Rustic Valentines Heart Shaped Topiary

I wanted to add some color and life into our cabin now that the Christmas decorations are down and the cabin feels empty. Since, Valentines Day is the next holiday that I decorate for, I decided to make a topiary with a live ivy plant in the shape of a heart.

Here are the items that I used to create the topiary.





This was a quick, easy project and I already had everything I needed except for the ivy plant.
I started out by adding a layer of small gravel in the bottom of the pot. This is to help with drainage because this pot does not have a hole in the bottom of it. Then I added a small layer of potting soil and transplanted the ivy plant into the new pot.





Next, I found a stick that I could attach to the bottom of the heart shaped grapevine wreath and I wired it to the wreath with floral wire.





I gently pushed the stick into the center of the plant, through the soil and gravel, all the way to the bottom of the pot. I had to cut the stick to the right height so that the bottom of the heart was right at the top of the ivy plant.





I began wrapping some of the longer vines of ivy around the grapevine wreath on each side until I liked the way it looked.





Lastly, I trimmed off a few of the really long vines and placed the topiary in our cabin as a Valentines Day centerpiece.





I didn't throw away the vine trimmings. I placed the trimmings in little bottles of water because they will grow roots easily. In a few weeks, I should be able to plant the trimmings in a pot of soil and I'll have another ivy plant.





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Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/12514719/rustic-valentines-heart-shaped-topiary site