Flowers can brighten up any space or setting. With brightness and fragrance that few man-made creations can match, having flowers around to provide some freshness can really go a long way in any decorative setting.
This is why hanging flower baskets are so popular. Instead of leaving them in the ground or sitting in a pot on the ground, you can hang them throughout an area to provide that fresh fragrance without the mess of a garden on the ground.
Trying to reproduce those baskets can end in failure if you don’t know how to properly make them look full and vibrant. Thankfully, there are methods for keeping them full that can be used by anyone of any experience level when it comes to botany.
1 – Choosing the Right Pot, Container, or Basket
This is much the same as cooking a great meal. You wouldn’t want that meal to be served on an ill-fitting plate and the same concept applies for flower baskets. If you want something simple in terms of cascading pots, regular hanging pots will get the job done.
If you want to have something such as the flower globes that can be seen in European hamlets, then you need to have a container that is either wire with a fiber liner or a pot that has holes throughout it that are made specifically for that purpose.
The idea here is to create the perfect housing for your flowers. When you have the right space for them, that makes it easier to properly fill in the space that you have created without it feeling as if you have just jammed a bunch of flowers into a space that was not meant to house them.
2 – Choosing the Soil
Much as with picking the right kind of basket, pot, or container is of the utmost importance when creating the right space, choosing the right soil is of the utmost importance to the life and growth of your hanging flower baskets.
Using a high-quality potting mix is absolutely important to the success of your hanging baskets. Start out by finding a lightweight mix that the commercial growers in your area recommend.
From there, you can add some water-holding polymer crystals that can be found at any gardening center. Keep in mind that many potting soils will come with these crystals already.
It is of the utmost importance that you do not go with budget or generic potting soil. It will weigh down your basket and won’t provide the necessary nutrients that your flowers need to continue growing and thriving without being in the ground.
3 – Pack Them in
When choosing the kind of plant that you want for your hanging flower basket, it is important that you pack as many of these plants into the container to make sure that it looks lush and full.
Some of them will die off at some point; pulling them and replacing them with a new plant is the way to go to keep it looking full.
Hanging baskets actually have a short amount of time to get to their intended fullness in size so you might need to purchase more plants than you would normally. Baskets also tend to need more water, food, and fertilizer because there is not as much soil to go around.
With a lot of root competition in the pot, that can mean fighting for precious real estate and nutrients that are needed for the growth of those plants.
A great thing to do here is to start them off as early into spring as possible. This will obviously vary depending on climate as some areas can have cool spring temperatures and even a bit of snow along the way.
4 – Feeding and Watering Properly
As mentioned, there is a lot of competition for nutrients and root space in the potted or basket. Hanging baskets are meant to get watered often, which allows the plants to leach the nutrients out of the soil faster than they would in other containers.
Having a slow-release granular fertilizer mixed into the potting mix is a must. This, along with a liquid fertilizer that is added at half strength once a week or so, allows for all of the plants in the basket or pot to get the most amount of nutrients.
When those plants get those essential nutrients on a more consistent basis, it allows them to experience serious, lush growth and more blooms than they might in other circumstances. Water rigorously and on a daily basis to get the kind of look that you have always been after.
Getting beautiful hanging plants for any space is far easier than you may have realized. They can create the lush, vibrant, fragrant look that makes any space seem fresher and more natural than ever before.
Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.
Marie-Laure
Sunday 10th of April 2022
Hello. At the top of this page you have a beautiful hanging basket of yellow and orange flowers. Could you please tell me what type of flowers these are. I'm new at this. Thanks, Marie-Laure
Kari
Saturday 16th of April 2022
@Marie-Laure, I think those are calibrachoa.