Hanging Baskets

Sunday, May 24, 2009 10:06 AM

Hanging baskets are very popular because it adds another dimension to the landscape. Most things are placed on the ground and grow up, whereas, with hanging baskets, they are placed up and tend to grow mostly down. You can either purchase a hanging basket already made up, or you could get creative and make your own which is quite easy. First you need to start with a hanging container that is at least 12 inches wide and 12 inches deep that has drainage holes. Fill the container with a good quality potting soil as this is the foundation for your plants. Then decide whether the hanging container will be in a sunny location or a shade location. A sun container needs at least 4 hours of sun daily and a shade container would get morning sun, evening sun or is protected from the hot afternoon sun. This is important because certain plants do better in sun, while others do better in shade.

The next step is choosing your plants. If you want a mixed container you could have a center plant which will grow upright and fill in the center of the container. Geraniums are most often used for a sun container and a begonia, or upright fuchsia, for the shade. Then you will have corner plants which would grow well over the containers edge. These usually are fast growers and have a lot of growth such as supertunia, million bells, super bells, ivy geranium, verbena, etc. for sun and trailing fuchsia, browallia, pendula begonia, heliotrope, etc. for shade. Choose 4 for square containers and 3-4 for round. When planting them you should balance your container by placing the same plant or a plant with the same growth habit on opposite corners so that the container will have even growth. Between the corners or the corner plants you can place your edge plants which are those plants that hang over the edge and fill out the container. They can be foliage, flowering or a mixture. Some sun foliage plants would be creeping Charlie, lotus vine, ipomoea, and sun flowering could be verbena, bacopa, diascia, lobelia, nemesia, bidens, etc. For shade containers you could use creeping Charlie, silver nettle, ivy, lamium, for foliage and bacopa, lobelia, torenia, etc. for flowering edge plants.

You could make up a hanging basket with only one type of plant such as supertunias, million bells, super bells, for sun and fuchsias or begonia for shade or have a mixture of two plants by adding verbena, or nemesia, to the sun mixture, or lysimachia or lamium, to a shade. The possibilities are endless. You want to make sure that the container is full so put at least 4-6 plants in the container.

After you have planted up your container you should lightly press the soil down so that there are no air pockets and then give it a good water. For best growth you want to fertilize weekly with 15-30-15 a flowering plant fertilizer. Also to get bushy full plants you should pinch out the new growth tips on the plants which will cause them to break out into side shoots. This only has to be done once or perhaps twice depending on how much the plant spreads out. Check the container every morning to see whether it needs water, and when it begins to bloom, remove the old finished flowers, and any damaged or diseased leaves that could cause mold. By fertilizing, watering, and caring for your plants you should be able to enjoy your container through out the spring/summer until it gets killed by frost.

-Jos

Jos Van Hage owns two Art Knapp Garden Centres in Prince George: