How to Save on Hanging Flower Baskets

There are few things I look forward to (and obsess over) more than the end of winter. One of them is the arrival of the hanging flower baskets at Lowe’s and Home Depot. In my years of shopping for these beauties, I’ve learned a few things about how to save money, when to buy, and what to look for in a basket. And now I’m sharing with you, just in time for Mother’s Day weekend.

Each year I probably buy 6-10 hanging flower pots and use them for both hanging and potting all around my yard. I keep them alive enthusiastically until the end of June — and often wind up killing at least half of them in July. It’s a tradition.

The best time to begin the search is in March, but it really depends on your zone. Those in the Midwest aren’t really on the hunt for hanging flowers at the beginning of the year, at least not as much as those in warm weather states like California.

If you’re passionate about hanging flower baskets like me, bookmark our Flowers Deals page for the latest sale info. But if your green thumb is geared more toward gardening, we’ve got deets on ways to get free garden seeds and the battle of the garden center price check.

Download the Krazy Coupon Lady app for all of the best money-saving hacks sent straight to your phone. For more savings hacks and smart shopping tips, text HACKS to 57299.

 

1. Basic spring flower baskets are usually 12-inch in diameter, with 1.5 quarts of petunias, pansies, or impatiens.

The standard size of flower baskets you’ll see selling at Home Depot, Lowe’s, and outside your local supermarket are usually 10, 11, or 12-inch annuals. (Annuals are flowers that don’t come back after winter.) My local stores (in the Chicagoland area) don’t have the 12-inch pots yet, but there are plenty of 10- and 11-inch baskets.

In addition to petunias, pansies, and impatiens, you may also see flower pots of vinca, viola, and marigolds in later summer. There are also mixed flower baskets. Marigolds can stand full sun, while petunias will fry come summertime if they don’t have afternoon shade. Right now, Lowe’s has the best deals on hanging flower baskets.

Lowe’s:

 

2. Home Depot and Lowe’s have different pot sizes, but don’t let that confuse you.

When you’re shopping for hanging flower baskets, you might notice that Home Depot (and Costco) labels their hanging flower baskets in inches, while Lowe’s stocks theirs in gallons. It’s just a new way of confusing consumers, but I’ve already done the math for you (based on store confirmations).

• Home Depot has a 10-inch pot equal to 1.25 gallons. Their 11-inch pot equals 1.8 gallons.
• Most of the current Lowe’s hanging flower baskets are 1.5 gallons, or 12-inch pots.

As a general guideline, a 12-inch flower pot that’s approximately 8-9 inches deep is likely to hold around 1.5 quarts of soil. Home Depot and Lowe’s have introduced a smaller, 10-inch pot at 1.25 quarts as a sneaky way to make it look like they’re keeping prices the same.

A 12-inch flower pot is usually about 1.5 quarts. Home Depot and Lowe’s have introduced a smaller, 10-inch pot at 1.25 quarts as a sneaky way to make it look like they’re keeping prices the same. In the price ranges discussed in this article, you’re usually gonna be looking at a 10-inch, 1.25-quart hanging plastic pot.

 

3. Outdoor hanging flower baskets usually cost $11–$20 —but you shouldn’t pay that much.

The standard cost for a hanging basket at a supermarket is gonna be $20–$25. Home Depot and Lowe’s try to beat out the competition and usually keep their basic baskets at about $15+ until the sales begin. And Walmart will usually match Home Depot and Lowe’s prices.

What I’m seeing now are $11.98, 12-inch baskets at Lowe’s with a variety of pansies, petunias, and violas. Right now, Home Depot has the bigger assortment of sizes with 10-inch pots for $12.98 and 11-inch daisies and geraniums for $19.98, but you might as well get the larger pot for $1 less at Lowe’s.

 

4. The goal is $10 or less for a 1.5-quart plastic hanging flower pot.

There are really three sales that Home Depot and Lowe’s will run every year. The first one to watch for is a flat $10 sale. For a $15 basket, a $10 sale is a savings of 33%.

The second sale that really gets me excited is a two-for-$15 sale. That’s a 50% savings, assuming the retail cost of the basket is $15.

And the third flower sale is so dirt cheap (pun intended), I can’t hold the excitement in. It’s the 2 for $10 sale—a 66% savings. With inflation and costs where they are, I’m not even sure we’ll see this $5 price point again. But rest assured, if we do, we’ll make sure to tell you.

