Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Hanging Basket

By Kathleen Freimond | Image: Terry Guscott

New West Parks & Recreation Department's Horticulture manager, Claude LeDoux shares his secrets for creating an annual hanging basket.

For this hanging basket of annuals Claude used:
Bottom layer:
Tradescantia pallida 'Purpurea’ (wandering jew) (3), Verbena ‘Temari Patio Red’ (3), Sutera cordata (bacopa) ‘Snow Storm’ (3), Lotus berthelotii (3), Helichrysum petiolare ‘Variegatum’ (2);
Top layer:
Verbena ‘Tukana Salmon’ (3), Brachyscome ‘Amethyst’ (3), Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’ (3), Sanvitalia ‘Little Sun’ (3); top in the centre – pink shades of Begonia Maribel™, Rhodochiton atrosanguineus (purple bell vine) (2), Manettia bicolor (2).

Make sure you gather all the plants you need for the basket before you begin. A common error is to use too few plants. For a typical 45-centimetre basket, Claude LeDoux recommends around 27 plants.

Line the basket with the basket liner to just above the second-from-bottom wire rung. Place the wick through the bottom of the basket so that half is in the basket and the other half is coiled in the drip basin.

Fill the basket with soil to the same height as the moss and firm the soil against the moss to increase soil volume. Keep the wick upright.

Add half the controlled-release fertilizer (14-14-14).

Mix the fertilizer into the soil.

Plant the bottom layer of plants, from outside in, just above the second wire rung of the basket.

The bottom layer is complete.

Line the top half of the basket with moss.

Fill the basket with soil to a slight mound in the centre.

Incorporate the remaining fertilizer and place the top layer of plants around the basket. To complete, dig a hole in the centre of the basket and firmly plant the last few plants. At his course, Claude recommends a variegated geranium (Pelargonium Wilhelm Langguth’) and two Calceolaria ‘Sunshine’ plants.