Terra Cotta Plant Waterer & Painted Bottles

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Terra Cotta Plant Waterer & Painted Bottles

Terra Cotta Plant Waterer and Painted Bottles, use empty wine bottles and these wonderful terra cotta plant nannies to effortlessly but beautifully keep your plants watered.  They distribute only what your plants need and will keep them hydrated even when you are away.  Using enamel paints keeps the design fresh and vibrant!

This past summer I gave something new to me a try, terra cotta plant waterer.   Being that I need a lot of practice with my glass painting technique I decided to pair the terra cotta plant waterer &  painted bottles.

Wine bottles to be exact.  I have to say I am impressed with what a great job the waterer did in keeping my outdoor potted plants watered.  I have yet to try them with indoor plants but I shall this coming winter when I bring in many of my plantsaffiliate

The plant waterer may look rather strange but these are easy to work with.  They are made of terra cotta and let water seep into the soil as it dries to gently but efficiently keep your plants thriving.

They come under different brand names like Plant Partner and Plant Nanny.  I bought mine on Amazon but I am sure you could find them in a local, well stocked garden center.
Terra Cotta Plant Waterer and Painted Bottles, use empty wine bottles and these wonderful terra cotta plant nannies to effortlessly but beautifully keep your plants watered.  They distribute only what your plants need and will keep them hydrated even when you are away.  Using enamel paints keeps the design fresh and vibrant!

Some say to soak them before putting them into the potted plant but I don’t think I did that.  The plant was well watered before I sunk this baby down into the soil though.  The bottle is empty in this photo, I just need to pull out the bottle from the waterer and refill.  The waterer stays in the soil.

Many of the photos I share here do not have the waterer sunk down far enough into the soil but this one shows you how it should be done, push it down until only the very top is showing, fill your bottle with water and hold your thumb over the wine bottle top as you invert it to insert into the plant waterer.  You won’t be able to prevent a few drops from escaping as you tip the bottle upside down but it does the job well enough.  At least my thumb is not big enough.
(it doesn’t have to be wine, I have read you can even use a 2 liter soda bottle if you are gone a long time)
Terra Cotta Plant Waterer and Painted Bottles, use empty wine bottles and these wonderful terra cotta plant nannies to effortlessly but beautifully keep your plants watered.  They distribute only what your plants need and will keep them hydrated even when you are away.  Using enamel paints keeps the design fresh and vibrant!

My green dragonfly bottle is what I used in this geranium plant all summer and it did a fantastic job of keeping it hydrated.  I had a geranium in the same kind and size of pot next to this one and did not have a waterer in it.  It was not as healthy or nice looking as this one and seemed to struggle.
(I did this to give the waterers a good test for the summer, I started in June so it was a good 3 month test through the hottest part of the year here)

You are not required to paint the bottles but I thought it would be a fun twist and good practice for me.  As I get more proficient and confident I can start on some glass painting tutorials for the different designs.  I like to get it down and try to make it as easy as possible for beginners.

I did not do two coats on the sunflower, I wanted to see if I could get it opaque enough without doing so.  It does look okay but I think I would prefer doing the second coat, yellow is a hard color to get opaque.  I modified my regular Sunflower painting technique only slightly to paint this.
Terra Cotta Plant Waterer and Painted Bottles, use empty wine bottles and these wonderful terra cotta plant nannies to effortlessly but beautifully keep your plants watered.  They distribute only what your plants need and will keep them hydrated even when you are away.  Using enamel paints keeps the design fresh and vibrant!
The daisies I did use two coats, the bottom coat is Folk Art Enamels Wicker White or you can also use Folk Art Multi Surface Wicker White.

The second coat I used Martha Stewart Multi Surface Pearl paint in Mother of Pearl color.  Most of these colors should be available at your local craft store.
I love how the pearl paint adds some shimmer to it.  It shows up much better in person, trust me.
Daisy Painting Tutorial
Terra Cotta Plant Waterer and Painted Bottles, use empty wine bottles and these wonderful terra cotta plant nannies to effortlessly but beautifully keep your plants watered.  They distribute only what your plants need and will keep them hydrated even when you are away.  Using enamel paints keeps the design fresh and vibrant!

Here is another dragonfly, I used Martha Stewart Multi Surface metallic in Citrine Gold with Americana crystal Glitter Gloss Enamels in Green for the sparkly darker green dots. The wings are the Mother of Pearl by Martha Stewart like the daisy petals with Calypso Sky by Plaid Folk Art veining.

