Beautiful hanging baskets of flowers

Which plants should I choose for my hanging baskets?

Annuals, biennials, bulbous plants, perennials, many plants lend themselves to composing hanging baskets or suspended baskets.

These plants should display a clearly trailing silhouette or at least a supple habit and very quickly form a particularly floriferous clump, especially if your hanging baskets are hung high up. They should be characterised by very generous flowering and a wide range of colours.

• Start by choosing from our wide range of biennials and annuals.
• Avoid plants that are too short as you might not see them: remember plants in a hanging basket are meant to gain height!
• Choose those that flower continuously from June through to the frosts
• Prefer tolerant, vigorous, long-lasting plants that are fairly drought-resistant
• Consider perennials with decorative foliage, often overlooked in seasonal compositions, as they provide a lovely setting for annuals

How to create a spring hanging basket

Spring flowering cheerfully heralds end of winter, ushering in new season as early as February. Bright and fresh, they reign on balconies or terraces, quickly bringing them back to life until early summer. Here are the plants best suited to creating a spring hanging basket!

Pansies and violas

They are absolutely charming, very floriferous, hardy and fast-growing. Pansies and violas display flowers, more or less large, in a wide variety of colours, solid or contrasting, and lend a delightfully retro charm to hanging baskets. They quickly form compact clumps about 15–20 cm high. In our nursery you will find many pansy varieties particularly suited to hanging baskets (the ‘Cool Wave®’ series represents a new generation of trailing pansies) thanks to their bushy, very trailing habit, such as the Pansy ‘Cool Wave® Blue Skies’ or Pansy ‘Cool Wave® Fire’. Reserve violas for centre of arrangements.

Forget-me-nots

The simplest and most deliciously romantic of blue flowers. With its fresh, airy flowering, forget-me-not forms a light blue mist (Myosotis sylvatica ‘Blue Sylva’), sometimes white or even pink (‘Rosylva’), ideal for decorating centre of a hanging basket. They blend easily with pansies or primroses.

Primroses

They are among first flowers of year. Their umbels or clustered inflorescences in a wide range of colours sit well between taller plants. Choose from the many varieties of Primula auricula or Primula acaulis (‘Zebra Blue’).

Daisies

They are available in a wide range of colours from pure white to deep red, including shades of pink. They will accompany your hanging baskets from February to May with colours both soft and vivid. They will fill gaps in arrangements.

Periwinkles

With long creeping shoots, evergreen glossy foliage and simple flowers in white, blue or violet, periwinkles fit perfectly into hanging baskets where they cascade. The Vinca major ‘Wojo’s Gem’ (‘Wojo’s Jem’) is distinguished by its bright, original variegated foliage and will add an elegant touch to hanging baskets.

Heucheras

With evergreen foliage in striking colours, ‘Caramel’, ‘Caramel’, ‘Green Spice’ (silvery grey), ‘Georgia Peach’ (purple), ‘Obsidian’ (almost black), ‘Lime Rickey’ (apple green), heucheras allow beautiful colour combinations in hanging baskets where their foliage will highlight and edge an arrangement. Don’t hesitate to let their foliage trail over pot rim.

Ivies

They will punctuate arrangements as a complement to flowering bulbs or annual plants. Some compact ivy varieties are suitable for hanging baskets, such as Hedera helix ‘Kolibri’, an ivy with cream-variegated foliage that trails nicely, much appreciated in pots, indoors or outdoors.

In spring, arrange periwinkles, pansies, daisies, heucheras, forget-me-nots…

How to create a summer hanging basket

Summer offers no shortage of flowering options. From late spring through to autumn, many plants readily reveal their varied colours in hanging baskets where they form magnificent flowering cascades.

The Petunias, Surfinias and Calibrachoas :

Very floriferous with rapid growth, these are summer hanging-basket essentials! Petunia, Petunia Surfinia® (a petunia hybrid), and Calibrachoa, sometimes called “Million Bells” or “Mini-Petunia”, are notable for their generous flowering from May until first frosts.

Surfinias (Petunia Surfinia ‘Deep Red‘, ‘Giant Blue’) have a unique habit, both compact and trailing in a flowering cascade, absolutely perfect for hanging baskets. Choice is endless! They come in many varieties with single or double flowers, large or miniature blooms and an infinity of often intense colours, sometimes bicoloured or tricoloured (Petunia ‘Tumbellina Cherry Ripple’), from pure white to black (Petunia ‘Black Ray’) or indigo blue spotted with white (Petunia ‘Night Sky’) with every shade of pink, red and orange.

For Calibrachoa, fall for ‘MiniFamous Double Pinktastic’, or ‘Chamaeleon Blueberry Scone’, whose colour changes depending on temperature and light. Plant them alone or combined with two or three other varieties.

The Diascias

Well known for use in hanging baskets, with rapid, vigorous growth and very floriferous, Diascias are tender perennial plants usually grown as annuals here. Their flowering in vivid or soft shades lasts from spring until first frosts. Choose semi-trailing or trailing varieties such as Diascia ‘Genta Pink‘, Diascia ‘Genta Papaya’ or Diascia Genta ‘Classic White’.

