tomatoes cages idea

i was just wondering how i could make some supports for the dahlia's i ordered on the co-op without spending a lot of money for those peony ones. well dutchgardens suggests using tomatoe cages. i thought that was a great idea. i bet you could cut them down and use them for other plants too. has anyone ever used these this way?

hmmmm. I might have to try that-I am envisioning those folding tomato cages-unfold one and guide them onto it. Or I guess let em grow in the middle-yes that could work nicely i bet!

I used wire coat hangers last year-un do the hangar , hook one end and anchor it -it didn't work all that well-the dahlias were so heavy, but you couldn't see a thing! I had to fool around with em a few times as they grew.

Last year, one of my neighbors tossed out some plastic coated bamboo stakes and I snagged them! They worked great and since they were coated green, they faded right into the plants. I have never tried tomato cages, but I could see how the round ones would work. Good luck!

i was trying to figure out how i could use coat hangers to make my own peony style cages. it all ended up sounding like too much work.
the thin bamboo stakes i used last year, i had to use one per stem on my dinner plate dahlias and that got to be to much.
maybe i'll spray paint my tomatoe cages green.
debi

I use the 'Y' Stakes (the kind where the 'arms' bend--usually 2 on my dahlias (I grow them in containers) I switch from 2 ft to 3 ft to 4 ft as they grow--they worked very well last year and since they are brown and green they blended in well

I use rebar, the steel bars that you use in concrete. I have them cut it to 6 feet and with a hammer drive them in the ground about a foot or until steady. They last a long time....have used them now for 3 years.

I use the cylinder or cone shaped tomato cages that have 3 prongs that go into the ground..They come in several sizes and are cheap, they are good for dahlias, tomatoes, lilies,glads, anything that needs support..Also they hardly show once the plant grows around it some..last for years. Yhey work well in large pots also, for vines to cover.
Larkie

i hadn't thought about lilies but your right they would work great for that too. thanks for the ideas. do you spray paint yours?

I don't, they are a light metal gray color and hardly show once the plant fills out..They are a real handy thing to have around..
Larkie

I use tomato cages for all my Dahlias....or should I say my DH's Dahlias.They work great,I use them for peonies too....

gonna get me some tomatoe cages for sure this spring.

Bobbie came up with this last year and it looked really well for vines. She took two tomatoe cages and turned one up side down and wired them together. She then took a colored flower pot that had three holes in it and mounted it on the three prongs that was sticking up. It gave the chocolate morning glory a longer way to run and was quite attractive.
I have used wire coat hangers in the past to support low growing plants. Dianthus I remember as one. I straightened the hook out and used that to stick in the ground under the plant. I took the other part and shaped it according to the plant. Really worked well.

what did you use to shape the coat hangers with? so the chocolate morning glory was in the pot and ran down? i bet you could put the vine in the ground and then a different flower in the pot. that would look nice too. what a great idea. cudo's :)

GRC
do you have a picture of what Bobbie did? I am having trouble with this wee brain of mine trying to picture it.

Does the pot sit on the ground with these two tomatoe cages tied together on top of it?
Thanks,
TLC

TLC, The morning glory was in a pot and it ran up the cages one on top of the other. The only thing was she came up with the idea so late we couldn't find any new cages and had to use old ones that had lost their newness several years ago. We plan on getting new ones this year. I did have a photo some where. I'll see if I can locate it. If not I'll take a photo of the old one that is still together tomorrow and post it for you. We did think about a plant at the top and one at the bottom. Our thoughts were to place next to the deck and have something on the bottom running up and then something on the deck running on the top cage. Another idea that she had but it was so late in the year that we couldn't find anything was to decorate the cages with different thing like butterflies, bees etc.

Debi I shaped the coat hangers with my hand. I just pushed them around in a curved position to sit under the plant. I'll prepare one and take a photo of it tomorrow and post for you.

Oh, how fun! will look forward to your pics and thanks for the good ideas.
TLC

Here's the cage. I couldn't find the photo so had to make a new one. This doesn't look to good because the cages were worn when we started. It is really beaten up now. I couldn't locate the pot that we had on top of the cages but it was for decoration only and we never thought about planting anything in it. I guess it could be done. ?????
Like I say we will do new cages this year.
BTW This isn't where we had it last year. I put it there so it would show up in the photo. Jim

Here's the coat hanger. Just straighten out the hook and bend the ends around to the shape of the plant.

This message was edited Wednesday, Feb 19th 3:29 PM

Great idea; will try the tomato cages this year.

And who doesn't have a b'zillion of those clothes hangers!

Thanks for the pics!

TLC

The coat hanger really keeps the plants off the ground and displays them really well.

jim,
so with the coat hanger you could bend it around more than one lily stem, if they were close together?

Sure it supports the bottom of the plant and keeps it off the ground. The only thing I have used it on is dianthus. You know how low growing they are and it holds them up off the ground and keeps the plant sort of in a compact position instead of spreading out all over the ground. I don't know if it would be tall enough for lilies. ?????

Just FYI, Home Depot garden centers have green-coated fold-up square tomato cages that could also be used for those huge dahlia plants. The green would really disappear amidst the foliage. Expensive, though.

Hi all. I just picked up the green coated folding tomato cages for 4.00 each at walmart. They are very unobtrusive, and Im sorry I let dh rush me out of there as I only picked up 2 of em...Also, a couple of weeks ago, I picked up the round metal tomato cages at one of the thousands of dollar stores in our area. I was surprised at how well made they were. I believe its a chain of dollar stores called Family Dollar stores...

Someone mentioned spraypainting wire supports. I have lots of those short wire fences that were white and are now well worn. They'd be great for my peonies etc. Can you actually spray paint these. I thought about it. Seems like it would be a mess. How would you do it?

kokopelli,
i would lay them right down on some newspaper on the lawn. spray one side and then the other. don't worry about overspray onto the grass, when it gets longer you just mow it away. :o] i've done this lots of times and no harm done. you can also use waxpaper, plastic bags, aluminum foil etc to lay it onto if your afraid it will stick to the paper. but if you use a soft touch, it normally doesn't stick.