Mia Fleur have invited me to review a couple of the planters in their product range. Mia Fleur are an online boutique which specialises in interior design products either designed by themselves or other UK designer makers. I am all for supporting home grown talent and so I agreed to have a look. They sent me two metal troughs; the small one measuring 17 x 28 x 17cm and the medium one measuring 18 x 33 x 21cm. The troughs are made out of lightweight steel and have an attractive classical design embossed on the exterior.
They are indeed lightweight but this does not make the planters flimsy or undermine the integrity of their strength at all. The finish is rough such as if you run your hand over a terracotta pot rather than smooth and shiny which I think works well with plants. I thought at first the troughs were intended for use in the garden and wondered why there were no drainage holes but reading the website I see that this is intentional so that the troughs can be used for indoor or outside planting. However, my son assures me that it would be very easy to drill some drainage holes in the base should you wish to.
The troughs are excellent for displaying the small pots of treasures that gardeners have a habit of acquiring and which can be difficult to display well. I have used mine to display a couple of tender ferns and some succulents. They would work very well with seasonal displays so maybe Spring would see a couple of small pots of snowdrops or iris reticulata or narcissus, in summer you could go for succulents or maybe herbs, the blues and greys of rosemary and sage would look very elegant, and in autumn/winter you could add some violas or pansies.
I am impressed with the quality of the troughs although I haven’t had time to see how they weather outside but given the reasonable price I don’t think that is a real issue. With us beginning to think about winter and Christmas, they would certainly be a present I would be pleased to receive.
