Summer Hanging Baskets Time!

It's finally again the time of the year to make up your hanging baskets for a colourful summer ahead. The evening frosts should have subsided by the middle the the end the month in this part of the country so I usually plant up my baskets now and grow them on in a sunny spot indoors before putting them outside in a few weeks time.

Creating an interesting display needn't be hard either. Why not buy one of our pre-selected hanging basket mix 6 packs and maybe add a classic red geranium as a centrepiece too. Otherwise just take a pick and mix of our large range of bedding plants, now available, and make up whatever colour combinations you want. Just remember 2 main things:

• Fill up your basket with plants from the start as the arrangement will always look a little empty otherwise.
• Choose an upright plant taller than the rest for a centrepiece plant, lots of medium sized and bunching plants for the main body of the display and then a ring of training plants around the edges.

You can purchase the products as a bundle by clicking on any of the products in our online store

• The completed hanging basket full up with a good range of plant shapes and colour combinations.

• Here is my chosen centrepiece. A bright red zonal geranium on offer in the plant area for £4 or 3 for £10.

• These handy pre-mixed plants with complimentary colour combinations (still to flower yet) and both upright and trailing plants will fill up the rest of my basket perfectly.

• The plants should be planted snuggly together no further apart than 5cms each so I have chosen a hanging basket from our range that will perfectly fit my 7 plants. My basket can only be planted from the top but if you choose one where you can also plant the sides then you will need to add more plants.  Hanging Baskets can dry out very quickly in the height of the summer so I will not punch any holes in the plastic liner to help it stay wetter for longer and fill it with container compost or multi purpose and also add some water retaining granules.

• When it comes to feeding you can either sprinkle on some slow release fertiliser pellets now or choose to water weekly with a high potash feed like tomato food.

• I always start the planting with my centrepiece plant. Take it out of its original pot and tease the roots out a bit if it is growing too much in a ball.

• Then make a hole in your compost layer before firmly placing the plant within it.

• Using the rest of your plants spread them out over the rest of the compost surface so that...

• ...you have an even mix of colours and shapes. Make sure too that the tops of thier rootballs are about a centimetre below the rim of the basket edge.

• Finally fill in all the gaps between the plants with more compost and give the whole arrangement a good watering in.  To keep it looking as good as possible over the next 3 to 6 months water it well whenever it needs it (which may be as much as twice a day in June and July) and remove any dead flowers whenever you see them.  Have a great weekend and happy gardening, Stewart