How to Make a Birdcage Flower Planter

Birdcage planters are a favorite with creative gardeners. These tips share ideas for setting up a new or upcycled birdcage as a planter for succulents or annuals.

For more, see 8 Bold and Colorful Flowerpot Ideas.

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Tips for Making a Birdcage Planter

1Get a Birdcage

The first step is to find a birdcage, of course. This is my own hierarchy for sourcing used items:

Buying Tips

• Be sure to check the size of the cage. Many of them look large in the photo but are actually quite small.
• Confirm that the birdcage is well made and can endure life outdoors.
• Make sure there is a way to get the plants in. Some decorative birdcages don’t actually have an opening or door, making it difficult to add plants unless you have hands the size of a mouse.

Make it Your Own

• Want to change the color or add rust protection? Use an exterior, all-purpose spray paint.
• Cage wires too close together? Get a good pair of snippers (I love bolt cutters—it is amazing how easily they cut bolts and wire—who knew?) and remove sections of wire as desired.

2Add Coir or Burlap Liner

There are several options depending on the look you want. No matter what you choose, you want to form some sort of planting area that holds soil about 3-5 inches deep.

Coir Liner Basket | Amazon

• Use a coir liner and put container potting soil inside.
• Use a piece of good quality burlap and form a planting area. Once the soil is added, the burlap stays in place.
• Use chicken wire and moss.
• Use a container that fits the base of the birdcage.
• Use various flowerpots that fit within the cage.

3Add Container Potting Mix

For container plants, always use soilless container mix intended for the specific plants.

• Succulents and cacti do best with a lighter container mix.
• Flowering annuals prefer a regular container mix.

Want to combine them? 

Keep the plants in plastic pots with their preferred container mix and sit the pots in the cage. Conceal them with coir liner or burlap or show them off.

4Add Plants

Birdcage planters look fabulous with trailing plants spilling out of the cage.

Choose your plants based on the light conditions where you will hang it (sun, part sun, shade).

If you can’t find the plants you want in pots, you can always buy a ready-made hanging basket and transplant everything to the birdcage.

Look for shallow-rooted trailing succulents or flowering annuals including:

• Alternantheras | Alternanthera spp.
• Bacopas | Sutera spp.
• Creeping Jenny | Lysimachia nummularia*
  *is considered invasive in some areas of North America and is therefore not recommended.
• Fuchsia | Fuchsia
• Donkey tail or burro’s tail | Sedum morganianum
  (Euphorbia myrsinites or creeping spurge is the poisonous look-a-like).
• Geranium | Geranium
• Ivy
• Lobelia | Campanulaceae
• Nasturtium | Tropaeoleum spp.
• Petunia | Petunia
• Sweet potato vine | Ipomoea batatas

5Birdcage Planter Care

Like any plant containers or hanging baskets, you need to keep on top of watering so they never dry out.

You can find helpful tips for keeping container plants happy here.

Also, keep your plant tags for specific instructions on feeding (fertilizing) and deadheading (removing old blooms to encourage new ones).

Garden Art Resources

Birdcage Planter Ideas

• Green birdcage with bird on top | Our Fairfield Home & Garden

Barb added a bird’s nest plus moss and ivy for a low-maintenance option.

• Black birdcage with succulents | Empress of Dirt

This one was created by Susan St. Louis who shared it on a tour of her garden. See the entire creative garden container gallery here.

• White birdcage with succulents | Garden Therapy

Stephanie of Garden Therapy shares how she planted this new, decorative birdcage with succulents.

• Modern birdcage with flowering annuals | House of Hawthornes

You can often find these newer birdcages at thrift shops and yard sales. Pam planted hers with flowering annuals.

Plant a birdcage! Free a bird!

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