Most hanging baskets you buy at the garden centre fail by the end of the second week — not because the plants were wrong, but because of what happened before they were planted. The soil. The drainage. The way they were watered in. The hand that placed them.
Here is a small look at how ours come together — not because we want to brag about it, but because we believe you should know exactly what you are paying for.
The soil first, always
A basket lives or dies by what is underneath the plants. We use a peat-free mix with added perlite for drainage and slow-release feed for the long arc of the season. Soil too dense and the roots suffocate by week three. Too loose and the basket dries out by lunchtime on a sunny day. The mix is the most considered ingredient.
A composition, not a planting
A basket is composed the same way a florist arranges a bouquet — by eye, by colour, by what wants to trail and what wants to stand up. We start with the structural plant in the centre (a pelargonium, a chrysanthemum, an ornamental kale depending on the season), then fill around it, then add trailing.
- Centre — the upright structural plant, the architectural anchor
- Mid — the colour layer, in three to five carefully chosen tones
- Edge — the trailing plants that spill over and soften the shape
- Finish — a hand-watering and a final shape adjustment
“Every basket is the result of perhaps thirty small decisions — most of which the customer will never see.”
The week before delivery
Each basket is planted at least seven days before it is delivered. That gentle settling-in period is what makes the difference. It gives the plants time to recover from the planting, to send roots out, to come into bloom. By the time it arrives at your door, the basket is at peak.
No cellophane, no last-minute centre-piece bought from a wholesaler. Just a basket that has lived for a week in our care, ready to live for another four weeks in yours.
Written by The Perenna Bloom Team
