Hanging Plants for Low Ceilings, High Windows and Every Room in Between

Low ceilings make people nervous about plants overhead. This narrow entry gets around it by going up and over instead of out. One long wood shelf sits above the door, three leafy pots rest on top, and the vines fall down the wall like a green curtain.

The vines hang past the door frame without blocking the way in. Nothing swings, so nobody bumps a plant on the way through.

The shelf does the hanging for you. There is no ceiling hook to drill, which helps if you rent.

One small warning: water the pots at the sink first, then lift them up, so drips don’t land on your paint or floor.

A curtain rod can carry a whole garden.

Here a dark rod runs across the top of a tall window, and five plants hang from it at different drops:

• a fern with full, arching fronds
• a leafy trailing vine in a gray pot
• a spider plant with a long tassel under its pot
• a beaded trailing plant on the far left
• ivy in a clay pot on the right

Herbs in terracotta pots sit on the sill below, so the window is planted from top to bottom. The garden outside still shows through the gaps.

The trick is the drop. Short hangers next to long ones keep the view open and the sink area clear.

This bay window shows how many plants one frame can hold. A pale pole runs along the top, and six simple black pots hang from black hooks on strap hangers. Long pothos style vines in lime and deep green reach down past the glass, while bigger leafy plants stand on the sill.

It looks full instead of messy because the hanging pots sit at about the same height. The vines do the dropping.

Heads up: a radiator sits under this window. Heat dries soil fast, so check the sill pots more often than the hanging ones.

A long driftwood branch hangs from two ropes in front of a pale wall, and macrame hangers hold the plants off it.

Leaf shape does the work here. Holey leaves on the left, round scalloped ones in the middle, a bright lime vine, and a dark vine with silver spots on the right. No two neighbors look alike.

Every hanger sits at a different height, so the branch never reads as one flat line. The wall stays blank on purpose, which lets the leaves act as the art above the sofa.

Two antler shaped ferns hang in terracotta pots wrapped in cream macrame, right beside a bright window. Under them, a small wooden shelf hangs from ropes and holds smaller trailing plants.

That gives you two levels in one corner. Large plants go high, where they have room to spread. Small ones sit at eye level, where you can enjoy the tiny leaves up close.

Taller plants on the floor and a coir pole fill in the rest, so the corner feels full without using any wall space.

A balcony has very little floor, so this one uses the air. Rope hangers hold big pots of leafy plants overhead, woven baskets swing on the left, and black planters clip onto the railing.

The floor stays free for a jute rug, a small folding table and one chair. You still get a place to sit, and the city view peeks through the leaves.

One warning: balconies get wind, and heavy pots swing. Hang them from something that can take the weight, and keep the heaviest ones low.

Each post on this farmhouse porch carries one iron bracket and one round basket of soft purple flowers. Repeating the same basket down the line makes the porch look planned, and the color sits nicely against the white columns.

Rocking chairs and a swing stay clear below, so you can sit without ducking. White flowers in pots on the floor echo the white trim and the pale blooms in the front bed.

Posts or ceiling? Here is how the two choices compare.

No porch? No problem. This house has a plain brick wall next to a white door, and a single basket on an iron bracket changes the whole corner.

The basket hangs from a short chain and is so full of pink flowers with dark centers that you can’t see the container at all. Leaves spill over the sides and almost reach the doorstep.

The bracket matters. It holds the basket out from the wall, so the plant has room to spread instead of getting squashed against the brick.

A fence is wasted wall space. Here, iron brackets hold a row of coir lined wire baskets, and each one sits a little lower than the last.

The front basket is full of pink flowers. Behind it come orange and yellow, then purple and red, so the color shifts as your eye moves along the fence. Trailing leaves hang from the baskets and soften the straight boards.

A bare fence turns into a garden wall.

• Fix brackets to a post or a strong rail, not thin boards.
• Put one bold color up front and mix colors behind it.
• Use liners that keep the soil in the basket.
• Water often, since baskets dry out faster than garden beds.

Two round balls of flowers hang from black chains under a covered entry with gray walls. One is deep magenta, one is white, and a lantern glows between them.

The text on this image says they are faux, and that is the point. If your hook is too high for a watering can, or the spot gets little light, artificial plants solve both problems. No water, no drips, no ladder trips.

Keep the colors simple, like this pair. One bold shade plus white looks tidy, and hanging them at slightly different heights keeps them from competing.