We all love a good hanging basket with cascades of petunias spilling down, sweet potato vines and verbena showing off their colors, and calibrachoa stealing the show. The smaller, simple hanging baskets at big-box stores are a bit boring and bland, while the well-put-together baskets at high-end garden centers are amazing, but so is their price. If you’d like to create top-notch baskets at home (and you can!), here are a few pointers.

Why are hanging baskets (seemingly) harder?

Hanging baskets are essentially just a bunch of plants in containers, but they seem harder to create and care for than a regular potted planter. Many people gladly fork over $100 or more for a preplanted hanging basket from a garden center when they’d never pay that much for a small to a medium-sized pot with a few petunias. Why do we place such a premium on hanging baskets?

Hanging baskets are no harder to plant, but they do often require a bit more maintenance than plants in typical containers. That’s often because of where we hang them. You wouldn’t put a large container full of sun-loving annuals in a shady, hard-to-reach location if it needed daily watering, but that’s exactly what many folks do with their hanging basket once they bring it home. Whether you're purchasing a ready-made hanging basket or creating your own, consider where you'll hang it first and you’ll be off to a good start.

Choosing the Plants for Hanging Baskets

Pretty much any herbaceous, non-shrubby plant we grow in the garden can be added to a hanging basket, although choosing sweet corn would definitely be unique. However, randomly tossing plants into the basket can cause problems down the line. 

While you could start hanging baskets indoors early and directly seed them, most gardeners start the plants early in cell packs or 4-inch pots and then transplant them into their baskets. You’ll have a better feel for spacing, and be less likely to have a variety fail to germinate and cause a lopsided basket. 

Consider these factors when pairing plants in hanging baskets.

Sun vs. Shade

Commonly, overeager shoppers at garden centers buy a pretty, already-in-bloom hanging basket and promptly hang it on a hook on their front porch to display without a thought about the amount of sun the plants may receive under the porch eaves. 

When designing your own baskets, it can be helpful to know the location where each will hang in advance. Go outside and find the spots, and if you are making more than one or two, number them. Numbers 1, 2, and 3 might be placed on the front porch, while 4 and 5 could be positioned on the pole near the garage, and so on. Then, you can annotate the sun or shade of each spot and design the pots accordingly, and keep them straight after you’ve planted them.

Many attractive hanging baskets can be created with plants that do well in partial shade or full shade, but hanging a planter full of sun-loving plants in a shady spot will be disappointing. Although the plants may not die, they will grow slowly and bloom less frequently, regardless of how often you water and fertilize. If you’ve errantly designed a basket of plants that like full sun and don’t have a sunny spot to hang them, you can erect a new hanger off a post or garage wall or even hang it from a tree branch (beware of squirrels).

Growth rate

As gardeners, we know that some plants grow more quickly than others, and that’s important to remember when using hanging baskets as well. The new hybrid petunias will quickly cascade and create a pot full of vegetation, but a pansy may not. Planting them in the same pot means one will outgrow and hide the other. Match fast-growing plants together for balanced results.

Plant Growth Forms

In containers, the rule is to choose plants to fill each role: thriller, filler, and spiller. In hanging baskets, we only need the fillers and spillers. While you can create a basket with plants from only one category, incorporating plants from both categories will result in a more pleasing and professional-looking display.

Typical choices to get your creative thoughts flowing include:

Spillers: trailing petunias and calibrachoa, dichondra, sweet potato vines, fuchsias, nasturtiums, sweet alyssum, and vinca. 

Mounds: geraniums, mounding petunias, coleus, marigolds, lantana, heliotropes, daisies, rex begonias, impatiens, ferns, and salvia (a favorite of hummingbirds).

Color and Design

Here’s the fun part. Many gardening companies will provide recipes to use if you’d like to recreate a hanging basket you see on their website, but you can also design your own. They can be designed around holidays, such as red, white, and blue for Independence Day, or around specific seasons. Warm autumn colors in plants that don’t mind a light frost for late summer and early fall can set off the mums on your steps quite well. 

Choose your favorite colors and flowers, and have a ball. If you’re stumped, you can’t really go wrong with a big basket full of petunias. 

