Create easy baskets
Hanging baskets are a joy to plant and bring colour to eye level. Planted properly they’ll keep on blooming right though summer and autumn.
You need a good sized basket, quality planting mix, healthy young plants – or just one, and your choice of liner. Sphagnum moss liners hold the most water. Chicken wire keeps the moss in place .and makes it harder for birds to steal it. Available loose or as a preformed liner, coconut fibre is usually cheaper, easy to handle and looks great.
The traditional way to plant a hanging basket involves using small flowering annuals seedlings planted in layers, carefully poking the plants through the holes from the inside of the basket as each new layer of potting mix is added. The entire surface of the basket is planted, sides and the top. Done well, a basket planted all over with a tapestry of colourful flowers is a work of art.
An easier approach with faster results is made possible by today’s super vigorous petunias (described above) that grow quickly to completely fill a basket and cascade to cover the sides. And because no holes need to be cut in the liner, the basket will hold its water for longer. Planting couldn’t be easier: Take one lined 30 or 40cm hanging basket, fill it with best quality container mix and plant one large growing petunia, chosen for its multi-blooming, vigorous and cascading form.
Basket tips
- Always use top quality potting mix.
- Choose a mix that contains water storage granules and a wetting agent (such as Saturaid), or mix these in before planting.
- Provide some shelter to protect from drying winds.
- Water often - especially in hot or windy weather.
- Feed regularly with liquid fertiliser.
27-Nov-2013
Mixed colour basket
A hanging basket of mixed flowers & foliage including parsley!
How To
