Now I have a way to use all these plants!!!

These are clear 80 oz and 160 oz salad bowls.............one on top of the other, drill a hole in the top with a little knob and you have a lovely home for avs, episicas and many other gesneriads......

***********www.sabert.com

pick up at a restaurant or a restaurant supplier that carries this brand or others.............

*************uh oh.........that must not be the right web site..........they are made by Sabert and I found them on line when begoniacrazii told us on the terrarium forum..........

(I'm chatting with you on two different threads about these...)

How many inches do they measure across?

I can just see a whole row of them dangling from the ceiling, like little Martians in spaceships!

So... the 160 oz bowl goes on the bottom and the 80 oz bowl is the lid? There's about an inch difference in the diameter of the two bowls, so I could see how that would work...

Here's the link, I think. http://www.sabert.com/product_list.asp?fs=12012A500&cp=01024IMR&channelGroup=fs

If you call the number on that site, they can tell you which restaurant suppliers in your area carry these................they are European made (I think)

Thanks... I sent them an email.

Thanks for clarifying that! Somehow, when I first looked at the photo, I thought the rim of the top bowl was resting inside the rim of the bottom bowl...

Now I'm trying to envision an easy way to attach the top so it doesn't slide off all the time... I wonder about drilling 3 holes in the rim of each bowl, then putting twine through (anchored with a knot under the lower rim), then tying the 3 strands of twine together to it would work like a hanging basket... I'll have to look for begoniacrazii's thread you mentioned in the terrarium forum!

How interesting. I will have to check these out.

You don't need to tie the two pieces together...............that would be unattractive..........they fit fine and when you put a knob on the top it also adds some weight so that it wouldn't slide.............fits pretty good to me.........the drilled holes are just for some air to come in............

Very neat idea Gail.I am going to check them out.

nancy, jump over to the terrarium thread............begoniacrazii has come to the rescue again......................she knows where you can buy them with no minimum..........

I was wondering the same thing about the lid ... I thought you were using two of the same size and figured one would just sit on top of the other, but I thought it would slide off easily too if bumped! So, are you using the 160 oz for the bottom to plant in and the 80 oz for the lid? I really gotta get a couple of these to try!

I think they are two of the same size, with one sitting on top the other like you said, Lin. We'll have to experiment with ways to keep the two halves connected if that turns out to be a problem... I've used little dots of "museum putty" for things like that, and I think it comes in a clear form. (It's tacky, easily removable, and used to keep things from jumping off shelves, especially in museums or in earthquake-prone areas.)

Thanks Gail,Love this idea.I am going to hop on over to the terrarium thread again and take a peek.

ladies.................I keep saying that i was told that if you put a wooden or porcelain knob on the top it adds just enough weight to keep it together..........two bowls of the same size................................I don't want mine where i can't easily take them apart to tend to the plants................

I am going to the terrarium forum to post my new one.............not using the new plastic bowls but one glass vase I had already.................

Gail, I just know my tendency to bump things!

Also, I'm still noodling over the idea of using these as hanging planters...

Here's a link to Gail's thread in the terrarium forum, http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/751878/

And here's another good thread in that forum with lots of vendor links, etc. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/615864/

If you head over to the terrarium forum (links above) you can see where I trimmed one bowl so that it will nest into the rim of the other. No problems so far with the lids coming off the base. I'll try to find the photo .....

here it is... The plastic is not so hard that it cannot be cut with scissors or a box knife (if you are very handy with one - which I'm not! LOL)

I super glued a big porcelain bead and a marble on to the lids so that I can lift them up.

Very clever! Thanks!!

I still want to find somewhere to hang a whole bunch of these, like little biosphere bubbles! Hmmm, another project to add to the list, LOL. They'd also be good to have on hand so people can plant up something pretty to take home as Gail suggested. I'll bet even unrooted cuttings or stolons would do OK in these.

What a great idea ... with the bead/marble glued to the lid for a handle! I would definitely have to have that! I am bad about trying to pry off plastic lids from fruit/salad bowls ... I usually end up splitting the hard plastic! LOL.

Critter ... Oh, I love that idea of making little biosphere plant bubbles to hang! Maybe you could punch a small hole in the lids, thread a piece of heavy twine through the hole and knot it on the inside of the lid for hanging? Does that make any sense?

Ok ... since Critter got me thinking I had to go rummage through the recycle bin to see if I could find one to play with. All I found was a little Dairy Queen Blizzard Cup .... so I cut one around the rim (which will be the lid) and took a meat fork and made a small hole in each side near the top of the larger one. I ran a piece of jute through each hole and knotted it on the inside, put some soil and little cuttings in there, put the lid back on (doesn't fit real snugly, but I just did this in about 3 minutes time) ... now don't y'all laugh too much - this was just a little test!

Well ... here's the photo - don't know what's going on with my camera, but you can get the idea I hope. I think those large Salad Bowls would make really neat Biosphere's for growing and rooting a lot of different plants! Great idea Critter!



This message was edited Jul 25, 2007 2:23 PM

OK You all are just too creative.Lin I love that : )
Can't wait to see Critters little biosphere plant bubbles.

Now you all got me wanting to rumage through my trash! See what ya started?? : ))

That's wonderful! And it's just about what I had in mind with the salad bowls... you've seen plastic hanging planters with 3 holes around the rim for inserting cords or wire pieces for hanging... I think you could put 3 holes around the rim of the salad bowl and use it the same way. You could either trim off the rim of the top bowl so it nested into the rim, or you could put matching holes in the top rim and run the cord through both bowls before hanging (then the top surely wouldn't go anywhere).

Although I'd love to do these as big table-top terrariums, I just don't have many spaces for things like that... that's why my mind went to hanging them!

LOL, Nancy! I just rummaged through the recycle bin to see if there was any plastic type salad/fruit bowls I could play with to see how it would work! The DQ Ice Cream Cup isn't real large - actually now that I think about it that was two lids .... the ice cream comes in styrofoam cups with those plastic ones as lids. Salad type bowls would be great! Just like some of you folks have already been using for the terrariums .... just with jute or twine or something to hang it. I used a piece of jute on that thing I just made but jute would rot pretty quickly ... I would probably use nylon twine like I use for wicking since it holds up a long, long time!

Critter .... you are soo smart! That would be a much better way to hang them ... with three holes it would be a bit sturdier, and I think it would hang much straighter! I did trim the top plastic cup too ... but didn't do a great job of it ... it's a bit wobbly. I like the idea of running the twine through both the bottom and top .... that would help keep the lid from falling off and there would be enough slack in it to move the lid to the side for watering or venting!

When I get back from my week visiting my sister I think I might get some of the salad bowls and try it on a larger scale!