Pendant charms
Hanging baskets are part of English gardens and a sign that spring has sprung, writes David Overend.
For those millions of people for whom hanging baskets are the be all and end all of the gardening year, life starts now. Hangingbaskets have become a major part of the English garden – not just in summer but throughout the bleaker months when they can be filled with colourful small-leaved ivies or packed with winter-flowering pansies.
They’re patches of perfect colour guaranteed to lift the gloom, although in windy times they need to be anchored securely.
And they do need to be cared for. Plant them and then leave them and they will soon become pockets of dead and dying plants interspaced with weeds.
So right now, is where the planning and preparation begin. And gardeners are spoiled for choice with what they can cram into their hanging containers.
Many will stick to the tried-andtested likes of trailing fuchsias, lobelia, nasturtiums, trailing petunias, such as “Night Sky” (purple and white) and “Frills & Spills” (double-flowered and an array of colours), double-bloomed begonias, or, if they are more into foliage and less into flowers, lysimachia, nepeta, coleus, helichrysum and small trailing ivies.
But, basically, if you like a plant and you think it will fit into a basket, go ahead and grow it.
I’m not suggesting you try to grow everything from seed, but you can get most as plant plugs from catalogues such as Thompson & Morgan, internet sites (spoiled for choice), nurseries and some large DIY stores.
Some nurseries will plant a basket for you – at a price, of course. Get in touch with them and tell them what you would like and they will sort it, keeping the planted basket until it’s nearer the time for it to go outdoors.
Otherwise, it’s up to you to protect your basket(s) from frost until the end of May. So, a greenhouse or a conservatory is essential.
Then it’s a case of watering regularly and feeding occasionally – so even if a basket has been primed with slow-release fertiliser granules, weekly liquid feeds will never go amiss.
Some people swear that tomato feed is perfect; others tend to opt for the old favourite, Phostrogen soluble plant food. It’s a relatively quick and convenient way of getting the food to where it matters and it has been doing the job for more than half a century.