When you add annuals to your garden in May, it’s generally because you want continuous colour in certain areas right through the summer and into the fall. Chances are you love to place brimming pots at the front door, on the deck or balcony, on steps, around a swimming pool, even in your garden beds. Hanging baskets add a very important splash of colour well above ground. They can decorate an empty garage, house wall, fence or lattice privacy screen, porch or a covered entrance. All a hanging basket requires is a hanging device from which it can be suspended. Wall brackets are available in many attractive styles. They can be found in either wrought iron or wood that is left natural or stained.

How to Select a Hanging Basket

• First determine the light conditions i.e. full sun, partial shade, and full shade.
• For full sun, the ivy and upright Geraniums are always popular due to their wide range of flower colours and their ability to take heat. Sunshine Impatiens, varieties of Petunias and Trailing Verbena also offer variety. “Wave” and “Surfinia” Petunias assure you plenty of flowers that require little maintenance. Trailing Temari and Aztec Verbena are outstanding performers all summer in many shades of pink and mauve as well as red, burgundy, peach, and white. Million Bells, Bacopa, Bidens, Scaevola, and Trailing Lantana are newer selections also for sunny conditions.
• For partial shade your hanging basket choices are Fuchsia, Lobelia, Shade Impatiens, and Streptocarpus.
• For full shade, Non-Stop and Angel-wing Begonias will brighten any corner.
• Another innovative change is the concept of hanging Baskets with several types of annuals and trailers pre-planted in a 12”, 14”, 16”, or 18” fibre pot or wire basket. They are full with a wide variety of colour, form, and texture.
• Pre-planted hanging baskets are available at your nearest Sheridan Nurseries Garden Centre from early May right into summer.

How to Plant Your Own Hanging Basket

You can easily plant your own hanging basket with your favourite annual(s) to exactly suit your garden.

• It’s less expensive and highly original but it may be a number of weeks before you achieve overall fullness and profuse flowering.
• Choose from a wide range of hanging containers.
• Purchase Parkwood®Enriched Potting Mix, a potting soil that’s ideal for hanging baskets and planters. Moss-Lined Baskets Old-fashioned wire baskets have made a tremendous come-back because of their natural, non plastic appearance, their capacity to maintain moisture longer and allow air to reach plant roots, and the opportunity to plant not just at the top but also down the sides.
• Purchase annuals (including vines and trailers) in cell-packs and individually poke them through the gaps in the wire sides.
• Many wire baskets come with a pre-formed sphagnum moss or coco mat liner that only requires the addition of soil and plants. You can also purchase a bag of sphagnum moss that you soak overnight so it’s pliable and easier to work with.
• The next day, place the basket on top of a bucket for support while you work.
• Gently line the basket with strips of moss to a thickness of 5 cm (2”) making sure to overlap each piece so it doesn’t fall through the wire grid and soil won’t escape.
• With the sphagnum moss or pre-formed liner in place, start filling the basket with soil to the level where you want to insert the first annuals.
• Take a sharp knife and cut through the outer moss liner to make room for the insertion of a cell-pack annual through the wire.
• Add soil to the next level, plant, layer again to within 2 cm (0.5”) of the top. Space your plantings out all around the container according to how big each plant will grow. The final effect will be one of complete round fullness and a tapestry of interweaving plants.

How to Maintain Your Hanging Basket

• Be very aware of cold winds and cool evenings in May that can burn foliage or kill off the fleshy stems of such annuals as Sunshine Impatiens, Shade Impatiens and Begonias.
• If at risk, take your basket inside overnight and re-hang the following day.
• The best way to make your hanging basket bloom continuously all summer is to fertilize every 1 to 2 weeks with Parkwood®All Purpose 20-20- 20 or Parkwood® Flower Food 15-30-15 water soluble, mixed at the recommended rate.
• Regularly remove spent flowers (called “deadheading”) so plants can’t go into a cycle of seed production. This is another key to blooming success.
• Turn your basket regularly for even growth.
• Water your hanging baskets according to the temperature and the hot drying winds. You may have to water twice a day as the weather gets warmer (morning and early evening) during prolonged periods of drought and continuous high temperatures.
• Hanging baskets tend to dry out quicker than anything else in your garden as it is above ground with heat and wind all around the container.
• Water more frequently if you see your plants wilting or the edges of the leaves drying out.
• If you’re going away for a weekend, take down your hanging basket, place it in full shade, and water heavily.

Also refer Garden Tips

• Balcony Gardening
• Perfect Annual Containers