Here are some deals that I witnessed last April and May:

• In April, Home Depot discounted hanging flower baskets to $9.98, normally $14.98. By May, they were $7.50 (reg. $14.98) or 50% off.
• In May, Lowe’s marked down their 1.5-gallon hanging flower baskets to $8, regularly $10.98 (27% off). Select stores marked them as 2 for $24 (or $12 each, regularly $14.98).

 

5. The best times to buy hanging flower baskets are during spring sales, Memorial Day, and July 4.

And the hottest of the three sales is often Memorial Day. But that just splitting hairs. The truth is these sales can often bring identical prices on many key items like mulch or flowers.

The Home Depot Spring Sale typically begins on the first Thursday in April and runs for two weeks. However, this year they started on Thursday, April 13 (the second Thursday).

Lowe’s Spring Sale started on March 30 and wraps up at the end of April. Their sale normally starts the first Thursday in April (like Home Depot), but Lowe’s tricked us and started a whole week early.

The Home Depot Memorial Day sale and Lowe’s Memorial Day sale begin on the third Thursday in May and run through Memorial Day weekend.

And the fourth of July sales at Home Depot and Lowe’s begin one to two Thursdays before July 4, running through the Thursday after July 4.

It’s worth noting that Mother’s Day often falls between the Spring Sale and Memorial Day sale, and we do not usually see flower baskets drop much in price over that holiday weekend. My advice? Plan ahead for Mom and shop during the spring sale.

 

 

6. Home Depot hanging flower baskets are priced to get shoppers in-store.

Home Depot gets in on every major price point. Their $10 sale is actually a $9.88 sale (undercutting Lowe’s by a few cents). I love saving money as much as the next gal, but who cares about the $0.12 difference? Still, Home Depot wins at the $10 price point.

And Lowe’s and Home Depot will nearly always match the other during the 2 for $15 and 2 for $10 sales. All sales are in-store only. That’s kind of the point. Home Depot uses these crazy low prices on flowers to get you in the store during springtime, when all your yard projects are calling your name.

See this week’s best Home Depot deals on KCL.

 

7. Lowe’s hanging flower baskets aren’t the only great deal in the garden center.

During major sales, half-off is pretty standard savings in the Garden Center at Lowe’s. I love buying the 6-packs of annuals for $1 (reg. $2) while I’m shopping for hanging baskets at the same 50%-off mark.

Whether or not Lowe’s or Home Depot is better depends on the selection in your area. I tend to prefer Lowe’s, but Home Depot is closer to my house, so my shopping gets split pretty evenly between the two stores.

Here’s an extra tip if you’re a Lowe’s shopper: Most of the time when the sale is 2 for $15, you don’t have to buy two to get the price. If all you want is one basket, or three, you can bet you’ll still get that $7.50 per basket cost.

See this week’s best Lowe’s deals on KCL.

 

8. Walmart hanging flower baskets don’t drop below $9.

Walmart is the place you go for everyday low prices, and they’ve got them on hanging flower baskets. While it will be a few more weeks for my local Walmart to have hanging flower baskets, this retailer was a winner last year.

Walmart’s everyday price of about $11.88 for the 1.5-quart flower basket size was better than the $15 charged by Home Depot and Lowe’s. But Walmart doesn’t run the big sales. So the price you see is the price you get, regardless of whether it’s Memorial Day weekend.

Expect a great variety of $11.88 baskets at Walmart and a small selection of baskets at $8.96. Last year we saw 1.5-gallon impatiens baskets at the $8.96 price point. And we don’t expect to see anything better this year.

 

9. Costco hanging flower baskets are larger and slightly more costly, per gallon.

Costco typically sells large hanging flower baskets. In April, my local Costco had the 12-inch combo hanging pots for $19.99, but by the end of May that price dropped to $16 for multicolored petunia baskets. When you compare Costco’s price to Home Depot or Lowe’s, you’ll see that Costco is higher than the home improvement stores.

See this week’s best Costco deals on KCL.

 

10. Krazy Coupon Lady will send you the best home and garden deals right to your phone.

At the Krazy Coupon Lady, we specialize in finding you great deals and we’re a team of humans, not robots, so every deal is hand tested to be the best. Here are just a few of the categories we think you might like:

• View home and garden deals
• View flower deals
• View Miracle Gro deals
• View patio furniture deals
• View garden tool deals

For those deals and more download the Krazy Coupon Lady app and turn on alerts or text HOT DEALS to 57299 to get on our text list.