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For the past three years I've been creating flower towers in our home's entryway, and this year's has been the best so far.

This year, I used Proven Winners' black sweet potato vine, bought from a local garden center, and orange marigolds from Lowe's.

The sweet potato vines have grown profusely in the past two weeks, which helps hide the green plant pot that's boosting the top pumpkin above the height of the rebar.

This is a picture from the initial construction of the pumpkin flower tower, before adding the flowers or dirt. Each pumpkin pail had its handle removed, and I drilled holes in the bottom of each pail, and enlarged the hole where the handle was on alternating sides of each pail. You can see that the rebar extends past the top of the top pail, which I covered with flowers in earlier years, but this year I added the green plant pot at the bottom to boost the top pumpkin above the top of the rebar.

This year, I added the potting soil and flowers before putting the pumpkins on the tower. It made it easier to be sure that the flowers were securely planted, and I think this is why they're thriving this year. I'll be sure to try this technique again when I switch out the plants for my Christmas poinsettia flower tower. I plan to keep and repot the sweet potato vines when I take this one apart, because they're so beautiful and unique.