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HANGING UP THE BASKETS

© Michael Campbell

Basket time has arrived again. The last week of May and the first week in June usually sees hanging baskets appearing on houses countrywide as if by the wave of some magic wand, by the front door, in the porch, hanging from the fascia board, and sometime even on the garden shed. All shape and sizes adorn their sometimes-rusty chains. The traditional moss filled basket still looks the best, but these will soon be a thing of the past, as EEC regulations soon to come into force will make it illegal to collect sphagnum moss. The plastic baskets with their own reservoir seem to work quite well but are a little on the small side. The timber slotted basket is also on the way back into fashion. But how well will these baskets perform their summer task? That depends of coarse on who filled them, and with what, not to mention the care and attention the owner gives them.

Most baskets nowadays are filled with soil-less compost for the purpose of keeping down the weight, and for ease of handling. What is generally not understood in the nursery and garden centre trade is that the general public is still not accustomed to the handling properties of such compost. They almost always let it dry out to a stage where it is almost impossible to get it to absorb water again, without going to a lot of trouble.

To explain in more detail, I want to tell you a story about two beautiful baskets of Surfinias that I had last year. I had filled them early and kept them in the greenhouse until the end of May, when they were put out at the front of the house for show purposes, as I have been known to fill a few baskets for friends and neighbours at this time of year. Along came a gentleman from just across the way. As a matter of fact I can see his front door from my window. Well he insisted that I let him have the two show baskets, and after a considerable amount of haggle a deal was agreed and of he went with a basket in each hand, as proud as could be. Two brackets were quickly secured to the wall, one at each side of the door, and were soon adorned with the baskets. Everything was going well with flowers cascading 18 inches over the sides of the baskets for about a week, when I noticed the foliage turning a yellow colour and the plants started to deteriorate. Having explained in great detail how they should be looked after, I was wondering what had happened. That very night there was a loud banging noise on my front door, and I opened it to find the gentleman (well not so gentle this time) spouting mouthful's of abuse over his baskets, and wanting to know why my other baskets were still healthy and his was dying. I accompanied him to the house to see what the problem was, and immediately put my hand underneath and raised it up a little. Well the basket and contents weighed about four ounces. When asked why he had not watered it as instructed, he replied that the weather had been showery for the past week and he thought that the plants would have got enough rain to water them.