Plants are often the highlight of a room. They stand out because of the beautiful colors, shapes, and scents. Make your favorite flowers stand out even more by placing them beneath a light. With some simple DIY skills, you can build a lighted hanging basket to make your flowers a bright focal point in the room. An added bonus is that LED lights help your plants grow.

What You Need:

• Square or bell lampshade
• Wire planter hanger
• Light socket with cord from a place like Koontz Hardware
• Zip ties

Determining Sizes and Colors:

• Choose a lampshade that has a bottom diameter that is the same size or smaller than the diameter of your flower pot. This guarantees that the light will cover the entire plant and not just the middle.
• The length of the wire planter hanger depends on how high you need to hang your plant. It has nothing to do with the placement of the lampshade. Just make sure to choose a length that fits the area you wish to hang the plant.
• You will see the cord with the light socket. Choose one the same color as the lampshade and flower pot, or at least one that doesn't stand out compared to the colors of the lampshade and flower pot.

Assembly:

1. Place the wire planter hanger on your potted plant. The wire hangers come with hooks at the bottom that slip easily on the lip of flower pots.
2. Slip the top part of the wire planter hanger through the hole at the top of the lampshade. Slide the lampshade down the wire until the bottom sits 12-18 inches above the highest growth of your plant.
3. Mark the correct distance on the planter hanger with a marker or zip tie for easy reference.
4. You can now remove your potted plant so you don't accidentally dump it while working.
5. Secure the lampshade to the correct placement on the wire planter hanger using the zip ties. Zip tie the wires to the metal bars that make the shape inside the lampshade. You need to put a zip tie at the top of the lampshade and the bottom at each corner. That is a total of eight zip ties.
6. Slip the light bulb socket and cord down through the top of the lampshade so that the wire hanger sits around it. Place the bulb inside the lampshade.
7. Hang the wire hanger with the cord together.

Useful Information:

• LED lights are much cooler than other light bulbs. The heat won't warm the flower so much that you have to water it more often. It won't burn the leaves if the plant grows toward the light.
• LED lights are great for growing plants. They emit the perfect wavelengths of light needed for photosynthesis. Your plant will absorb the light and grow faster, stronger, and more beautiful.
• Make sure to hang the plant in such a way that the ceiling or wall can handle the weight.