Here’s a handy little device that’s not only a useful watering tool for the home gardener but also an attractive work of art.
The glass watering globe is made from blown glass and is available in a variety of colors—blue, green, yellow, and red. The shimmering, watery appearance of the blown glass and the tapered shape of the object give it a definite “pleasing to the eye” quality when added to your potted house plants.
The basic principle of how it works is quite simple. Just fill the sphere (slowly and carefully) with water and invert it into the soil of your potted plant. As the soil dries and has need for more moisture, it will draw it down from the contents of the globe.
The size that we tested was quite small—probably holding only about a half pint of water when filled. Still, the enclosed instruction paper said the sphere should water the plant for up to 5 days.
I think, however, that there is a lot of variability in just how long it will take for any given potted plant to empty the water from the glass globe.
Much of this depends, I believe, on the size of the pot, the amount and density of the soil in the pot, and the size of the plant or plants in the container.
Because of this, you may want to use more than one watering globe per potted plant or you may want to utilize spheres of a larger size.
The instructions advise you to punch a hole into the soil before inserting your water-filled sphere so as not to break the delicate blown glass. This is definitely a good idea as the glass is very thin and easily chipped or broken.
Care must also be taken that the stem of the glass sphere is inserted far enough into the soil so that the weight of the water-filled globe will not cause it to tumble over and fall out (resulting in a certainty of shattered glass!).
We tried the watering globes in a number of different potted plants—with mostly favorable results in all tests.
One interesting and practical use for the watering globes was in watering a hanging potted fern that had been chosen as a nesting site for a pair of wrens.
The glass spheres were the perfect way to carefully add water to the soil of the big hanging plant without disturbing the nest or the newly hatched baby birds.
Top watering from a sprinkler bucket would have made it virtually impossible to avoid drenching the nest and the feathered family.
So, you might want to consider getting one or a few of these artsy little devices and try your hand at adding a new kind of utilitarian decoration to your bag of gardening tools.
The sunlight shining through the colored glass does, indeed, add a whole new dimension of beauty and contrast to the greenery of your potted houseplants.
And not only do the blown glass globes look good, they also feed life-giving water to your plants.
Just be sure to check and see how long it takes for the water to empty out and then you can refill as necessary.