They combine easily with verbenas and Petunia Surfinias.

The Bacopas

Another safe choice for hanging baskets! Very floriferous and fast-growing, bacopas quickly fill hanging baskets. From June to October they form trailing, flowering cushions of luminous blooms: pure white with Bacopa Gulliver ‘Dynamic White’, pink with Gulliver ‘Pink Heart Improved’, or mauve-blue with Gulliver ‘Blue Sensation’.

They pair well with Surfinias and trailing fuchsias.

Trailing Fuchsias

An exotic, exuberant touch for shaded hanging baskets! Some trailing fuchsia varieties spill over in generously flowered cascades, ideal for hanging baskets. Choose Fuchsia ‘Dark Eyes’ with spectacular flowering and huge frilled bells or giant trailing Fuchsia ‘Pink Galore’, noted for its trailing double flowers. Fuchsias can also be grown indoors where they are perennial and evergreen. Water regularly, as they dislike drought; feed these voracious plants often and protect them from hot sun, which they dislike.

The Annual verbenas

In our nursery you will find a new generation of annual verbenas selected for their naturally compact, bushy and trailing habit, and for the vibrancy of their colours: the Verbena ‘Virgo’ series. Among them, Verbena Virgo ‘Burgundy’, ‘Candy Cane’, ‘Lavender Star’ or ‘Up Purple’. All produce from summer to autumn dense, rounded clusters of strong colour, sometimes bicoloured and highlighted by fine foliage.

In summer, combine lobelias, petunias and surfinias, bacopas, verbenas and diascias…

The Pelargoniums

What would our summers be without Pelargonium, more commonly called geranium? Ivy geranium (Pelargonium peltatum), “king of balconies”, forms relentless cascades of flowers all summer, until first cold. It is prized for its long, generous flowering over six months, from pure white in ivy geranium ‘Blanche Roche’ to vivid red in famous ivy geranium ‘Balcon Imperial rouge’. It can display multicoloured tones. Elegant or striking, it suits every hanging-basket style.

We recommend Pelargoniums from the ‘Rainbow’ series, such as ‘Pink Light’—particularly vigorous and floriferous ivy geranium varieties with large flowers and bright colours. Geranium flowers need only sun and regular watering. As they spread well, best planted alone.

The Annual lobelias

Annual lobelias are valued for abundant, long flowering from June to first frosts. Their cloud-like mounded habit adapts particularly well to hanging baskets. They quickly form a tuft of light foliage dotted with a multitude of small flowers. Trailing lobelias such as lobelia erinus with blue flowers (‘Crystal Palace‘), mauve (‘Purple Star‘) or white (‘White Cascade’) are stars of hanging baskets. Pair them easily with Petunias or Calibrachoas.

How to arrange your plants for a successful hanging basket?

Planting pretty flowers is not enough to create a successful hanging basket. First, choose the right container! For round hanging baskets about 40 cm in diameter, we recommend allowing about 5 plug plants. Always check that the chosen container has drainage holes in the base.

Make sure to combine plants with similar growing requirements.

Overall arrangement should be cohesive, harmonious and balanced.

Vary heights and textures, to make the composition lively: plant tallest non-trailing varieties in centre of the basket to create perspective, and trailing plants on the rim to allow them to spill attractively over the container.

Play with foliage to add volume, texture and colour; add ornamental grasses (for example, Carex) or evergreen perennials such as ivies and Heucheras, which will be useful allies to complete the picture with their colourful, graphic or airy foliage.

Avoid jarring pairings, unless you like a patchwork look: favour tonal ranges or create contrasts by combining two complementary colours (yellow/blue, red/violet). White should be used sparingly to calm the composition or to make more colourful flowering stand out.

You can harmonise pot colour with that of flowers.

Which exposure?

With few exceptions, such as fuchsia which prefers shade, these hanging plants will appreciate a sunny position or light shade in the warmest regions: substrate must remain cool.

Which substrate should I choose?

Always choose quality potting compost, such as a “potting compost for planters and pots” or a “potting compost for geraniums and flowering plants”.

To reduce watering, you can mix a water-retaining product such as Stockosorb into your compost if it does not already contain one.

How to care for them?

Generally: regular waterings and fertiliser applications are the secrets to enjoying long months of flowering.

• Watering

Undemanding and easy to grow, these plants will need regular but moderate waterings. Watering may be daily during hot summer spells, without being excessive since plants are sensitive to excess moisture, which causes crown rot: let potting compost dry out between waterings. Bear in mind that the smaller your containers, the faster the compost will dry and that a plant grown in a hanging basket needs more water than a plant in open ground.

• Fertiliser

These plants are heavy feeders: to encourage and support long flowering, we recommend adding to watering water liquid fertiliser for flowering plants of the “geranium” type once or twice a week throughout growth.

Some additional tips

• Remove faded flowers throughout the growing season
• Choose a pot large enough to allow you to include different plants without them becoming too cramped

→ Find all our annuals, as young plants (mini plugs) or as seeds!