Hanging Baskets

Add a mixture of colorful flowers
to a hanging pot.

The classic hanging basket is a wire basket, filled with sphagnum moss and a sphere of cascading blooms. Here's how to fill a wire basket, plus some suggestions on what to plant.

• To get a full, balled effect, choose compact, bushy varieties of annuals.
• When mixing a variety of plants, the most important quality of a hanging bouquet is its trailing habit, covering the sides of the container with blooms or foliage.
• Plant taller varieties in the center and those with trailing or vining habits around the edges.

• Enhance the spherical shape by pinching off the main shoot of a plant when it reaches the desired height, which encourages growth of side shoots.
• Rotate containers regularly -- once a week is best -- so all flowers receive equal exposure to sunlight.
• Be vigilant about deadheading spent blooms and pinching leggy plants.
• Check soil moisture often; on hot days, you may need to water twice.