'Really crazy idea' helps puts passion for hanging baskets front and center

By MITCH LIES

Capital Press

TUALATIN, Ore. -- During peak times, visitors to The Garden Corner in Tualatin can take home any of 500 hanging baskets. One basket, however, likely won't be leaving the nursery any time soon.

The nursery unveiled on March 23 what its owners are calling the world's largest hanging basket.

Measuring 16-feet high and 10-feet wide, the one-of-a-kind basket weighs 2 tons, contains 200 feet of moss cloth, a lot of soil, and boxwoods, grasses, tulips and conifers.

"Hanging baskets are our passion," said Jonn Karsseboom, owner of The Garden Corner. "This is just an outgrowth of our passion."

The idea for the basket originated with Karsseboom. But the project would never have gotten off the ground were it not for the work of iron worker Don Sprague.

Karsseboom said he told Sprague about the idea in a Mexican restaurant.

"The thing about Don is, he didn't laugh," Karsseboom said.

Sprague remembers that first meeting differently.

"I told Jonn, 'I don't know where you've been, but don't go back there, because this is a really crazy idea,'" Sprague said. "But he kept coming back."

The two worked on the basket for nine months, Karsseboom said.

Karsseboom said he can find no evidence of a hanging basket bigger than his.

He plans to submit massive hanging basket for listing in the Guinness Book of World Records.

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