Hi, I have been watching some youtube videos on hypertuffa and also on cloth and cement. I love the creative part of these projects. If you have a container that you are proud of, please share a pic. I need some inspiration, lol. I am wanting to make a container to hold several mini hosta in one container and some succulents in another. Thank you,

Teresa in KY

Teresa, This could be the beginning of a great thread.
I don't have luck with making my own tufas. Really no place to work and too old to lift cement.
I did make one 15 years ago and it dissolved over winter despite being covered with plastic.
I cant wait to see what everyone comes up with.
On the old DG site there was someone from Japan who used "papercrete" and made some great ones. I'll see if I can find it.
These are my locally made ones.
This one is barely 8 inches and not deep enough to plant anything but rollers















These are nice with small feet.

Check these out
https://www.pinterest.com/expl...

The DG thread with TomTom from Japan



I love the organic look of these pieces.

Thanks, Jo Ann. I have been watching different videos on YouTube and reading about different forms. I am hoping to make a trough with either feet or blocks to set it on. I think my minis will be better together. They tend to lose attention near the large hosta.

You have a nice collection of pots, I like that last one too!

I call myself the styrofoam queen. I get so much styrofoam I started years ago of trying to figure out what to do with it besides trashing it and filling our overload landfills. Every TV, Appliance and electronics I purchase have so much of the stuff around some weeks it would take me 4 garbage bags to take to the curb.

I cover them with stones and ceramic tile.

This was the last one I made and posted instructions of how I made it.

Well, that is different. You are thinking outside of the box!! The stones make it look natural now.

Cinta, that is cool! I wouldn't have thought that the styrofoam would be strong enough to hold the stones and tile.

Is anyone making hypertufa pots themselves? Any tips for a beginner?

Teresa I am trying to be green. Save the planet.

If you want to try this I did a instruction sheet here....
http://garden.org/ideas/view/C...

There were a couple topics on the Garden Art forum I think about making Hypetufa pots and pedestals. I never tried it.

I'll post a few of mine. Been busy in the garden, but it's a bit chilly now.
I don't have any tips though, I've only been making them 2 or 3 years myself.
Hypertufa: (Lightly hit with gold paint. Used a box for a mold and lined it with plastic
first, then aluminum foil kind of crumped up to give some texture. So I was pressing my tufa against the aluminum foil. Made last year but not yet planted. I tried to make the top a scallop look by pressing with my fingers. It's about 5" deep.

This is one of my favorites, but difficult cloth and cement. It's supposed to be like a viking ship: It's very small, but I cut out all the other junk in the photo. It's only about 5" long and a little over 3" wide at the widest point. Was planted last year, and wintered over on patio.

Hypertufa and a cloth and cement combination to make a basket:

This one is made like the first one. It was planted last year though and all wintered over on patio including a short pot lily (which multiplied from one stem to 2), a miniature coral bells, some trailing sedum and hens and chicks not seen. There is also one of the short pink balloon flowers in the container.

This is the top view of the previous container. I stuck in a couple 6-8" marigolds for hope of extra color through the summer:

Here's a bucket type container that is a combination of hypertufa and cloth and cement. This miniature daylily wintered in this container, though I consider this past winter toward the mild side. Now just to see if it will actually bloom in the container. I bought some Osmocote fertilizer today to add to the containers such as this for hopeful bloom encouragement and I have some Miracle Grow liquid, but I'm not good about mixing with water and adding. I guess I need to get a Stella de Oro (sp?) and try as they usually are very reliable bloomers from what I've seen:

This is a round bowl form cloth a cement container. Just a couple days ago I potted it with 2 mini hostas (Pandora's Box and Blue Mouse Ears) and a dwarf Aruncus. I have one other mini hosta but it spreads much faster than these other two, so I didn't use it. I really would like to add more mini hostas that are hardy enough to winter in the containers. I think they are so cute.

This is a freshly plants cloth and cement container. I really like to use some perennials that will overwinter and some annuals. (I'm hoping to learn more of both that will work well in the containers.) So in this one I'm trying for the first time Artemisia Silver Mound. I know in my garden that when it gets shaggy in the summer, I can cut it back and it forms a new nice neat mound. I also used a mini coral bells. That is kind of shade versus sun, but this mini coral bells seems to do okay with more sun. Hopefully the Artemisia will do okay with less sun. I also sprinkled in some purple flowering alyssum seeds, and added a couple of my short variety seed grown marigolds.

Cloth and cement. Planted last year with Ornamental Grass, dwarf balloon flower, trailing sedum and the one variety of hens and chicks.

What type and size of cloth/towel did you use? I like the looks of a lacy doily for a pot too.

Thanks for posting.

Post #1149958 with the grass in container was a fluffier bathroom type hand towel. The container right before that one I used a thin kitchen towel. Both pieces I used the same form to drape the cloth-tufa over. It really does make a difference in texture as to what type of cloth is used. It also makes a difference whether you use perlite in your mix, or if you use vermiculite. And then there are different grades of those. My preference for cloth and cement is fine grade vermiculite.