A hanging basket is the hardest place in any garden to keep a plant alive. It is a small volume of soil, held up in moving air, exposed on every side, with roots that cannot reach down for anything. Put simply: a basket dries out faster than any pot, bed or border you own. Almost every basket that fails in a British summer fails for that one reason.
How often, honestly
In June and July, a mature summer basket in full sun needs watering every single day, and on a hot still day it may want it twice. In cooler or overcast weather, every other day is enough. Spring and autumn baskets usually need two or three waterings a week. A winter basket may need almost none — though a basket under a porch roof still needs checking, because it never sees rain.
Water in the morning, not the evening
Morning watering gives the plant the whole day to use what you have given it and lets the foliage dry before nightfall. Evening watering leaves the compost cold and wet overnight, which is where root rot and mildew begin. If you can only manage the evening, water the compost and keep it off the leaves.
“Water slowly until it runs from the base. A quick splash only wets the top inch and the roots never see it.”
The five-minute routine
- Lift the basket slightly — if it feels light, it needs water, no matter what the surface looks like
- Water slowly at the base of the plants until it drains from the bottom
- Deadhead as you go: pinch off spent flowers so the plant keeps making new ones
- Feed once a week from the sixth week onwards with a high-potash tomato feed
- Turn the basket a quarter-turn each week so it fills out evenly on all sides
Feeding is what keeps it flowering
Every basket is planted with slow-release feed, and that carries it for roughly six weeks. After that, the plants are living on whatever you give them. A weekly high-potash feed is the difference between a basket that peaks in July and fades, and one that is still in flower in September. Nitrogen-heavy feed gives you lush leaves and very few flowers — potash is what you want.
If it has already dried out
A bone-dry basket repels water — it will run straight down the inside and out of the bottom without wetting anything. Take the basket down and stand it in a bowl or bucket of water for twenty minutes so the compost draws moisture up from below. Deadhead everything tired, give it a feed, and most baskets will come back within a week.
Do that much and a well-planted summer basket will hold for the whole season. And when the season turns, that is the point at which fresh planting beats rescuing — which is exactly what the seasonal subscription is for.
Written by The Perenna Bloom Team
