How to Hang Plants from a Wall

Installing a Hook for Hanging Plants

Select a hanging planter with a hook, strap, or hanging ring. So long as your plant’s container has a hook, strap, rope, or ring to hang it, you can hang it on your wall. The lighter the container is, the easier it will be to hang from your wall, so try to avoid hanging planters made out of thick, heavy materials. The smaller the plant is, the shorter the hook needs to be as well. If you can, get a planter where you can detach the hanger to make watering easier. Whether you get a planter with a hook, strap, or ring is entirely up to you. Plastic hooks tend to come on cheaper planters, and straps look a little cleaner and minimalistic. Hanging planters come in a variety of styles and shapes, so choose planters that look good to you. If you aren’t buying a new plant, purchase the empty container and carefully transfer the plant to the hanging planter using the same potting soil from the original pot.

Use a standard hook screw to install small hanging plants. Hook screws, also known as swag hooks, are small hooks with a threaded screw on the end. If you have a small, lightweight plant, purchase a hook screw with a hook that’s long enough for your plant to hang from the wall. This is the best option if you have a plastic planter that doesn’t take up a ton of space. It will also work with a really small ceramic or lightweight metal planter. You can do this with basically any hanging plant that you would hang from a ceiling. You just need to make sure that the side of the plant that’s closest to the wall has enough room to hang freely. So if your plant is 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter, your hook must stick out at least 3 inches (7.6 cm) to hang freely. Different hook screws can hold different weights. It lists the weight limit on the hook screw’s packaging.

Get a toggle bolt for the hook screw if you’re hanging a heavy plant. Toggle bolts are a type of wall anchor that hold a heavier amount of weight than a hook screw alone. If you’re hanging a really heavy plant, find a toggle bolt that fits the size of the threading on your hook screw. The toggle bolt will reinforce the anchor and keep it from ripping your drywall out. Toggle bolts can hold up to 100 pounds (45 kg), but that doesn’t mean you should hang a plant that heavy from the hook. Remember, the hook is holding the weight; the toggle bolt only reinforces it. You probably need a toggle bolt if you’re hanging a big terra cotta planter or ceramic container. There are a variety of other wall anchors. If you aren’t sure if you need one or not but your plant isn’t particularly heavy, pick up a threaded drywall anchor that matches the width of your screw hook and use that instead of the toggle bolt.

Go for a decorative plant bracket for a more ornate vibe. There are tons of ornamental plant bracket hooks out there. They tend to look like long, L-shaped hooks and they come in a variety of styles and designs. All of them have screw slots on the flat side of the bracket. These brackets come in so many different styles—there are flowy, medieval-style brackets, simple long hooks, and round, minimalist brackets. You may not find a lot of these in stores, but there are tons of options online. This is a great option if you don’t want a boring hook screw sticking out of your wall. This is also a good choice if you have a really big pot that isn’t particularly heavy, since these brackets tend to stick out further than hook screws. Most of these plant brackets list the amount of weight they can hold. Many of them can safely hold up to 30 or 40 pounds (14 or 18 kg).

Find a stud in your wall with a stud finder where you want to hang the plant. Get a stud finder and turn it on by pressing the power button. Slide the stud finder across the wall until it beeps or starts flashing. When it does light up or make a sound, you’ve found a stud. Use a pencil to make a small mark over a stud where you want to hang your plant. If you don’t have a stud finder, you can find a stud by tapping your knuckle against the wall. Hollow drywall will echo a little when you tap on it, while a stud will sound kind of flat and solid. You don’t have to hang really lightweight plants on studs, but it’s a good idea if your plant is even moderately heavy. The stud will reinforce the hook and make it less likely that your plant falls to the ground. If you're trying to hang plants from a concrete wall, use a hammer drill to make a hole in the concrete, then insert a concrete anchor into the hole. Then, you can screw the hook into the anchor.

Drill a pilot hole into the stud using a drill bit smaller than the anchor or screw. Grab a pilot drill bit that’s slightly thinner than the wall anchor you’re using if you’re using one. If you’re just hanging a lightweight plant from a hook screw, grab a drill bit that’s thinner than the threading on the screw. Hold the drill bit over the mark you made and slowly drill into your wall to create a pilot hole for your plant. If you just drill the wall anchor or hook screw directly into the wall, the threading may not catch and you may end up with an unusable hole in the wall. It’s also pretty hard to drill directly into a stud without a pilot hole, so you’re better off playing it safe.

Insert the anchor or toggle bolt first if you’re using one. If you’re using a wall anchor, use a screwdriver or drill to slowly screw it into the wall. For a toggle bolt, pinch the wings on the bolt against the threaded length before screwing it into the wall. Continue tightening the anchor until it rests flush against the wall. If the anchor or toggle bolt won’t go in all the way, your pilot hole isn’t deep enough. Unscrew the anchor and drill deeper into the wall before trying again.

Screw your hook screw into the opening you’ve made in the wall. Lift the hook screw over the anchor or pilot hole and insert the pointy threaded end into the opening. Then, twist the hook screw clockwise until the threading catches. Continue screwing the hook screw in by hand until it sits flush against the wall and the open side of the hook is facing up. If you’re using an ornamental L-bracket hook, use a spirit level to line it up on the wall. Then, use the 2 screws that came with the bracket to drill it into the wall.

