Want your hanging baskets to be full, colourful, and blooming into the autumn? Here are our hanging basket top tips.
Sam’s Two Hanging Basket Top Tips:
- Plant early. As soon as you can find some plants, get the baskets planted so they can start growing. Keep them in a sheltered spot and protected from frost and bad weather.
- More is always more! Fill your basket as much as you can for an impressive display later on. The basket will need more watering and fertiliser, but it is worth it!
Hanging baskets can come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials. Most work well, but there are a few key things to bear in mind when choosing one that will work for you.
Shape: Round baskets are the most common and, in our opinion, work the best.
Size: Size does matter. The bigger the basket, the more plants you will need to fill it, the more water and fertiliser you will need, and most importantly, the stronger the wall bracket will need to be.
Material: We prefer metal-framed baskets with a coir liner or* wicker baskets with a plastic insert for longevity and water retention.
Although peat-based composts are great for retaining moisture, we highly recommend choosing a peat-free compost such as Melcourt Sylvagrow. Peat-free soil products are so much better for the environment.
Water retention: The more plants you have in a basket, the quicker it will dry out. And remember that the wind will dry plants out just as quickly as the sun. Adding a good handful of water-retaining granules halfway down the basket will really help keep your baskets in tiptop shape.
Now is also the perfect time to add a good handful of slow-release fertiliser to the compost.
Follow the Thriller, Filler & Spiller rule, choose the right plants for the right position, and choose a colour palette. Every colour? Monochromatic or something more subtle?
Thrillers: Choose one or two tall, eye-catching plants for the centre of the basket. Zonal Geraniums or Osteospermum for baskets in the sun. Non-stop Begonias or a Fuchsia for baskets in the shade.
Fillers: A few bushy plants to fill up the bulk of the rim of the basket. Petunias, Salvia, upright Lobelia, Angelonia or Begonias.
Spillers: Trailing plants to be planted in between the bushy fillers to create a cascade effect. Trailing Geraniums, Surfinias, Calabrichoa, Lobelia, trailing Fuchsias or Begonias all work well.
Flower size: Choose plants with a mixture of flower sizes. Going for Geraniums and Petunias? Add a few Lobeia to soften the look, and add some texture.
Greenery: It’s tempting to pack your hanging baskets with blooms, but do not forget to add some foliage. Foliage plants like Dicondra, Lysimachia, and Nepeta have stunningly long trails and help to show off the blooms.
https://thesecretgardencentre.co.uk/plants/bedding-plants/
Now that the baskets are planted, you need to keep on top of watering, feeding, and dead-heading.
Quench the thirst. As the weather warms up, you will need to water your hanging baskets every two or three days, depending on the weather. Go out and check the weight of your baskets, They should feel heavy. If they are feeling light and the plants seem slightly wilted, it’s time to water.
Feed, Feed, Feed! Bedding plants need and use a lot of energy to produce flowers. If you want continuous blooms and healthy plants, feeding is so important. A quality multipurpose, liquid fertiliser or Tomato feed is ideal and should be used weekly.
Dead-head regularly. If you leave faded flowers on the plant, it thinks it is time to produce seeds. Pulling off the dead flowers will trick the plant into thinking that it needs to produce more flowers to create seeds. Dead-heading is almost as important as feeding.
Check out this article for more inspiration https://www.gardeningetc.com/design/hanging-basket-ideas
