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Hanging Baskets 1
| I prefer to use a 'quality' peat compost for all my hanging baskets and container boxes, as this is all that the dozen or so plants will have to support them for the next 20-odd weeks. A good crumbly texture that doesn't crust over too easily when sun-baked is ideal, as this helps water penetration and decreases run-off. Mixing a handful of grit or perlite to the top half-inch of the compost once the plants are in will also promote water absorption, and reduce 'crusting'. | |
| For the last few years in USA and UK , I've used swell-gel in all my baskets and boxes, as I do find that it keeps the plants going on the driest, hottest days, which previously could be a problem with the smaller baskets and boxes. I usually add by the handful, but a good guide is to use 3 heaped tea-spoonfuls for a 12" basket, with an extra heaped tsp for each 2" extra diameter. As an example, a 16" basket would take 3 + 2 tsps of the swell-gel mixed in with the compost. Bear in mind that this stuff swells to about 20 times its original size when fully saturated with water, and if you seriously overdo it, there will not be room within the contained compost for the gel to swell, if you see what I mean. |
Basket planted with begonias, lysimachia,
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| I don't always bother with the slow-release fertilisers, as I've never noticed an appreciable difference between the weekly-fed baskets and those using the slow-release pellets. I do add a small handful of fertiliser to the compost before filling the baskets, and then feed weekly from about 4 weeks later until the end of the season using a general fertiliser, such as MiracleGro whichever is cheapest at the time. | |
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This bird cage belonged to s friend I've cut chunks of the grille away, filled the base-pan with my basket mix, and planted it up every year. This is 2000s effort - the pink surfinias dominate, but, if you look carefully, you can pick out the blue cascade lobelia on the left hand side, the orange/yellow bi-colour begonia in the centre and the oxalis on the right. There's also a fuchsia in there, but it didn't do too well and can't be seen on the photo. |
| This free-standing sconce was a birthday present from my company in 1997. A steel bar, driven 450mm into the ground, carries a 350mm diameter circular basket about 1.5m above ground. I only use it during the summer, putting it into storage over the winter when it is more vulnerable to high winds and it's exposed position makes any plants left in it susceptible to frost damage. |
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| The above photo shows it planted with
Isotoma/Laurentia, a lovely basket plant, native to Australia, with
lilac star-like flowers erupting from dark green, deeply cut foliage.
It starts to flower in June, once it gets a good bit of hot sun, and
continues through until the end of September. It's best treated as a
half-hardy annual; I propagate next years plants from cuttings taken in
July and overwintered on a frost free windowsill in the house. It makes a welcome change from the more traditional lobelia cascade, and as the added bonus of being deliciously scented. |
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For the summer of 1999, Mrs Taz decreed that she wanted the
dangly baskets on the front of the house to match the colour of her
home town's rugby league team, and so, in tribute to the once might
Leigh RL club, this red and white basket was dedicated.
Plants used include a pink fimbriata begonia, a red trailing begonia, nasturtiums 'Volcano', fuchsia 'Marinka', pelargonium 'Mexicana, white cascade lobelia amd sweet alyssum.
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| I make up separate baskets for the winter, using a mixture of
plants to span the cold months of November until April. This picture
shows the baskets for the winter prepared during late
September and early October, and then left to 'settle-in', prior to
being hung after the first frosts. Favourite plants to use in winter baskets include cyclamen, cineraria, box, primroses, winter cabbages, euonymus, pansies, ivies and, of course, bulbs, especially hyacinths, and iris reticulata. |
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