Daffs sprouting in pots on balcony railing 09-01-2013 002

Looking forward to the flowers I bet!

Yes, I am, especially since I have no flowers on the balcony this winter. All the Pansies I grew from seed on the balcony & then put in the pots & troughs of Daffs have all died rotted away. We had such a wet November that the Pansies couldn't resist. Although I brought them further in they couldn't survive in the cold, wet weather of November & eventually they all just rotted away. :'((

Oh no! and now we are in for a bit of a freeze...

We have a couple of cm of powder snow covering everything here today! More is forecast for this afternoon as well!

How's the snow doing?

I like those pot holders, never seen anythigng like them before - are they bought, or home made? and if the second, can you do a how-to??

Hi Fran, I bought the rings when we lived in Spain. I've probably had them for over 20 years! As most people in Spain live in blocks of flats most flats have a balcony of some sort or size.

So, many people who like to grow their own plants, use rings like mine. They come in different widths for different diameter pots. Those that you see in the photo above are made of aluminium. I also have a few that are just galvanised steel. I used them for years in Spain & then about 10 years ago when I went back for a holiday & to visit our family I brought them back with me. We have lived in the flat for a little over 11 years now.

I don't know if they can be bought in the UK, nor even if they continue to sell them in Spain. I suspect they do sell them still but I haven't seen them.

Thanks, Balcony - at least I've got a lead to follow now!

Most "wall plant holder" type that I've seen are for small to very small pots - more like toy planters than anything else - lol what serious gardener has rows of 10cm pots?? I've seen some "saddlebag" planters, pots to each side, designed to go over a wall - or, I suppose a wide balcony rail

Are yours self-supporting, or do they need to be screwed or otherwise fixed in place?

ps - tada! "Spanish Rings", what else?!
http://www.spanishrings.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=9&Itemid=1&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1

That is a very interesting site! I looked through all the pages. The rings are different from what I have as mine are made of aluminium & are not painted. It's also possible to "expand" or "close" them a little to fit different size pots as well as the "feet" that actually hold the pot on the railing.

My rings are over 20 years old & they still look as good as the day I bought them! I have a few galvanized metal ones but I no longer use them.

I use the aluminium rings with terracotta pots on the railings, as you've seen in some of my photos. They can't, unfortunately, be used on walls or drainpipes.

I was disappointed with the site for only having small rings, and non-adjuistable - Amazon has an adjustable, up to 10", but that's got two hooks for hanging over a rail. Google had a few sites, once I found hte right key words, but most seem to lead back to Spanish Rings.

I suppose one could get them custom made if one wanted your tupe of ring badly enough!

I imagine they don't make them that big because anything over 6" would weigh far too much & might be a danger. Have you tried lifting a 10" diameter pot? It weighs a lot whatever soil/compost you put in it!

lol agreed! large pots are a weight-training exercise. And to have them hanging on the outside of the balcony would be dangerous, or at least could be. and of course there's teh point that hte balcony rail probably wasn't built to take that much weight - and not directly on top of it, where the weight would be carried down, but at one side, where the weight would tend to puyll sideways.

I've only got a wire-mesb fence, so i doubt it'd take any kind of weight in one place; i might hook smaller pots in various places, or have a larger pot or trough with several anchor points - lol and get a pulley and rope to hoist it!