Flower Show Off: Give Baskets and Planters a Lift

It was a dazzling stroll to the front door!

With baskets and planters at eye-level, I could really get up close and personal with my friend Gail’s flowers and experience them in a whole new way. The stunning impact of her arrangement inspired me to try her techniques and, of course, write this article.

In your face

Who doesn’t like to plant flowers around their front door? In late spring, you’re down on your hands and knees planting up your greenhouse purchases once they’ve been hardened off. But most bedding annuals are petite in stature. How can they really make a difference? If you love to show off your flowers, then give them a lift!

Raising baskets and planters up, off the ground will make them more visible. And you get more impact for your flower dollar, too!

Elevating baskets and planters

Setting flowers up on a pedestal has a couple of benefits. 1) it’s easier to enjoy their beautiful details close up. 2) makes caring for your flowers more manageable and 3) makes tasks like deadheading spent blossoms much easier with less bending and kneeling.

The key is to find things to set them on that are interesting. Things that will not only elevate your flowers but make them look captivating, too. First, look around the house or garage to see what you might already have on hand that would work.

• an old ladder
• chair
• stool
• stump or log
• cinder blocks
• old bicycle or child’s trike
• Wheel barrow
• A large sturdy bucket or clay pot turned upside down

TIP: Try to vary the height at different levels to fill in the gaps. Then, wherever the eye looks, it sees COLOR!

Baskets and planters will require more frequent watering, but when they’re on your level, you’ll be more inclined to check them more frequently. Additionally, being up off the ground may offer your flowers some protection when pets (yours or someone else’s) wander into the garden.

And there are other benefits as well. When you elevate your flowers, they’re more visible from a distance. My friend Karen has an extensive lawn but her vertical, eye-level flower displays pack a punch as you gaze across the yard. Even neighbors out riding bikes or walking the dog stop to ooh and aah at the brilliant color.

Karen uses several double shepherd’s hooks throughout her garden to achieve this effect. A shepherd’s hook is a free-standing, metal pole with a single or double hook to suspend hanging baskets…such as this one from Lowes. Since baskets get heavy when they are well watered, consider buying a thicker, sturdier pole that can handle the weight.

Shepherd’s hooks are great for making an instant color spot in an area with poor soil or poor drainage where an in-the-ground flower bed would be difficult to do. Group other planters and garden decor around them and make a scene…voila!

Create a scene with a focal point

A strong focal point is an essential element to any garden. Arranging baskets and planters with a few eye-catching props is a good way to make fewer flowers go much farther. When you’re on a limited budget, using them in a little vignette does more with less!

Wooden objects project a rustic ‘feel’ that recalls the past. Weathered and worn, they have a charm all their own, but yet, don’t compete with your flowers.

Wishing wells are very traditional and have long been favorites in the garden. They make people think of fairy book stories, and European cottages.

Towers add an exciting vertical color spot to any outdoor space and draw the eye upwards. Use one to accent an area that’s rocky or has poor drainage where nothing will grow.

When you want something bright against the side of the house, or need something tall to ‘fill in’, garden towers are quite dramatic. In fact, it wouldn’t be too hard to make one yourself, as towers are pretty simple in design.

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Lucky Finds for baskets & planters

Look around at thrift stores, flea markets and garage sales to see what you can find to levitate your flowers in attention-grabbing ways.

I found a well-used wheelbarrow on my local Facebook Marketplace for just $15 bucks! Each year, I plant it with various shades of yellow and white flowers with a pop of orange to imitate sunshine. I call it my “wheelbarrow of sunshine!”

Final thoughts from Kristen

Flowers are not cheap! When I started my first flower garden back in my 20’s, annuals at the greenhouse were sold in 6-packs for 98 cents. Today, well…you spend a small fortune. Most annuals are not very tall. Therefore, no one really sees them until they are close. But even then, the plants are down in the ground.

What we need is a little “Flower Power”, especially if you live in a region with a short summer season. So give your baskets and planters a lift! Get them up off the ground. Then you can really show off those sensational trailing vines and blossoms. They’ll be easier to care for, easier to water and to deadhead with less bending over.

I hope you’ll try some of these ideas to give your flowers the height they need to more visible from a distance so someone driving by will enjoy them, too. What could be more appealing?

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