A terracotta pot says garden centre. A woven basket says the plant was always meant to be there. That is the whole appeal of a wicker planter, and it works as well beside a front door as it does in a conservatory.
Why a lined basket rather than a pot
Most outdoor planters are chosen for what they hold. A basket is chosen for what it does to everything around it. Woven texture softens hard landscaping in a way that ceramic and stone cannot, which is why it works so well on a patio, a paved path or a balcony where every other surface is flat and man made.
The practical problem with wicker outdoors has always been water. The Sonoma weatherproof baskets solve it with a discreet plastic lining fitted inside the weave, so you can plant directly into the basket rather than hiding a plastic pot inside it and hoping nobody looks.
Drainage: the one step people skip
The lining arrives sealed, which is deliberate. It means you decide how the basket is used.
- Planting directly: pierce the lining in several places at the base before you add compost, so water can flow rather than sit. Skipping this is the single most common reason a planted basket fails, because roots standing in water rot faster than they dry out.
- Using a plastic pot inside: leave the lining intact and it catches the run off, which makes the basket usable on a decked balcony or an indoor floor.
Add a shallow layer of gravel or broken crocks over the pierced base if you are planting anything that dislikes wet feet, which is most Mediterranean planting.
Choosing between the three sizes
The baskets come in small, medium and large, and they are designed to be bought as a group rather than in isolation. If you are buying one, size up rather than down. An underscaled planter beside a door always looks tentative.
- Small: herbs by a kitchen door, a single flowering plant, bulbs in spring, or indoor storage on a shelf.
- Medium: the most useful of the three. A generous seasonal display, a small shrub, or a faux plant indoors.
- Large: a statement by a front door or at the corner of a patio. Also the right size to cover the plastic pot of a floor standing tree.
Because each basket is handwoven from natural materials, slight variations in colour, shade and size occur between pieces. That is what stops a group of three looking manufactured.
Buy three, group them in odd numbers at staggered heights, and one planter becomes a composition.
Grouping them so they look considered
A single planter is functional. Three is styling. The rule is the same one that governs a console table or a mantel: odd numbers, varied heights, one dominant piece.
- Place the large at the back or to one side, with the medium and small stepping down and forwards.
- Overlap them slightly rather than lining them up in a row.
- Vary the planting height too. Something upright in the tallest, something trailing over the edge of the smallest.
- If you only have two, raise one on a step, a low stool or an upturned crate so the tops sit at different levels.
What to plant, season by season
Spring
Bulbs planted the previous autumn, or bought in bud and dropped straight in. Narcissi, muscari and dwarf tulips all suit the informality of a woven basket.
Summer
Trailing pelargoniums, cosmos, or a single hydrangea in the large size. Anything that spills over the rim, because a hard edge between weave and planting is what makes a basket look like a container rather than a planted bed.
Autumn
Ornamental grasses, heuchera in bronze and plum tones, or cyclamen. The colour range of autumn planting sits particularly well against natural rattan.
Winter
Skimmia, small evergreens, ivy trailing over the edge, or a clipped box ball for something more formal. A lit garland woven through a group of three by a front door needs nothing else.
Indoors, they change job entirely
Leave the lining intact and the same basket becomes indoor storage or a planter cover. In a living room it takes blankets or logs. In a hallway it swallows shoes. On a landing it holds anything that has no proper home.
As a plant cover it is the fastest way to hide a plastic nursery pot. Slide a potted plant or the base of a faux olive tree into the large size and the whole thing reads as one considered piece rather than a plant sitting in packaging.
Honest expectations outdoors
These are natural materials, so they behave like natural materials. Left outside all year the weave will silver and soften with exposure, in the same way that untreated timber garden furniture does. Some people want exactly that. If you would rather hold the original colour for longer, there are three things that help.
- Position under some cover where you can, a porch, a covered patio or against a house wall rather than in the open.
- Lift the basket off the ground slightly on pot feet, so the base is not sitting in standing water through winter.
- Bring them in or under cover during the wettest months if you are using them purely decoratively rather than as permanent planting.
Sheltered and lifted, a rattan planter holds its colour for years. Fully exposed on an open patio through several British winters, expect it to weather to a paler, more driftwood tone.
Care
Brush loose dirt from the weave with a dry brush rather than hosing it down. If the basket is genuinely dirty, wipe with a barely damp cloth and let it dry fully before replanting. Avoid pressure washers and household detergents, both of which strip the natural finish and shorten the life of the weave.
Shop the Sonoma weatherproof baskets, or browse baskets and storage and garden furniture.