Anne reveals her guide to successful floral baskets
Cascading floral danglers or quaint kitchen clusters? Anne Swithinbank explains how to plan now for successful baskets
DRIPPING with flowers and foliage, hanging baskets soften harsh walls and fill greenhouse roof spaces with colour. I’ll even suspend them from tree canopies, as they do in tropical gardens. Now’s the time to find those baskets, dust them down and think about ordering some seeds or plants.
For hot, sunny kitchen gardens, a selection of herbs works well. Tomato ‘Tumbling Tom’ is specially bred to fill baskets with red or yellow fruits, and strawberries ‘Elan’ and ‘Toscana’ are everbearing varieties that are bred for tumbling and trailing.
For the flower garden, options for seed-raised plants include old-fashioned trailing lobelia, Felicia, monkey musk and petunias. Some of the less rampant nasturtiums are fun, and I like maurandya and lophospermum. These sprawling or climbing plants (native to Mexico and southwest USA) bear exotic-looking, antirrhinum-like flowers in shades of pink and purple. Germinate their seeds in a heated propagating case or on a warm windowsill in February or March, for strong basket plants in late spring. M. ‘Magic Dragon’ bears pink or red blooms, is easy to raise from cuttings, and will overwinter frost-free as a tuberous root.
Perennial perfection
Soon garden centres will be stocked with tender perennials for growing on. For those on a budget, one tiny plant of fuchsia, trailing pelargonium, bidens, verbena, yellow sanvitalia or calibrachoa will yield two or three cuttings, enough to fill a basket. Foliage plants such as silvery, sun-loving helichrysum and shade-tolerant golden creeping Jenny will separate and highlight blooms.
Trailing begonias fill baskets with mounds of flowers and are available as tubers or young plug plants. Settle these in 3½in (9cm) pots and grow on in bright, frost-free conditions before planting up.
Every type of basket and method of planting can be made to work well. Three good plants in the top will soon fill out, while planting in the sides is fun for mixtures and a quick, ball-like shape. Solid sides hold water well and wire mesh is great for lining with soft moss, coir or recycled materials. Tricks such as placing a circle of polythene or an old saucer in the base, and using special composts with added nutrients and water-holding granules, will all help.