Hang your plant from the hook on your wall. Once your hook is in the wall, lift your plant up by the hook, strap, or ring. Slide the top of the hanging material over the hook and slowly lower it on to the center of the hook. Let your plant hang on the wall and enjoy your new greenery! When you need to water your plant, take it off of the hook and water it in your sink or garden. Wait for the water to drain completely before hanging the plant back up to prevent puddles from forming on the ground under your plant.

Using a Wall Planter

Repot your plant in a wall planter to hang it directly on the wall. A wall planter refers to any pot or planter designed to be hung on a vertical surface. If your planter has a separate pot in it, you can hang the planter first. If there isn’t a separate pot, set your planter down in a sink or in your garden and carefully dig your plant out by hand or with a trowel. Transfer your plant to the new container before hanging your plant. If you’re using thinner potting soil or sand, add a layer of gravel to the bottom of the container before transferring your plant. If there’s a separate pot that goes into the planter, just hang the larger planter first, then repot your plant when you’re done. It’s always easier to hang a wall planter without a plant in it, but repotting can get messy if you don’t have a separate container.

Find a cool wall planter that comes with built-in brackets for a simple option. Some wall planters have built-in hardware to hang it on your wall. Go online or head to your local gardening store and find a wall planter that looks cool to you. Find a stud in your wall and mark the location with a pencil. Then, follow your planter’s hanging instructions to install the planter on the wall. The hanging instructions differ from pot to pot. Usually, you screw a small sleeve bracket into the wall first, then you hang the planter on the sleeve. Other wall planters slide over a hook you drill the wall like a regular hanging plant, except the container hangs directly on the hook. If you get a wall planter that’s especially light (like less than 1 lb (0.45 kg)), you probably don’t need to hang it in a stud. If you do need to find a stud, use a stud finder. Turn it on by pressing the power button and slide it horizontally across the wall until it beeps or lights up.

Get a suction cup wall planter to stick small plants to glass or tile. To put some smaller plants on a tile wall or a window, pick up some suction cup planters. Chose a window or tiled wall where you want to hang the plant and wipe the area with a dry cloth. Then, press the suction cup into the glass or tile. This is a really unique option that’s great because there’s no drilling involved. Just keep in mind, you can’t hang anything heavy in these! This is a great option if you sunny bathroom or large window and you want to hang some aromatic herbs that require a lot of sunlight. These are unique planters, but they aren’t readily available in stores. Go online to find some suction cup planters.

Use a clamp ring bracket turn a regular pot into a wall planter. If you want to put a regular pot on your wall, purchase a clamp ring wall bracket, which is a metal hoop with a flat bracket on one side. Make sure the pot you want to use will fit into the ring you buy! To install the ring, use the screws that came with the wall bracket to screw it into a stud. Once the bracket is in the wall, just slide the bottom of your pot over the opening in the middle of the ring and lower it down until it’s resting in place. Clamp ring wall brackets are the best way to turn a regular potted plant into a decorative wall piece. There is a product called a “clamp-on ring” that has an actual clamp on the opposite side of the ring. These are designed to attach plants to railings, not walls. Make sure your clamp ring has a flat bracket with screw slots on it if you want to put the plant on the wall.

Creating a Vertical Garden

Wrap hanging plants around a tension rod for a cool window garden. Pick up a tension rod from any department or big box store. Lift it in between a window frame and extend it by hand until the two ends are pressing against the frame. Tug on it gently to make sure there isn’t any give. Then, hang your plants from the rod and let them float in your window for a neat window garden! You could also just leave the tension rod on top of two cabinets or tall bookshelves that are resting at the same height to leave the plants against a wall. Just make sure you put something heavy on top of the hanging surface and in front of the rod to keep it from rolling off. Obviously, you aren’t technically hanging the plants on the wall when you do this, but it’s a fun way to put a hanging garden against a window! You can do the same thing with a curtain rod. If you have a window and you don’t tend to close the drapes very often, you can always hang your plants on that.

Install an indoor trellis out of a wire grid to display hanging plants. You can purchase a prebuilt trellis, or make your own out of a wire grid (the panels from a metal stackable cube set are perfect for this). Hold the trellis up where you want to install it and mark 2-4 locations under the top of the grid with a pencil. Install 2-4 screw hooks on the locations you marked by drilling a pilot hole into each location. Then, twist the screw hooks into place and hang the grid on your wall.

To attach plants to the grid, hang S-hooks on the grid and rest each hanging plant from the other half of an S-hook like it’s a regular screw hook. If you don’t want to drill anything into the wall, you can always lean a large trellis against the wall at a slight angle and set something heavy in front of it to keep it from sliding around.

Hang a shoe rack and use each slot to store different herbs or flowers. Purchase a vertical shoe organizer made out of plastic or a breathable fabric. Fill the bottom of each pocket with a layer of gravel and fill the remainder up with potting soil. Place small plants into each pocket. Either hang the shoe organizer on a sunny door that never sees much use, or install hook screws on the wall and hang the shoe rack on those. This is a really neat way to create an organized herb garden. The only downside is that you have to take the entire shoe rack outside every time you want to water the plants. If you don’t have enough plants to fill every pocket, you can place gardening supplies inside of the remaining pockets. If you choose a plastic shoe organizer, poke 3-5 drainage holes into the bottom of each pocket with a utility knife. Plastic organizers are cool since you can see the soil of each plant, but there’s nothing wrong with a fabric organizer if you prefer that.