A Brief History of Hanging Baskets at Roger's
While we must begrudgingly admit that there were probably some enterprising gardeners in Babylon who orginally invented the idea of planting a container to hang in the air, we like to think that we got started on this concept pretty early, at least by Western Hemisphere standards.
During the 1960's Newport Beach gardener Dave Bush had begun to create a few planted hanging baskets for his clients. Dave had come from Oregon, and had been exposed to the use of hanging baskets in British Columbia. He was also familiar with the huge blankets of sphagnum moss which grow on trees in the Pacific Northwest and can easily be harvested. In 1970, when Dave began working at Roger's Gardens, he started to experiment aggressively, combining sphagnum moss with wire-frame baskets to create a container which would retain water better than soil and which would present a more attractive 'organic' look.
Dave and Roger's proceeded to take the hand-planted hanging baskets to dizzying new heights of invention and creativity. By the time Dave retired from 'active duty,' Roger's was planting and hanging everything from driftwood to ceramic saucers, from metal mesh trays to a ship to wall-mounted frames that looked like Impressionist paintings! Pines and conifers, cacti and succulents, ferns of all kinds, spectacularly colorful annuals and perennials all found themselves planted and growing in baskets suspended in the air.
Today, the great traditions established by Dave Bush live on at Roger's Gardens. The celebrated weekend seminars at Roger's actually had their origin years ago as instructional classes offered to our clients on how to plant hanging baskets. Our onsite production team (led by Toni Parsons and Teresa Vargas,'disciples' of Dave from the early days) continues to hand-plant every basket and to create innovative approaches to the art of container gardening.
While we offer a full selection of gorgeous already-fully-planted baskets, windowboxes, and color bowls at Roger's, we felt it might be nice to focus on the art of creating one of these beauties from scratch. After all, why should we have all the fun - we'd like to show you how to make one of your own!
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Staghorn Fern in Wall Basket, ca. 1970
Driftwood Basket, ca. 1975
Dave Bush - the Father of Hanging Baskets @ Roger's Gardens
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