Is it an English thing? I don't know but here - in the frost-free months - you will often see hanging baskets of flowers close to people's front doors.
Although you can buy ready-made hanging baskets from garden centres or florists, for the past three decades Shirley has made up a new basket every year inserting suitable flowering plants that will later provide a mixture of blooming colour.
When you decide to have a hanging basket, you should also be prepared to water and feed it very regularly - often daily. Consequently, if you go away for a day or two you have to find ways of preventing the soil from drying out. Friendly neighbours may help.
In my experience, most hanging baskets are maintained by women. For whatever reason, women tend to be more enthusiastic about flowers and flowering plants than the majority of men.
I should have taken a picture or two of our current hanging basket when it was at its absolute best a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, I didn't so that's that. You will just have t make do with the photograph at the top of this blogpost.
A healthy hanging basket outside your front door provides a cheerful welcome home or a happy greeting for visitors. Admittedly, they are more common in salubrious suburbs or villages than in inner city districts or areas of significant economic depravation.
I would imagine that those who live in the areas you mention in your last paragraph have more pressing needs than acquiring and maintaining flowering baskets, although there is at least one house on the sprawling, run down social housing estate around the corner that usually has some sort of display hanging by their door. It may not be as elaborate as the one in your photo but it looks cheerful all the same.
ReplyDeleteThat's nice to hear. Of course there are exceptions to every "rule". Did you have hanging baskets at your old house JayCee?
DeleteNo we didn't. The metal brackets would leave rust stains on the white render on the wall so we stopped putting them up. We had loads of flowers in pots instead.
DeleteSomething happened to my reply between your two comments JayCee. Very mysterious
DeleteI remember hanging baskets when I was a child, when women stayed home and had time to tend such things. These days most women work and don't even have front porches for hanging baskets, much less the time needed for them.
ReplyDeleteUntil very recently Shirley was a full time nurse at a health centre but she still found time for the hanging basket River.
DeleteDo I detect a small amount of your own feminine enthusiasm here?
ReplyDeleteYes you do... sweetie!
DeleteA labour of love are the old hanging baskets YP. They are a bit show offish but very attractive. Water crystal's are a very functional and useful addition to any hanging basket compost.
ReplyDeleteSome charcoal also helps because it retains moisture.
DeleteI would have liked to see a photo of your ever so fine basket. We noticed in London that many baskets hanging at posh homes and businesses are maintained by professional basket maintainers. We have a few here at times, but our summers are really too hot for them.
ReplyDeleteEh? Our current hanging basket is the one shown at the top of the blogpost.
DeleteLike Andrew, I took your explanation to mean that you didn't get a picture of your own basket so you inserted a photo from some other source!
DeleteIt was slightly confusing - I'll admit.
DeleteShirley is clearly a dab hand at choosing, arranging and nuturing plants. That is a well above average specimen.
ReplyDeleteThat's very kind of you to say so Tigger.
DeleteThere are plenty of people here who have hanging baskets of flower by their front doors too. It's a nice touch, I think.
ReplyDeleteThat's nice to know.
DeleteI don't think they can be much better than this basket.
ReplyDeleteI told Shirley it was one of her best.
DeleteAgreeing with Marie here. Hanging baskets are very popular here, more so in the spring and early summer. By this time of year very few are still hanging on (haha) due to the heat.
ReplyDeleteYes - "hanging on"! I get it. You should have been a stand up comedienne Jennifer!
DeleteP.S. When did Mary change her name to Marie? I guess she prefers that Frechified version.
I was typing on my phone and autocorrect turned Mary into Marie for some mysterious reason!
DeleteI wonder what autocorrect would turn Jennifer into? Possibly an anti-vaxxer!
DeleteI'll recognise your door from the hanging basket of Babylon.
ReplyDeleteAt Xmas ye'll have a holly ring and a wee electric Santa in the garden.
I'll be round on Boxing Day for a bit of cold goose and a glass of Dom Perignon.
I'll bring a Rattle for Phoebe (can ye still get Rattles?), a box of Black Magic for Shirley and a used Clancy Brothers L.P. for yourself. It's a wee bit scratchy on Jug of Punch, but just give the gramophone a kick, till ye get to The Croppy Boy.
Only 132 shopping days till Christmas and I still haven't bought anything for Boris Shagger and his squeeze.
Useful suggestions welcome. Nothing Dirty as we say in Glasgow.
Haggerty
For your hero - Boris Shagger - may I suggest a comb? Failing that, a plastic floral shower cap to hide his unruly mop.
DeleteI have written some of his gags but I wouldn't call Boris a hero.
DeleteStanley Matthews, Alf Ramsay, Bill Shankly, Brian Clough were heroes.
I'll pass on the idea of the floral shower cap: it might make a nice photo call, if we can get Wee Wilfred into the bath + a plastic duck.
Be more like Ken Dodd I tell Boris when I give him media lessons.
I'd call Ken Dodd a hero, and Tommy Cooper, and Frankie Howard.
My mother said Arthur Askey was vulgar. He once caused a riot in Manchester.
Haggerty
Arthur Askey? I am pretty sure he used to be on "Crackerjack" but that might have been Robbie Coltrane.
DeleteVery popular here, too; my Mum has several on her balcony. As I live in a house with three flats, the front door is not actually mine, and so I am not decorating the space that the three floors share.
ReplyDeleteIn Ripon, The Water Rat is a pub on the bankmof the river Ure, and it used to be famous for its beautiful hanging baskets, I wonder what it looks like these days.
No doubt still lovely and waiting for the German sisters to come back!
DeleteWhen we lived in the UK I always had hanging baskets - both at the front and back of the house. It's too hot here for baskets, they dry out too quickly and the plants, although the same as the ones available in the UK, grow to mammoth proportions in a matter of weeks, so the basket looks like an overgrown flowerbed!
ReplyDeleteOh good heavens! One would not want an overgrown flowerbed hanging from one's basket. Have you considered hanging cacti?
DeleteSorry YP, I really should have complimented Shirley on her excellent choice of flowers - the basket looks very attractive, so fresh and colourful.
ReplyDeleteI will tell her. Thanks.
DeleteThat's still a healthy-looking hanging basket! I've never done a mixed-plant basket like that one. I usually just put a bunch of one kind of plant in a single basket. Maybe that's the American style? (And I am a man who is VERY enthusiastic about flowers and flowering plants, just FYI. :) )
ReplyDeleteGood heavens! You are enthusiastic about flowers? What a surprise!
DeleteI've killed every hanging basket I've tried to grow. They need SO much water!
ReplyDeleteHave you been charged over those murders Margaret?
DeleteI don't have a hanging basket but I do have have three very large pots that I hang on the wall by my front front door. I don't water them everyday but I sure know when they're thirsty as they look as though they're on their last legs. It's amazing how a little drop of water will revive them quickly.
ReplyDeleteIs your front front door the same as your front back door? I bet those pots look lovely just now.
DeleteI don't know where it came from. Our little town of Bonners Ferry has hanging basket though out the town.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on and stay safe
Bonners Ferry looks like a nice town Dora. I just spun around there with the help of Google Streetview.
DeleteIt is a pretty hanging basket, I gave them up what with all the watering and then that one fateful day when the water from the can snaked down my arm drenching me.
ReplyDeleteAnybody watching would have had a good laugh that fateful day.
DeleteHanging baskets are very popular here too. That's a lovely one; Shirley knows what she's doing. You should be thrilled she allows you to water it :)
ReplyDeleteIt is very rare that I get to water it Jenny.
DeleteWell then, Shirley REALLY knows what she's doing, ha ha
Delete