Some things to consider as you select a hanging basket for your mom (or yourself)
This time of year, you can find great prices on hanging baskets and potted blooming plants as retailers gear up for Mother’s Day.
This is also a good time to fertilize your roses, lawn, perennials and annuals if you have not yet done so. Prune rhododendrons and shear azaleas right after they finish flowering.
And make this the week you remove every last weed from your beds for a more carefree and weed-free summer.
If you want to invest in a hanging basket for your porch, patio or as a Mother’s Day gift, here are few things to consider:
Where will the basket be hanging?
Some hanging baskets such as fuchsias and begonia need to be placed where they are shaded from the afternoon sun. Baskets of geraniums or petunias do best with full sun or sunshine for at least five hours a day. Think about the location you have and how the sun hits in the afternoon before you decide which plants are right for you.
How will you water?
Hanging baskets are exposed to the air on all sides and the roots have limited space with limited soil, so they need water daily during the summer. The best way to keep them hydrated is to install a drip system using flexible plastic tubes that deliver water right to the pot. These systems are often sold in kits and can be hooked up to your outdoor faucet with a timer.
You also can hand water your hanging baskets, giving them enough water each time so that you see the water draining from the bottom of the container. A long stemmed watering wand makes it easier to reach overhead baskets.
Another tip: Attach a length of chain from the hook in the ceiling of your porch or patio so that the basket hangs lower. Nobody wants to look up to see the blooms or view the bottom of the pot. Lowering the basket to eye level makes viewing and watering easier.
Where will the water go?
We all want to conserve water, especially water that may be infused with expensive liquid plant food. Position another container garden below your hanging basket or have the hanging containers drip into a flower bed or shrub border off the railing of your deck or patio.
What you do not want is for the daily watering of your basket to end up leaking water all over your outdoor space. Fertilizer water can stain a surface and create slippery conditions.
If you have a railing on your porch or deck, you can attach pots to the outside of the railing so the pots drain over the edge, not onto the porch.
How will you fertilize?
Hanging baskets need a constant source of nutrients to stay in bloom. The easiest way to do this is to add a slow-release plant food such as Osmocote to the top of the soil at the beginning of the season, following dosage amounts on the fertilizer package. Then the nutrients will be released slowly each time you water.
A more aggressive fertilizing option is to fertilize by adding plant food to your watering can. Liquid plant foods get to the roots quicker but needs to be used more often. Too much fertilizer can burn or damage the plants in your container, so always read and follow the instructions on dosage for any plant food.
Dead heading is not just for rock bands
Most blooming baskets will need to be dead headed, a gardening term that means to remove the faded blooms so that they don’t go to seed and take energy away from the plant making new flowers.
Fuchsias need the most dead heading as not only the faded flower but also the seed pod or berry just behind the fuchsia flower needs to be removed. Geraniums should have their stems and faded flower clusters snapped off, and many hanging petunias do best if they are pruned back by one third in mid summer to stimulate more branching and more blooms.
Baskets that are mostly foliage plants or the hanging sedum called Fan Flower, or Scavolea, are lower maintenance as they have small flowers that fall to the ground without the need for dead heading or pinching back.
But wait, there’s more
Hanging baskets are a commitment (you will need to make plans for their care when you go on vacation) but taking the time to tend colorful plants is also beneficial to not only the gardener’s health, but also the hummingbirds, bees, butterflies and beneficial insects that depend on a variety of plants and flowers to thrive.
See Marianne in person
At 11 a.m. Saturday, May 6, Marianne Binetti will be at Walrath’s nursery and landscape supply at 4521 56th St. in Gig Harbor for a free seminar on the best plants to grow now. Come for the inspiration and also the door prize — one lucky audience winner gets a free design consultation with Marianne as a gift from the nursery. For more info and directions, go to https://tewalrath.com/
Marianne will speak at 3 p.m. Friday, May 12, at the LeMay Car Museum near the Tacoma Dome. The topic will be “Drive By Design: Best design ideas from around the world.” The Tacoma Garden Club is hosting this free event with beautiful flowers on beautiful cars and trucks. The show runs Friday and Saturday, May 12-13. For more information, visit www.tacomagardenclub.org.
Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of several books. Reach her at binettigarden.com.
