Good Plants for Hanging Baskets

Indoors, you can hang them near windows if you have no space for a plant stand or no adequate size sill. Containers are available in a number of types - solid, mesh or wire - or you may fashion them yourself by attaching wire, chain or rope to ordinary red clay or fancy containers. Indoors, solid type containers will help keep pots from dripping onto floors or furniture. Outdoors, mesh or screen types are most suitable to help plants drain.

If you use solid-wall baskets, put coarse gravel or broken pottery in the bottom beneath the soil. If you use mesh baskets, line the side with burlap, plastic, leaves or some other material that will contain soil. Soil for a hanging basket should be high in organic matter. To regular garden soil add an equal amount of peat moss or leaf mold. To each gallon of mix add a tablespoon of limestone and a teaspoon of garden fertilizer. Recommended mixture is 12-12-12. Mix it all up and fill the container. Soil sold for potting house plants also is good and you won't have to add organic matter.

What kind of plants are best for hanging baskets? Those with cascading or vining growth habits. Where the basket will be in the shade, try grape, English or Swedish (Plectranthus) ivy, trandescantia (Wandering Jew). Where some light is available flowering plants are suitable. These include impatiens (Sullana), begonia and fuchsia, alone or in combination with foliage plants. Where there is good sun, petunias of the Cascade varieties - they have big, bright flowers - are very effective. Other items include geraniums, especially the ivy type, lantana, verbena and black-eyed Susan vine.

Even vegetable plants may be used, including sweet potato, green beans or miniature tomatoes. Don't crow plants in the hanging baskets. Three to four plants generally are enough for a 10-inch hanging basket. Creeping juniper, such as Bar Harbor or Blue Rug, may be used for a more permanent basket that may be left outdoors most of the year. But it will have to be protected during severe winter weather. Hanging baskets dry quickly outdoors, so check them daily to make sure you keep them moist. Fertilize every few weeks with a water soluble or liquid fertilizer recommended for house plants.

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