hanging basket

[Bluemukka]

This year I have decided I would like to plant my own hanging basket. I am a total beginner and would like to know what kind of flowers/plants are the best to use and when I should start getting it ready. Thanks :-)

[sylvana]

Over the next few weeks you will start to see all the bedding plants flooding in to the garden centres but dont be tempted to rush out and buy them to soon, and remember the ones you see have all been raised in green houses and it may be too much of a shock to put them straight outside and they could die or be badly affected by the cold weather if it suddenly turns cold.

If you have a cold frame, you can acclimatise them gradualy for out of doors, or if not you can put them out during the day and bring them in at night for a few days until they're ready. pansies and polyanthus are the hardiest for spring at the moment. Summer bedding is to early as yet.

Hanging baskets dry out very quickly, water retaining crystals are a great help.

[mullein3]

are you going to buy the plants and just plant the basket up? or are you growing them from seed? you can also grow hanging basket tomatoes..then you have something to eat as well..and some people have herbs in hanging baskets...if you are growing from seed you had better get some started on your sunny window ledges now...you can buy hanging basket seeds in collections from wilkinsons..quite cheap..then you will get enough for about 5 baskets for about �2..

[katerich48]

Trailing Geraniums are good as they hang down -so do trailing Begonias - lobelias to fill out gaps - Double Busy Lizzies are better than the single kind you get a bigger flowers. Fuschias hang down and can be used again next year (in a pot tho, as they will be bigger for the second season). Good Luck... Also you can buy a hanging bag that you fill with soil and make little holes all the way around and you just push your plants though the holes - they grow and eventually cover the whole thing - QVC do them..