Terra Cotta Plant Waterer and Painted Bottles, use empty wine bottles and these wonderful terra cotta plant nannies to effortlessly but beautifully keep your plants watered.  They distribute only what your plants need and will keep them hydrated even when you are away.  Using enamel paints keeps the design fresh and vibrant!

Here is a close up of my dragonflies.
painted-bottles-plant-nanny-10-of-14

Of course I can never have too many roses.  You can see my Painting Roses on Glass tutorial here for the whole enchilada by clicking the red highlighted text.

Terra Cotta Plant Waterer and Painted Bottles, use empty wine bottles and these wonderful terra cotta plant nannies to effortlessly but beautifully keep your plants watered.  They distribute only what your plants need and will keep them hydrated even when you are away.  Using enamel paints keeps the design fresh and vibrant!

I added some lavender five petal flowers to go with the roses.  I should have a tutorial of that up in the near future.  They are fairly easy.Terra Cotta Plant Waterer and Painted Bottles, use empty wine bottles and these wonderful terra cotta plant nannies to effortlessly but beautifully keep your plants watered.  They distribute only what your plants need and will keep them hydrated even when you are away.  Using enamel paints keeps the design fresh and vibrant!
I bought these plant waterers myself, I was not compensated or contacted by the manufacturer to post about them, I just wanted to try some out and I was very impressed.  I will update on how well they did indoors after I have used them a few months.

I did receive some of the paints free of charge by both Plaid and DecoArt and some I purchased myself.
Plaid has been especially generous in automatically sending me their new crafting supplies as they release them.  I will be sharing more of what I try and what I think as the weeks go on.

Happy planting and painting!

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Terra Cotta Plant Waterer and Painted Bottles, use empty wine bottles and these wonderful terra cotta plant nannies to effortlessly but beautifully keep your plants watered. They distribute only what your plants need and will keep them hydrated even when you are away. Using enamel paints keeps the design fresh and vibrant!

 

 

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11 Comments

  1. Hi Elizabeth. All I would recommend is to bring them inside to store in winter. Seems the freezing and thawing of rain and snow makes the design peel off. But they last just fine if you over winter them in a basement, garage or somewhere dry. 🙂 I would say the same goes for the terra cotta part.

  2. Elizabeth Duncan says:

    You have done a really good job painting these bottles. I’m gonna try to do these bottle paintings, I’ve done some previously but they aren’t as good as yours. Thank you for the info & ideas.

  3. Thank you, Carol. Painting on glass is a whole new technique for me but I am enjoying the challenge of it!

  4. Those bottles are beautiful.

  5. I get mine from a friend that works in a wine tasting room. Part of her job is to haul the empties to the recycling center. So she drops off some here instead. Believe it or not I am not a big fan of wine, but I do love beer.

  6. I have many more up my sleeve, that is why I needed to find something to make them into. I have seen lights put into bottles but I have yet to try that one.

  7. Hi Pamela, these are beautiful. I’ve seen the bottle trick, but never with the bottles painted so pretty!

    Thanks for sharing at Dishing It & Digging It! Hope to see you each week. 🙂

  8. Okay, I’m hooked! Your water bottles are great! I save bottles so I’m ready! I did tole painting in the past, so I’ll get out my brushes. Think I’m gonna like this site of yours Pamela! And, if I read correctly as my eyes were feasting on your blog, I think I read you live in California too….an added bonus for me! Thank you for sharing, you sweet girl!

  9. Naomi Shelton says:

    Pamela, those painted bottles are really attractive! I especially like the sunflower one. I am interested in trying the terracotta plant waterers. I’ve tried some blown glass plant waterers which are very beautiful but not very effective in my experience. They don’t hold much water for one thing and the part you stick into the soil is very narrow so not much water drains into the soil. The terracotta ones you use seem like they would be a lot more effective. I think I will check them out for next Spring. Thanks for sharing about them.

    I don’t know if I would ever try glass painting. My mother used to do reverse glass painting and I have a large painting of daffodils–my favorite flower– that she did. But I don’t think at this point it is my thing. I’ll just enjoy looking at yours! They are really beautiful and look like you’ve been doing glass painting for a long time. Looking forward to the next post!

  10. I am so excited about this project. I will be drinking more wine. Need bottles. Thanks Pamela

  11. Debbie Jones says:

    Beautiful bottles! You have great artistic talent! Love ALL the flowers you painted on bottles!

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