Mandevilla is so pretty. It is a tropical vining plant, usually with pink flowers but they can also be white. I picked up two of these beautiful and vibrant plants recently and had an idea that I hope turns out as nicely as the picture in my mind. I decided I wanted to assemble two mandevilla towers using two planters I bought at Crate & Barrel outlet about a year ago. I never really found anything suitable for these planters so they have just been sitting in the basement waiting for something to inspire me. Mandevilla turned out to be that inspiration. Take a look at this project.
Here are the two planters from Crate & Barrel. They call them "Bronze Tapered Planters" due to the bronze highlighting along the edges. They are a matte black with bronze highlights.
I did not want to fill these planters with soil. They really are not intended for that. There is no drainage port, so they are more decorative then actual "planters".
I bought two large, black, plastic "planters" to set inside of the Crate & Barrel planters. We will plant our Mandevilla is those. You see in the picture above that they are a little bit larger than the opening on the decorative planters.
A little pressure exerted on the bottom of each planter takes care of that. They fit just perfectly inside. And, they sit far enough inside each planter that you cannot see them once the Mandevilla are planted.
To add some weight to the planters, and drainage, I used lava rocks this time. Most times I use pea gravel in the bottom of planters, but I went with lava rock this time. Why? Basically, the bag was much lighter. A bag of lava rocks is much lighter than a bag of pea gravel. And it will do the same thing.
Actually, lava rocks serve many purposes as you see printed on the bag. Who knew!
In with the lava rocks. Both planters got an inch or two of lava rocks added to the bottom.
I used Sta-Green potting mix this time. Normally I use Miracle Gro, but I had a bag of this in the shed that needed to be used, so I used it for this project. This is another very good brand of potting soil if you cannot find Miracle Gro.
Both containers now filled with potting soil. Next up, planting the Mandevilla.
As you can see here, I got the hot pink variety. I like the flowers but I also like the shape and texture of the vines. Dark green, glossy leaves on rather sturdy vines. That will make for a really lush tower when they are fully mature.
Into the planters with both of them. As I said earlier, they sit a little low in the decorative planters, which I prefer. I do not want to see the plastic planters once these are mature, so this will work perfectly.
Now to the support system to make our towers. What better than these wonderful tomato towers? You are all familiar with the traditional round, conical shaped tomato cages that we use in the garden to give support to the tomato vines. Well, these are rectangular. And that is exactly what I was looking for. I want eventually to have two rectangular towers of flowering Mandevilla. When these towers are completely covered in the vine and they are flowering, it will be spectacular.
And here we are with the Mandevilla planted and the towers in place. The width of the towers is a tiny bit larger than the opening of the Crate & Barrel planters, and that is a good thing. It helps to keep the towers secured in place. If the towers were smaller than the opening in the planters, we would have had to find a way to keep them from moving around. We were lucky that it turned out this way.
And here they are, tucked away on the deck. They will get afternoon sun in this location. We will need to keep them watered, but not soggy. I believe we will see rapid growth for the rest of the summer and then slower growth as we move into fall. They can stay outside in our zone until the temperature reaches the 50's. I would not leave them out once we get into the 40's. In other words, bring them in before there is talk of frost in zone 7.
I have a great vision of how this will look as time goes by. We will revisit this in a few weeks and see how they are coming along. If you want to try this with me, run over to Lowe's Garden Center this weekend and pick up a couple Mandevilla. Mine were $11.98 each. You could use two black plastic square planters from there also. That way you wouldn't need to have a planter in a planter like I did. That will save you a few dollars.
Here are the two planters from Crate & Barrel. They call them "Bronze Tapered Planters" due to the bronze highlighting along the edges. They are a matte black with bronze highlights.
I did not want to fill these planters with soil. They really are not intended for that. There is no drainage port, so they are more decorative then actual "planters".
I bought two large, black, plastic "planters" to set inside of the Crate & Barrel planters. We will plant our Mandevilla is those. You see in the picture above that they are a little bit larger than the opening on the decorative planters.
A little pressure exerted on the bottom of each planter takes care of that. They fit just perfectly inside. And, they sit far enough inside each planter that you cannot see them once the Mandevilla are planted.
To add some weight to the planters, and drainage, I used lava rocks this time. Most times I use pea gravel in the bottom of planters, but I went with lava rock this time. Why? Basically, the bag was much lighter. A bag of lava rocks is much lighter than a bag of pea gravel. And it will do the same thing.
Actually, lava rocks serve many purposes as you see printed on the bag. Who knew!
In with the lava rocks. Both planters got an inch or two of lava rocks added to the bottom.
I used Sta-Green potting mix this time. Normally I use Miracle Gro, but I had a bag of this in the shed that needed to be used, so I used it for this project. This is another very good brand of potting soil if you cannot find Miracle Gro.
Both containers now filled with potting soil. Next up, planting the Mandevilla.
As you can see here, I got the hot pink variety. I like the flowers but I also like the shape and texture of the vines. Dark green, glossy leaves on rather sturdy vines. That will make for a really lush tower when they are fully mature.
Into the planters with both of them. As I said earlier, they sit a little low in the decorative planters, which I prefer. I do not want to see the plastic planters once these are mature, so this will work perfectly.
Now to the support system to make our towers. What better than these wonderful tomato towers? You are all familiar with the traditional round, conical shaped tomato cages that we use in the garden to give support to the tomato vines. Well, these are rectangular. And that is exactly what I was looking for. I want eventually to have two rectangular towers of flowering Mandevilla. When these towers are completely covered in the vine and they are flowering, it will be spectacular.
And here we are with the Mandevilla planted and the towers in place. The width of the towers is a tiny bit larger than the opening of the Crate & Barrel planters, and that is a good thing. It helps to keep the towers secured in place. If the towers were smaller than the opening in the planters, we would have had to find a way to keep them from moving around. We were lucky that it turned out this way.
And here they are, tucked away on the deck. They will get afternoon sun in this location. We will need to keep them watered, but not soggy. I believe we will see rapid growth for the rest of the summer and then slower growth as we move into fall. They can stay outside in our zone until the temperature reaches the 50's. I would not leave them out once we get into the 40's. In other words, bring them in before there is talk of frost in zone 7.
I have a great vision of how this will look as time goes by. We will revisit this in a few weeks and see how they are coming along. If you want to try this with me, run over to Lowe's Garden Center this weekend and pick up a couple Mandevilla. Mine were $11.98 each. You could use two black plastic square planters from there also. That way you wouldn't need to have a planter in a planter like I did. That will save you a few dollars.
