thing for July 4 – and all summer long. And petunias are so easy to care for – and they cascade so well. It’s the perfect choice.
This is a really tall one and it’s a bit of a more complex plan than the others. But it’s well documented for you with photos and instructions. He put a drain tile in the middle of the pot and made them self-watering. Now that’s handy.
There are two pages of instructions, be sure to click through. A great DIY, and if you fill the middle every three or four days, you don’t have to worry about watering!
8. Oh Canada! Waterfall Flower Tower
This Red and White (Canadian flag colors) cascading design is built much in the same fashion as the one above it. But at Decor and the Dog, they used a much larger bottom container.
And it’s a great tutorial – they show you actual photographs all the way through so you can see the progression. It will help reassure you, until it’s filled out, that yes indeed – this is how it is supposed to look. One thing they do point out is that it’s not the cheapest of projects. The dirt alone to fill a tower that high was $30.
This one is probably the simplest DIY. And the most rewarding as it comes together so quickly!
9. The Elegant Waterfall Flower Tower
This elegant idea follows basically the same principle as the others. Take a pot, in this case, a lovely clay pot, and build a wire cylinder inside.
Wire cylinders and landscape fabric and dirt is most of what it takes. Honey Bear Lane used pansies and dianthus in red, white, and blue – great for both Memorial Day and July 4th.
You’ll find step by step instruction and great video for your DIY project. And the flowers will wilt someone after you’ve planted them in your tower. Water your tower and keep it from drying out – they’ll pick up in a couple of days.
Nesting Flower Towers
Perhaps the easiest of all, these DIY designs are built from the bottom up, descending size – and the hole is already there for you. No tilting pots or other complicated steps.
10. The Welcome Flower Tower
This stacked Welcome Flower Tower is so elegant looking – you’d never believe it’s made of plastic pots. That really keeps your costs down. It’s amazing what a little color can do to this project.
It’s an easy afternoon DIY that will add a wonderful tower of flowers to a small space – without sacrificing much footprint. There’s a list of what you need on the All Parenting site – take it to the store with you. Three pots of varying size, some spray paint and you’re off to a project you’ll love.
You can buy the vinyl lettering at a craft store. Aside from “Welcome” what else could you put on it? Maybe try ‘welcome’ in three different languages? Or a sentence that stretches over all the pots, starting at the top? It’s all up to you!
11. The Corner Nesting Flower Tower
The Corner Nesting Flower Tower uses five clay pots of varying sizes, one inside the other. The Den Garden takes container gardening to the next level with this project. But it’s still a simple afternoon DIY project.
There is a very detailed plan on site – she even advises the sizes of pots you need! One note, you must keep your soil moist in clay pots – they need more water. Clay wicks the moisture away – it absorbs it from the soil and then it evaporates. But they are attractive and worth the effort – they’re the classic plant pot, really.
You’re going to put dirt half way up, then level it off and add the next size down in clay pot. And you’ll only be filling the outer rim with flowers. In this case, she used petunias but you can use any trailing plant at all. Take a look at the hanging pots for sale in your nursery or garden center and then chose those varieties from the bedding plant section. Works every time.
Green Goddess Flower Towers
Technically not a flower tower but all plants will flower at some point in their lives! These Green Goddess ideas have a lot going for them and are easy to maintain.
12. The Food Forest Nested Flower Tower
From Backyard Boss, comes this unique idea. And we love it – it has a lush, rain forest kind of feel. Yet provides fresh herbs and seasonings for your next four-star meal.
This forest of green is more like a Green Power Tower – no overt flowers – but it will really make a statement on your patio or balcony or porch. And it will identify you as a foodie. Because this incredible DIY project is a Food Forest Tower.
Plant it with rosemary, parsley, thyme, mint, sage, basil (there are so many kinds) – choose the herbs you use most. In this example, they cleverly used a stake with an angel top but any stake will do as long as it’s long enough. You could also plant green trailing foliage like philodendron – but why not supply yourself with fresh herbs. They smell good, too!
13. The Succulent Saucer Flower Tower
The tower is created using a bowl type planters on pedestals that you make out of upside-down small clay pots. And BGH gives you detailed instructions on this quick – yet exotic – DIY project.
Succulents are the source of your exotic – some look positively prehistoric. They’re also great houseplants, which means this tower can live inside. Or you can keep it on your patio – and if you live in the north, bring it in during the winter.
Terra Cotta is best for succulents because it drains so well. And the variety of “hens and chicks” today really boggles the mind. Do NOT overwater. That is the best advice you will ever get about succulents. This is an upscale design and will add some pop wherever you place it.
14. The Magenta Passion Wall Flower Tower
From WallyGro comes this clever vertical design. It’s portable! Extremely portable – so you can move it easily.
And it’s a really easy to build. You don’t have to drill any holes in your wall. It’s all built on a wooden board. How smart is that? There’s a list at the website, and it becomes even easier when you see that the pot comes with a wall bracket.
The color, of course is a matter of choice but it contrasts splendidly with the green of the philodendrons. Note the assorted types – variegated and solid – allowing for a more interesting arrangement. A great way to spend a day and a DIY project that will bring you pleasure for years to come.
