Tulip Bulb Planter

8 Materials
$20
1 Day
Easy

It's the middle of January here in New Hampshire and the winter blues have really kicked in. I'm dreaming of when the Spring bulbs start popping out from the earth signaling that you made it through another New England winter; I thought of this fun idea to bring that feeling indoors.

For this project you will need some fake tulips that look real; these are the most beautiful, real feeling ones I have ever seen! You will also need a galvanized container (mine is the popular one from the Dollar Tree), 2 inch foam balls, paper lunch bags, Mod Podge, dark brown paint, a foam floral block, Spanish moss, and green sheet moss. You may need thin wooden dowels to secure your tulips into the floral block but I didn't end up needing them because the wire from the stem was very strong.


Learn how to plant tulip bulbs in the ground.

I wanted to give my shiny metal container an aged look. I mixed a couple tablespoons of white vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and a couple of teaspoons of salt in a bowl. I soaked paper towels in the solution and wrapped them onto the container. After a few hours the patina developed. I love how it looks!


To make the tulips, I started by cutting off a few inches of the green plastic to expose the wire inside. I simply ran the scissors around the plastic until it broke off. Also remove the leaves and save for later.

Poke the wire all the way through the foam ball. You want to have a long enough wire to secure into the foam block when you put your planter together.

Cut the bottom off one of the paper lunch bags then cut the bag in half lengthwise. Take the bag and wrap it tightly around the foam ball. Twist it around the flower stem then cut off the excess paper at the top.

Brush a generous amount of Mod Podge over the paper bag. Use your fingers to really make sure it gets into all the wrinkles while twisting the bag around the stem...have something on hand to wipe your sticky fingers off on!

I poked my stems into a foam block overnight to dry.

To give the bulbs a more lifelike appearance I dry brushed a little dark brown chalk paint lightly onto them.*When you dry brush you want to wipe off most of the paint on your brush ( I did this by wiping my brush back and forth onto a paper bag).*

I hot glued a small clump of Spanish moss onto the bottom of the bulb and glued the tulip leaves back to the bottom of the stem.

I placed the foam block in my container and inserted the tulips. I filled in the empty space inside with more Spanish moss.

To finish my tulip container I used pieces of sheet moss to cover up the foam. I used small pieces in between the bulbs.

Well, it feels more like Spring now!! You may also enjoy this project I did to bring more florals into your home

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Jennifer Howard| Cottage On Bunker Hill
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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3 of 9 questions
  • Marti Marti on Jan 28, 2020

    I'm definitely going to do this and I also have the same question as to where to get the fake tulips.

  • Beth Beth on Jan 28, 2020

    This is utterly genius, and very lifelike and beautiful! Just wanted to tell you that. Thank you for sharing your talent! 💖

  • Tina Tina on Oct 23, 2020

    Clever!

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3 of 145 comments
  • Maria Maria on Jan 19, 2022

    You sure fooled me. 😁

    Very pretty. Terrific

  • Jill Cmc Jill Cmc on Oct 22, 2022

    So darn cute! It looks natural! Be careful with mixing vinegar with peroxide. It can create corrosive acid and can harm your skin , eyes, nose, throat and lungs. Just don't mix them in high concentrations. Vinegar and salt are safe together. Btw, I have that pail from Dollar Tree. I'll have to find where I put it. lol!

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