Hanging Baskets.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon may be the famous ones, but why not create a superbly colourful hanging basket of your own? Garden centres and nurseries are crammed full of summer bedding plants at this time of year and there are colours to suit every taste. If aerial gardening is not for you, then the same type of plants can be used to produce a superb container for your terrace, patio or backyard. The great thing about summer bedding containers is that you can do just about whatever you want in the way of planting ...and get away with it. So now that the frosts are over in most areas, why not start planting?

All you need is readily available from your local garden centre: a good-sized basket - choose a 12” basket as it’s easier to keep moist than smaller ones, a hanging-basket liner (make sure it is the same diameter as the basket you’ve chosen), or a good-sized pot or planter with plenty of drainage holes. A good quality multi-purpose compost is essential for excellent results. What you choose is up to you, but the range is vast - Nemesia, Surfinia Petunias, Upright Petunias, Cineraria ‘Silverdust’, purple-bronze leafed Thalia Fuchsias or their more traditional cousins, Pelargoniums, Lobelia ...the list is endless. Think carefully about colours and textures. Decide whether you’re going for subtle or brash and bold, or if you would like to co-ordinate the flowers with other garden features.

If you are planting a basket, place it in a large flowerpot as this stops the round-bottomed basket from moving and makes it much easier to plant. Place the liner in the basket, adjusting it to fit the basket and trimming off any excess. Next add handfuls of compost up until the point where you want to plant around the sides of the basket.

Planting slits are included in some liners. If you are using a pot, place a few inches of broken flower pots or large stones in the base and top up with compost to within a few inches of the pot rim.

Carefully remove the plants you need from their containers, easing the root balls out gently but firmly. An upright plant such as a Fuchsia or Pelargonium is a perfect choice for the centre of the basket or container as it helps to give your planting height and structure. For hanging baskets carefully ease the root ball of each through the planting slit and nestle the root ball in to the compost. It is easier posting the roots through and you’re less likely to do any long term damage.

Any container looks better if there are plants cascading over the sides, so choose trailing plants and put these in around the edge. Space the trailing plants evenly around the sides of the basket.

Drizzle compost around and between the root balls of all the plants, making sure that each one has new and fresh compost to grow in to. Use your fingers to firm the compost and make sure that there are no gaps. It is best to use a combination of cascading plants and some upright ones around the outer edges of a basket. This will ensure a really well filled and colourful display and should help to hide the basket framework too.

Once the planting is complete, water the container thoroughly using a watering can with the rose attached. It is best not to hang a basket up or stand a pot in its final position until it has had a few days ‘rest’ sitting in a cool spot out of too much hot, direct sunshine. This little rest period allows the plants to settle in to their new home and perform better later on.

Pippa Greenwood is a gardening writer and journalist and regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Gardeners’ Question Time’. Pippa gives a wide range of talks and lectures to gardening clubs and societies.

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