Hanging baskets can be troublesome to maintain, but with careful planning when preparing and planting baskets, and the use of labor-saving products, the pressure eases.
Tips
Beautifully luxuriant basket displays require some regular care to stay at their best.
Start with as big a basket as you can manage; 35–40cm (14–16in) is ideal.
Plant up with a good quality container compost which has added moisture holding compounds and slow-release fertilizer. Then follow these tips.
WATERING
Install an automatic irrigation kit or water 40cm (16in) baskets every two days using a lance attachment.
FEEDING
Add slow-release fertilizer at planting time. In midsummer, start adding liquid feed for flowering containers fortnightly.
DEAD-HEADING
Regularly remove faded flowers and yellowing leaves to keep plants producing new blooms and to reduce disease.
PULLEY SYSTEM
Access for tending hanging baskets can be a problem but installing a pulley device makes light work of watering and dead-heading.
The device is attached to the wall bracket and the basket hooks on the other end.
You can pull the basket down to a comfortable working height and then guide it back up to its original position.
#1. UP
Hang the basket at a height where you can reach the base.
#2. DOWN
The basket pulls down so you can water, feed, and dead-head your plants with ease.
Types of Hanging Plants
If you can’t water baskets regularly or install irrigation, use bright heat and drought-tolerant plants. To maintain a basket’s good looks, use resilient plants, avoiding drought-sensitive lobelia, petunia, and busy lizzie.
DROUGHT-TOLERANT
These plants are survivors. Plant them with loam-based compost and water-retaining gel crystals.
- Kingfisher daisy (Felicia amelloides)
- Livingstone daisy (Dorotheanthus bellidiformis)
- Parrot’s bill (Lotus berthelotii)
- Rhodanthemum hosmariense
- Sedum lineare ‘Variegatum’
- Sun plant (Portulaca grandiflora)
- Zonal or trailing geranium (Pelargonium)
SPEEDY RECOVERY
These flowers can recover from a few missed waterings – but do not let them dry out too badly.
- Begonia semperflorens
- Bidens ferulifolia
- Diascia
- French marigold (Tagetes)
- Nemesia (e.g. Maritana Series)
- Scaevola aemula
- Brachyscome multifida
- Trailing verbena (Verbena Tapien Series)
FOLIAGE FALLBACK
Basket flowers often bloom in phases, so add variegated and colored foliage plants too.
- Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’
- English ivy (Hedera helix)
- Golden creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’)
- Helichrysum petiolare
- Lysimachia congestiflora ‘Outback Sunset’
- Morning glory (Ipomoea)
- Trailing nepeta (Glechoma hederacea ‘Variegata’)
WATERING TIPS
Using simple techniques when making up your basket means that plants are far less likely to dry out. Try a waterproof liner that has drainage holes a third of the way up from the base or see right.
#1. Reservoir
Place a plastic pot saucer or even an old ceramic one in the basket base.
#2. Gel Crystals
Follow instructions on packet to add water retaining gel to compost.
EMERGENCY RESCUE
Plunge a wilted basket in a bowl or sink of water overnight. It may float and need holding down initially. After recovery, cut out any dead stems and dead-head spent blooms.
