What houseplants to plant on a chandelier?

I have been wanting to get houseplants to our house for as long as we have lived here. There just are not any good spots for them in the house.

Then I bumped in to the the thread about the chandeliers of Wheaton Labs.

My houseplant problem is solved! Actually two problems, because we still have all the old light fixtures the previous owner left here. I have not been wanting to put new lighting before I figured out the space and the needs for lighting we have.


At this time I want to focus on the first houseplant chandelier I want to make and gathering general tips for this project.

Lets start with the general ideas and problems I have thought need solving:

What plants would be good for this project?

Low light needs - the first chandelier I want to make is for a northern facing window and I don't want super bright lights in that space. I also would not want to use actual grow lights.

Dangling growth.

Light growing substrate. The chandelier is going to be big, I need to minimize the weight of everything. At first I was thinking orchids but... I don't know. It might work.

The structure of the chandelier

At first I was going to write this up but then I thought you would enjoy a drawing I made to demonstrate my idea to my hubby. Prepare yourselves for a beautiful piece of art:




Yellow dots are lights, all pointing down. We have two places in the ceiling for lights, so I thought or wiring the two rows of lights from two different light switches:





I would not hang the chandelier from those hooks. I probably need four points to hang this thing from. I'm actually thinking I might need to make two chandeliers as the window is 2,5 meters (8,2ft) wide.





The chandelier would be "cage like", as in just a frame kind of thing to hold the planter.

One veeery wide chandelier or two not so wide ones.



I think that is all that I have thought of now. Now I would need ideas. A lot of ideas!

I like your idea.

I see you are suggesting orchids for the chandelier.

My vision was a spider plant.

Will the chandelier have a pulley so that it can be raised and lowered to water the plants?

What about some kind of philodendron? They can handle fairly low light and are vining. I remember one office I worked in, one person had the plant in the corner and two vines that went along the wall all the way to the other corners.

Pothos, philodendron, Hoya, fern are all good choices

Anne Miller wrote:
My vision was a spider plant.

Will the chandelier have a pulley so that it can be raised and lowered to water the plants?

Spider plant is a good idea, I read somewhere that it also clears the air!

Pulley.. Not for this one. It is going to be hanging from four spots so I think a pulley would be difficult to make work so I think I’m going to be climbing to water the plants. But definitely for the other ones I’m planning as they will be more like a hanging basket kind. Thank you for the idea!

Matt McSpadden wrote:What about some kind of philodendron?

This looks promising, thank you! I actually think my friend has this growing so maybe I could get cuttings from him. Free plants, woohoo!]

May Lotito wrote:Pothos, philodendron, Hoya, ferns are all hood choices

Thank you, these all are beautiful! I really like the Hoya.


I’m thinking there will be three different plants living in the chandelier..

The original orchid though came because my mother-in-law has had orchids and the substrate is very light with a lot of bark or something like that. At least one of the plants mentioned above had that kind of substate suggested.. Orchids are also really pretty. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Could orchids work?

I saw spider plants and pothos in the Wheaton lab chandelier. They are easy to care and fast growing to cover the frame.  Orchid has air roots to absorb moisture so it will benefit from the moist microclimate from a group of houseplants. Take it down when it blooms to enjoy the flowers if it's too high up there.

There are several trailing succulents that do well in low light and also don't need a lot of water!

May Lotito wrote:I saw spider plants and pothos in the Wheaton lab chandelier. They are easy to care and fast growing to cover the frame.

Orchid has air roots to absorb moisture so it will benefit from the moist microclimate from a group of houseplants.

Yay! At this time I’m thinking Pothos, Hoya, Philodendron and orchids..

Melissa Ferrin wrote:There are several trailing succulents that do well in low light and also don't need a lot of water!

Ooh, I have to do some research on this.. Thank you!


The chandelier is going to be magnificent! Can’t wait to get to constructing it!

I’m going to use three of these basic kind of balcony boxes as planters:


source

That one is 70cm long so three of them makes 210cm and the window was 250cm wide.

And now that I’m writing this I realised that I want them to be white.
But do I paint the chandelier all white or keep the wood as it is..? I do have some leftover paint from painting the ceiling so it would be easy to make matchymatch looking. We’ll see.

Once I get the planters I can start designing the chandelier on paper with the actual measurements.

I really like the spiderplant as it is and I’d have a free source for it but I feel like it would not go nicely with orchids and hoya. I think spiderplant is going to get a chandelier of its own.


And suddenly a lightbulb flashed above my head:

A herb chandelier for the kitchen! With a pulley!

Saana Jalimauchi wrote:

And suddenly a lightbulb flashed above my head:

A herb chandelier for the kitchen! With a pulley!

Yes! what a great idea. Lots of herbs don't mind to be inside - basil definitely prefers a warmer spot. I suggest chives and parseley perhaps as other options. Maybe even a small rosemary if your climate is too cold for that outside. Thyme is another that is handy to be able to snip into a stew.

Thank you Nancy for the suggestions, they are very much welcome!


I realised that the balcony boxes as planters might not be the best option. Hoya wants to be in a small pot AND is very sensitive to the christmas tree we will have right beside that window, in the corner. It will have to be moved away from the chandelier when the tree comes in.

I don’t know about the other plants I’m planning to put up there, if they are that sensitive, does anyone have any idea?

I did read that the hoya does not like to be moved either, but suffering from a move is better than dying because of the tree..
I myself would not mind not having a christmas tree inside but it’s really, really important for the inlaws who spend the christmas with us so.. A tree we will have.

I could do balcony boxes and small pots.. more research it is!