H2-WOW: Ted's Greenhouse and Eckert’s Greenhouse’s H2O Labor Saver Hanging Baskets

Eckert’s Greenhouse’s H2O Labor Saver Hanging Baskets offer professionals and their clients a tested solution that address many of these concerns by providing savings on labor and water.

In response to customer demand, Sterling Heights, Michigan-based Eckert’s created the 16-inch Weekender in 2009, a self-watering hanging basket that allowed customers to go away for two to four days at a time without worrying about their plants and saving money on water costs. In addition, its design solved a weight-restriction problem for cities, municipalities and commercial applications.

In response to another customer need, Eckert’s partnered with American iron fabricators in Ohio and Michigan to create high-quality pole hangers for its containers, as well as the ability to offer custom iron options to its customers.

In 2015, Eckert’s launched the innovative 28-inch Wrap Around, a container with the same self-watering application as the Weekender and Labor Saver but designed to wrap around a pole. And it’s the Wrap Around model that caught Dan Biernacki’s attention.

As the owner of Ted’s Greenhouse, a full-service greenhouse established in 1948 by his father, Ted, Dan Biernacki has relied on Eckert’s line of baskets for the last decade. In addition to their water- and labor-saving features, Biernacki likes their unique engineering.

“We do a lot of commercial sites, and the Wrap Around basket is really popular with us because they can be centered around a pole and secured without the [planted basket’s] weight putting stress on the pole,” Biernacki says. “They have all the traits that growers are looking for, and they look really good when they’re all grown out, as well.”

Those traits proved helpful when assisting Ted’s Greenhouse’s hometown of Tinley Park. The village sought a hanging basket solution, but the poles they needed to hang from had weight restrictions.

“Initially, we went with a fairly small basket, which had to be watered daily,” Biernacki says. “It was fairly prohibitive because it cost a small fortune in labor to maintain 30 baskets on a daily basis.”

So, Biernacki switched the village to Eckert’s H2O Labor Saver, specifically the Wrap Around model. This solved the weight restriction issue, and the built-in reservoir conserved both water and labor because it afforded a longer watering cycle. In addition, the baskets’ 360-degree presentation provided the environments where they were situated with a full circle of floral beauty. In fact, Eckert’s self-watering technology has proven so popular with the Village of Tinley Park that it expanded its use from 30 to 150 containers, Biernacki says.

“Earlier this summer, we experienced some drought issues in the Chicago area, and it had been scorched for long periods of time,” he says. “But where we used [Eckert’s baskets], we only had to water every four days instead of every day. And the plants were green, full and healthy and looked like they would have had it been raining.”

In addition to their labor and water conservation features, Biernacki appreciates the solid construction of the H2O Labor Saver line of hanging plant containers, which makes them reusable year after year. Also, the containers utilize inserts filled with a coconut-based fiber soil, which provides flexibility as a growing medium. Biernacki prefers to use two inserts for each basket: one containing the current season’s planting, and the other growing the next season’s planting waiting to be switched out.

“You can buy a generic plastic basket for a dollar, but you’ll be out there every day watering,” Biernacki adds. “I always advise people to use the H2O Labor Saver baskets everywhere because they’re really the only way to go.”