Safe Hanging Plants

[raymeedc]

I'm looking for suggestions for safe hanging plants I can use to hang above my finch's cage, trailing ends entering through the wire. Please don't steer me towards one of the sites listing safe plants. It'll take me forever to sift through all of them to find out which are hanging plants that will fit in with my environment (medium shaded natural sunlight, southeast exposure). I will eventually do just that, but I'd like to also get first hand knowledge by keepers in the real world. Also, what small potted plants are safe & practical to keep within the cage?

[wellingtoncdm]

Spider plants are OK and common.

[Sally]

Pothos ivy I think is on the not safe list, yet I have had baskets of pothos ivy and spider plants sitting on top of my cages with no problems. Small plants inside the cage will be picked apart within days--better to use artificial plants inside.

[franny]

For inside the cage, why not a small pot a bit of Chickweed? They love it, and it grows like a weed. An easy way to give them their greens without it wilting on you.

[raymeedc]

Great idea, Fran. I could have two pots of chickweed growing, one waiting in the wings (pardon the pun) while the other is being eaten.
Have you done this yourself?

[franny]

I didn't have a pot with soil, but I pulled a large clump of chickweed out of the ground, roots and all, and set it in a terra cotta plant saucer with a bit of water in it. It basically covered the saucer. I just poured a bit of fresh water on it each day and it stayed nice and fresh while the birds demolished it. Lasted about 2 weeks. They loved it.

I'd like to eventually modify my cage to have a small corner platform so I could set a potted plant there, rather than have to move it each time I pull the tray out for cleaning/replacing paper. But it can't be very big, because the doors of my cage are small, to prevent escapes.