Lynne, thanks so much for posting your beautiful trees. I've never made any but they are so neat. Loved looking at all your flowers too.

We just got 12 inches of snow so I have no plans on doing much outside. The only good thing about this is, it had to warm up to snow. It had been close to zero for way to long.

Punk

I always thought those tomato cages would make good trees. Your DH did a nice tutorial on these. Bet you could even use just one and wrap some of the shiny garland around it for use on a porch or in a flowerbed too. TFS.

Luvs

Thanks - He is going to leave a smaller one for me to play around with - I have thought about tinsel garland or just the plain green garland wrapped around rather than up and down and then decorate it with balls, ect and put on the porch. The possibilities are really endless - just use your imagination ......

Lynne

I wonder if my extra net lights would work on this? Bought two 150 strand sets to test on one of my bushes, but decided against doing them this year as it's so expensive to get all 7 corner bushes done. Been trying to think of way to use them and I think I may have some tomato cages in the attic...might give it a try sometime this week. Thanks for the tutorial!!

I've used tomato cages for alot of things, including growing tomatoes occasionally (I now use stronger cages that my husband made for me years ago, I think it's called pig-iron? They stand 6' tall and are perfect for indeterminates.) But I never thought to put lights on them. What a great idea! I showed this to my husband and he said they would be perfect for an area in the front of the house.

Another idea.....several years ago I saw ivy grown in a conical shape, much like a Christmas tree, but small. That sucker cost over $100! And it wasn't that large.

The following Spring I inverted three different sized tomato cages into three large pots/planters. I wrapped fishing line thru the openings all the way up (a good as-you're-watching-TV project) before I "planted" them. In one of the planters I planted varigated ivy. Another one I mixed varigated and green. The third one I planted just green. I honestly can't remember how many to each pot but it seems there were at least 8 each, maybe a little more.

I kept them out on our back patio and watered and fed them throughout the year. I pinched heavily to promote new growth. I wove them around the fishing line and cages so that they would climb. By the time Christmas rolled around I had really nice ivy Christmas trees, so to speak. By the following Christmas they were so thick and full they really did look like Christmas trees.

I put tiny white lights on them during the holidays and I love to look at them through the back slider as I'm sitting in the family room in the evenings. During the Spring and Summer months I have solar lights underneath them.

Thank you for posting that, Lynne!

Jenna

Jenna - I love the idea of the ivy topiary - I have thought of doing that myself but just haven't gotten around to doing that yet. I have grown black-eyed susan vine on a small one and tried regular morning glories this year but wasn't as successful. I have plenty of ivy so will definitely start some this spring .......

Lynne

Two GREAT ideas, that don't cost much and look fantastic! Thanks, Lynne and Jenna!
Lynn

WoW! What a wonderful ideas! I just priced an outdoor lighted tree, it's not on my shopping list any more! I have several sizes of tomato cages and will make a trio of trees. But, I believe instead of folding in the bottom spikes, I will use them to help ground the tree, we have big wind storms here.

Again, Thank you!

Belle

You both are so clever, and I just happen to have two unused/(underused as I am finding out) tomato cages!!
Thank you both!!
J