Use hanging baskets to light up a space

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This article was published 24/03/2018 (2808 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hanging baskets have such a cheerful readiness about them that they are always among the first purchases to fly out of garden centres each spring. Started in the greenhouse in March or early April, tender flowering annuals are full and lush by the time they are ready to go outdoors at the end of May or beginning of June.

Tracy Minary is the greenhouse grower for the City of Brandon. Every April, in the space of a mere day and a half, Minary plants 286 hanging baskets that will decorate the streets of Brandon. It hardly seems possible to accomplish this task in such a short time, yet it’s a feat that is achieved with precision each spring.

Minary places her order for hanging basket plug plants well in advance. When the plant plugs arrive in early April, Minary is assisted by a small assembly team consisting of two workers whose job it is to fill baskets with soil and another two who hang the baskets in the City of Brandon’s 557-square-metre greenhouse.

This year, Minary is using some of the same annual varieties she planted in last year’s hanging baskets — Surfinia Deep Red petunia, Supertunia Royal Velvet, Supertunia Honey, Snow Princess lobularia — simply because they performed so well in the heat of summer. When you want an intense red that won’t fade in full summer sun, Minary says, Surfinia Deep Red stays a true red. In addition to its heat tolerance, it has a trailing habit.

The other three varieties that Minary has selected for her hanging baskets are among Proven Winners’ top 50 bestselling annuals. Each has a trailing habit and heat tolerance. Supertunia Royal Velvet, which has rich purple blooms, and Supertunia Honey, with muted orange and pink blooms, are both drought-tolerant as well, while Snow Princess lobularia (sweet alyssum) is a heavy drinker.

These are all qualities to be mindful of when choosing plants for your hanging basket. Building a better basket so that it will stand up to whatever Mother Nature throws at it depends on more than just choosing plants that have desirable characteristics. Since the contained environment of a hanging basket is relatively small — typically 35 centimetres as the recommended minimum, or as much as 53 cm for larger baskets — Minary says that it is essential to not overfill your basket with plants.

“Baskets that have been stuffed with an overabundance of flowering varieties leave little space for the root systems of plants to develop over the growing season,” Minary says. When designing your basket, consider the different growth rates of your plants. Lobularia or sweet alyssum, for example, is a vigorous grower. Minary includes only one in each of her hanging baskets. She places it in the middle to allow it to weave its way through the surrounding plants.

Lobularia and petunias, which also offer non-stop summer bloom, require sufficient nutrients to maintain beautiful, season-long bloom production. At the time of planting, Minary adds a granular controlled-release fertilizer blend of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in a 13-12-12 formula to her growing medium. Minary uses Premier Pro-Mix, a peat moss-based growing media.

The addition of a wetting agent or polymer moisture crystals, she says, helps to maintain soil moisture. Admittedly, she says, the polymers take about three years to break down when they are composted; however, they have a practical importance in city planters.

Minary has a distinct advantage — since 2012, the City of Brandon has used only self-watering hanging baskets. If neglected for even a short while, hanging baskets will dry out quickly. The plastic baskets are made by Sybertech and a Winnipeg-based company, Equinox. Watering time, Minary says, has been reduced from once daily, seven days a week, to just three times a week.

“The baskets paid for themselves within the first year,” she says.

Susan Jensen Stubbe and Tammy Jensen are co-owners of Jensen’s Nursery and Garden Centre. Jensen’s opened for the season on March 1 and one of their first tasks was to plant up a multitude of hanging baskets, many of which will include traditional favourites as well as new plant varieties for 2018. In the warmth of the greenhouse environment, the plants grow quickly, so much so that by the first week in April, the colourful arrangements are ready to be cut back by half.

This can alarm some customers, Stubbe says; however, cutting the new plants back at this early stage of growth encourages increased branching and a greater abundance of flowers for lush displays in May. After the first generous haircut, Stubbe continues to trim plants as needed so as to keep the baskets looking their best.

Stubbe says that if your basket arrangement is beginning to look leggy by July, bite the bullet and cut the plants back by half. In addition to using a controlled-release fertilizer at the time of planting, Stubbe recommends rejuvenating your annuals in summer by adding a small amount of water-soluble fertilizer to your watering can each time you water. There are many different types of organic fertilizers from which to choose.

Lantana is a popular choice for hanging baskets. New Bloomify Red lantana is the first sterile lantana series on the market so it won’t stop flowering in the heat of summer. Bloomify Red and Bloomify Rose also have improved branching as well as bicolour blooms. Stubbe says that bicolour flowers make it easy to create combination baskets and recommends the use of white varieties to highlight their colour.

Planning to add geraniums to your hanging baskets? If you have found in the past that your geraniums stop blooming by midsummer, try new Phlox drumondii Intensia Red Hot which has been bred for continuous bloom. Resistant to mildew, heat and drought, Intensia Red Hot produces masses of bright red blooms that are self-cleaning so no deadheading is required. This new sun-loving annual has a compact, upright habit and grows to between 25 and 40 cm tall.

Stubbe recommends planting Intensia Red Hot in the centre of your basket.

“To give structure to your arrangement,” Stubbe says, “combine it with your favourite calibrachoa and supertunia variety.” Stubbe also uses Ipomoea batatas or potato vine in her baskets. A favourite variety is Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Lime. Drought- and heat-tolerant Scaevola Pink Wonder or Scaevola Whirlwind White fan flower works well, too, as fillers.

Illumination Golden Picotee is an outstanding cascading begonia with large double, bicoloured flowers in luminous orange and gold. Ideal for a part-sun or part-shade location, Stubbe says that the Illumination series requires minimal care and provides a long-lasting display right up until the first frost.

For cone-shaped baskets, Stubbe suggests new Thunbergia alata Tangerine Slice-a-Peel. This Black-eyed Susan vine has orange petals edged in yellow and can be used as a climbing or trailing plant.

Good drainage is essential. Plastic baskets are soon covered by growing plants, but if you prefer to use a more decorative wire frame basket that has a coco-fibre liner, conserve moisture by adding a plastic liner. Perforate the plastic with a few holes and situate your wire frame basket in a location that provides some protection from the hot afternoon sun.

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