Get Instant Cheer with Hanging Baskets
Although landscape designers often neglect hanging baskets when planning your garden design, these cheerful, low-maintenance baskets are beloved by the home gardener.
Drive around your neighborhood to see what I mean. The most elaborate garden setting, with extensive flower beds, ground covers and rose gardens, still sport hanging baskets on the porch or on the deck. Gardeners are generally obsessive when it comes to filling space with beautiful plants. You'll see apartment balconies and duplex entries adorned with hanging baskets of flowers, ferns and trailing plants to add charm and warmth in a limited space.
Hanging baskets are also popular decorations inside the home. These lovely baskets draw the eye upward, adding dimension to a room. A large fern or a cascading trailing plant are welcome additions to the kitchen or bathroom, bringing a bit of nature indoors.
Likewise, outdoor porch displays make sitting outside on a cool summer's day an inviting prospect. For a shady location, plants such as fuchsia, begonia and trailing campanula make a dramatic display.
When decorating porches and decks with hanging baskets, the best effect is achieved with baskets placed a few feet apart, running the length of the porch or deck. If you choose a hanging display of fuchsias in baskets, you can increase the color impact with pots of blue campanula, forget-me-nots or phlox, grouped in clusters below the baskets.
Hanging baskets are best suited to hanging or trailing plants, which cascade down to eye level. Plants like begonia, when young, may be hung from wall-mounted hangers, bringing them within easy view. Older begonias sprout baby-size trailers, similar to the so-called spider plant. Begonias will die down in winter if left outdoors, but will continue to thrive if wintered over indoors.
For sunny locations, plants like trailing gazania and thunbergia are perfect candidates for hanging gardens, adding their bright, cheerful personalities to match your warm mood. Add some potted mums or marigolds grouped beneath your baskets for a perfect match.
When planning your hanging basket garden, remember that the containers tend to dry out quickly. Wire baskets, lined with an inch or two of spaghnum moss and filled with a mixture of potting soil and vermiculite, provide a moisture-retentive environment for your hanging plants. This keeps your plants in good health with less maintenance on your part.
It's a good idea to have a spray bottle for spritzing your friends daily, as well as a watering can with a long spout or metal extension for watering chores.
Choose plants appropriate to the exposure, follow these care tips and watch your hanging gardens become the envy of your neighborhood.
