I talk a lot about my great grandma’s fern and how special it is to me. Last year when we moved my mom from her home to my brother’s home, she was having health problems. At that time, I took her fern home with me. The plant stand that came with it, is very sentimental to me because mom’s fern has always been on it. Recently, I called her to ask her where she got it. Below is a picture of her fern on the stand.

All the babies coming from the parent plant
The beginning
I guess I knew my grandpa had made the stand but didn’t know much more than that. What I didn’t know was that he made the stand specifically FOR the fern she had received at her wedding shower. When I asked mom about it, she said, “He made the stand for the fern.” Isn’t that sweet? I love it! Her fern was on that stand until recently. I may put it back on it, just because of this story. I inherited my dad’s homemade ladder and used it to make a huge plant stand and put the fern on it with many, many other plants. Another sentimental plant stand. Of course, if he knew I cut his ladder in half, he might not be too happy.
- My mom’s plant stand
- You can see it is made from a porch post
Making the stand
The post of the stand is a porch post and the top and bottom are pieces of wood. After looking at it more carefully, I realized the square top came close to being a round shape like the bottom because I can still see Grandpa Baldwin’s pencil marks. I wonder what made him decide to leave it square?
- The bottom of the stand
- Another pencil mark on the top of the stand
- See the pencil mark where he thought about cutting it
I recently was in an antique store and found a table leg that I thought was gorgeous and would make a perfect little plant stand. So I sent it to my brother Brian who, like our grandpa likes to work with wood. He put a top and bottom on it and I love it. I wonder what happened to the rest of the table?

My brother Brian made it into a plant stand
Isn’t the detail on that gorgeous?

Table leg I bought in an antique store
I love how he signed the bottom and dated it a bit ahead for my birthday.

He signed it and dated it for my birthday later this month.
The funny thing is that I turned grandpa’s fern stand over and wrote on the bottom of it, too before my brother made this for me. I wrote the story of the stand on the bottom so I wouldn’t forget. My daughters will always know the story of grandma’s plant stand, too.
Do you have a special plant or plant stand? Tell me about it in the comments.
Very cool. Good idea to write the history on the bottom…I hope that your daughters will keep the stand when it’s their turn and pass it along.
Thanks Cathy! My over 50 brain would forget otherwise. The kids will keep it-it will probably be a fight about who gets it! lol