Skip to content

New West selling “grab-and-go” hanging basket kits and flats of flowers

Pickup for baskets this weekend
Hanging baskets New Westminster greenhouse
In past years, citizens have signed up for classes to learn how to make hanging baskets like those adorning local streets. The City of New Westminster has had to change up its offerings this spring because of COVID-19.

New Westminster’s popular hanging basket classes may be on hold this spring, but residents still have a way of sprucing up their homes with flowers.

Each spring, the city’s parks and recreation department holds classes where community members make hanging baskets like those beautifying city streets.

“COVID-19 has disrupted the city’s learn-to-make-a-hanging-basket program held annually in Queen’s Park. As a result, for the first time we are offering ‘grab and go kits’ to help even the most novice of green thumbs create their own baskets in the comfort of their own home,” Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks and recreation, said in an email to the Record. “Our expert horticulture staff have done all the hard work of selecting plants that will ensure every basket is spectacular. It’s easy….Grab your kit, assemble with the aid of our on-line instructor, and add water.”

Gibson suggests that anyone wanting to get involved do so right away as supplies are limited.

The “grab-and-go kits” include plants, soil, fertilizer, moss, a 14-inch frame, wick, hardware and instructions (both a hard copy and a video.) The kits are $75 each.

In addition to the basket-making kits, the City of New Westminster is also hosting a plant sale that features flats of mixed summer annuals that are suitable for garden beds, containers and planters. Each $25 flat consists of either 20 shade plants or 20 sun plants (no substitutions are available).

To purchase hanging basket kits or flats of flowers, call 604-526-4281 or 604-777-5111, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The city is allowing a maximum of four kits or flats per purchase.

When ordering the grab-and-go kits and plants, people can register for time slots to pick them up at the Queen’s Park greenhouse. City staff will be onsite to coordinate traffic and kit distribution while ensuring appropriate physical distancing.

Pickups for the hanging basket kits will be on Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17 from 8 to 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 3:00 p.m.

For residents who buy the flats of summer annuals, pickups will take place next weekend:

*Saturday, May 23: 8 to 9 a.m. (shade); 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. (shade); 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. (shade); 1 to 2 p.m. (sun); and 2 to 3 p.m. (sun).

*Sunday, May 24: 8 to 9 a.m. (sun); 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. (sun); 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. (sun); 1 to 2 p.m. (sun); and 2 to 3 p.m. (sun).