Indulge my Cotswoldy Cupcake Bunting urges....

[TheThoughtPolice]

DH and I went to Oxford recently and drove through the Cotswolds. Lots of the houses had hanging box balls by the front door (like a modern version of a hanging basket), I haven't seen them anywhere apart from a roadside flower seller in Chipping Campden which we drove past .

Do you know where I can buy them ?

is it this?

rofl at "hanging basket nightmares" - have you been waking up in a cold sweat because your boring old petunia-laden baskets are just so last year?

my neighbour recently told me that hanging baskets are the modern equivalent of pampas grass

ps those look lovely muffle..

Oooooh, that's them muffle. Thanks !

I love my baskets! doing them in april is one of the highlights of my spring and they get loads of compliments from friends. However I have noticed that no one else round here has them, and we're surrounded by devoted gardeners. They probably all snigger at our naff display!

I gather that very pukka gardeners do sneer at hanging baskets, although the very pukka garden centre near us sells them (in tasteful rusted iron, naturally). I had one, until the weight of the snow made the screws shear off and it crashed to the ground.

hanging baskets are perfectly acceptable - as long as you are either
a) growing heritage tomatoes and herbs in them
b) a pub

love the topiary ones but I can't afford to have one of either side of the doorway!!! Don't think I can afford even one!

Now, you see, my version of garden snobbery is that hanging baskets are acceptable (as long as the plants therein pass my acceptability test) but any plastic plant is totally taboo. So that would rule out the mail order hanging box balls for me and I'm unlikely to schlepp to Chipping Campden to get the real thing!

I guess one could make one's own with two hanging baskets wired togther and a lot of rooted cuttings .....

www.boulegazon.com/
They start ataround £50 - and even though they are fake, they are a bit more trendy than petunias!

Try planting 2 containers wired together with Livingstone Daisys - they look great, but are v heavy so I sit mine on a chimney

So hanging baskets are over -that's fantastic! One less thing to feel guilty about not doing.
I await the news that dandelions and couch grass are de riguer.(sp?)

are they always fake they look fab but would have to be real for me

They are truly hideous!

My next door neighbours have them! They buy evrything 'of the best' but I must say I'm not desperately keen... and yes we do live near Chipping Campden

They have a massive ten-foot Urn in the garden too, wonder if that is a Cotswolds thing also. All I have is an old horse bucket full of ivy clippings.

merrypony - do they look fake?

My neighbours have these and I think they look very fake - and quite odd really!!