Planting and watering a hanging basket
A hanging basket puts colour at eye level, by a door or on a bare wall.
Most of the trouble people have with baskets comes down to water. These notes follow the advice of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the UK's gardening charity, and what its own watering trial found.
When to plant
Summer baskets of bedding plants are usually planted towards the end of May or in early June. You can plant from late April if you have a greenhouse, because the plants need shelter from frost until late May or early June. Plants raised indoors need two to three weeks of hardening off, a gradual move to outdoor conditions.
Winter baskets go in between September and November. A basket of hardy perennials for a longer display can be planted from April.
Choosing plants
Many gardeners use a mix of plants. Some have showy flowers or leaves. Some are taller or bushy and fill out the basket. Trailing plants soften the edges and spill over the sides.
For summer, the RHS suggests plants such as pelargoniums, petunias, lobelia and creeping Jenny. For winter, it suggests ivy, small cyclamen, winter pansies and winter-flowering heathers. Herbs, salad leaves, strawberries and tumbling tomatoes grow well in baskets too.
Lining and filling the basket
A standard wire basket needs a liner. Coir, jute and moss from your own lawn all work. The RHS asks people not to buy sphagnum moss unless it comes from a sustainable source.
A good peat-free multipurpose compost is fine for a display that lasts one season. If a bag does not say peat-free, it most likely is not. Before you fill the basket, think about how you will water it once it is up.
Watering
Check summer baskets every day, and water unless the compost is already moist. Lift or nudge the basket. If it feels light, it needs water. Water slowly, so it soaks in rather than running out of the bottom.
In the RHS trial of 2019, petunia baskets came through nine weeks of summer on between 142 and 380 millilitres a day on average. Doubling the water gave only 8 to 15 per cent more flowers. Very wet and very dry compost both wasted the most water, so the aim is to keep it just moist. Rainwater from a water butt is better for plants than tap water.
Feeding and deadheading
Summer bedding and edible plants benefit from an occasional liquid feed between April and September. Water the basket first, and dilute the feed as the pack says. Winter baskets do not need feeding, because it encourages soft growth that frost can damage.
Snip off flowers as they fade. This keeps new flowers coming.
Common problems
Watch for aphids, slugs, snails and vine weevil. Vine weevil grubs eat roots, and plants in containers are the most likely to suffer. Powdery mildew can also be a problem. In a cold spell, a winter basket in an exposed spot can be covered with fleece.