Plant spacing

The key to full and lush hanging baskets is spacing. Plants in hanging baskets can be spaced more closely together than normal. Since you’ll be frequently watering and fertilizing, they can handle some competition, and they’ll occupy all the space, creating a lush and vibrant basket. For example, a 12-inch basket might have two lobelias, one verbena, and a calibrachoa. You’re going to feel like you are stuffing plants in with hardly any space, but that’s okay.

While the spacing varies based on the size of the plants, a good starting point is to use 3-5 plants in smaller 12- and 14-inch baskets and 5-7 plants in larger 16- and 18-inch baskets. 

The Basket and the Soil in it

Basket Materials

Hanging baskets are commonly made of either plastic or a natural material, such as coco coir or peat pots  supported by a wire frame. The choice is mostly a consideration of cost and aesthetics, but they are functionally different. 

Plastic hanging baskets have drainage holes preformed, and may have a saucer underneath to act as a reservoir. They last several years, are available in many colors, and are usually less expensive to purchase. Plastic baskets drain more slowly (although still quickly) than natural baskets.

Natural coir baskets usually last more than one season and provide an upscale look. They often drain more quickly than plastic containers, and as the plants grow large, they will likely need watering daily. They won’t heat up in the sun but can be more prone to animal damage and leakage. 

Size considerations

Hanging baskets come in nearly any size, from dainty six and eight-inch miniatures to giants 22 inches and larger in diameter. Normal considerations include expense–the bigger the basket, the more it costs, plus soil and enough plants to fill it–and a suitable space to hang it. But there’s another thought here, and one people often overlook: weight.

A large hanging basket can require more than a cubic foot of potting mix (one medium bag) and weigh over 30 pounds, depending on the soil moisture. That’s a lot to lift over your head to hang and requires a more substantial hook or pole to hang it from. 

The depth of the basket in relation to its diameter is also a consideration. Some baskets are shallow, like a dish, while others are nearly as deep or deeper than they are wide. A deeper basket will hold more moisture and may need less frequent watering, but of course, it will be heavier. 

Reusing Soil

While you can reuse potting mix from last year in your hanging baskets, it’s always better to start with fresh soil. Last year’s potting mix is likely full of roots, bound together, could have fungal spores, and may be depleted. Toss it in the compost or in the back of the garden bed and give your baskets the best chance by providing new, high-quality potting soil.

What kind of soil to use

Potting mix suitable for containers is also suitable for use in hanging baskets. Avoid using bagged soil intended for raised beds or as in-ground amendments; it will be too dense and heavy. Many bagged potting mixes don’t contain any fertilizer, which you’ll want to add if the soil doesn’t contain it. A slow-release granular product is a good way to get started. Mix it in according to the instructions on the package when filling the basket. 

Since hanging baskets, especially made from natural materials, drain very efficiently, you may wish to add some vermiculite or water gel crystals to the potting mix when planting to aid in water retention. 

Tips for taking care of hanging baskets

How often to fertilize depends on your initial soil mixture and whether or not it contains slow-release fertilizer. Generally, if granular fertilizer was incorporated in your initial potting soil mix, then you won’t need to fertilize for the first few weeks. After that, an application every 1-2 weeks when you water is beneficial, as the high watering frequency required by hanging baskets can leach nitrogen from the potting medium. Choose a soluble product with approximately a 1:2:1 NPK ratio. For example, a 5-10-5 or a 3-5-2. 

Ease of watering and watering access is important, as many hanging baskets will require daily or even twice daily watering in summer. A long wand for your garden hose can make reaching the basket easy, and a quality watering head on the wand will provide high volume but gentle flow so plants are not damaged and you aren’t tempted to quit before they’ve had a good drink. Since hanging baskets drain so well, you can assume they need daily watering in the middle of summer, even if you can’t easily reach up to stick your finger in the soil. 

If you have several baskets in close proximity, like hanging along the edge of a deck or porch, you can set up a drip irrigation system on a timer to take care of watering chores. Drip systems are handy for thirsty containers and baskets, allowing you to go away for the weekend without needing someone to come over and water your plants.