No, I just don’t have the energy to keep up with hanging basket plants when they start to look raggedy. I have even severely cut back on the number of pots I maintain on our porch and patio. It gets so hot and buggy here starting in June thru August, we’re always fighting some disease or bug.

I do love the way a pretty hanging basket looks. I think it takes someone willing to closely monitor all the things, including where they might be hanging (getting too much direct sun for example), checking for disease or aphids, deadheading, fertilizing, to have them perform well all season. It sounds lile you are doing everything right and still the plants aren’t cooperating. What do you have growing?

No but I worked in a nursery for several years. Annuals have a life span. You loved them at the store because they were at their peak, large and lush. They decline from their largest growth starting soon after they hit their prime. They need plant food weekly at that size. They probably need water daily. The pots could well be too small to sustain as many plants as they put in them full size. Instant gratification comes at a cost in plants.

“Do you have hanging baskets that still look good and thrive? How do you manage that?? “

roxanna, this thread about hanging baskets made me laugh after reading your post on the gardening bra thread. 😄

Outside -- These are the lovely annual verbenas, which I love, and callibrachoa, ditto. I deadhead the verbena frequently as needed and more blooms arrive.. Satisfying! The callies don't really need deadheading. Both of these are usually long-lasting and trouble-free.

I really do think that there is manipulation going on with the growers -- I know that they often treat their starter plants with a growth retardant to keep the size "reasonable" for the nurseries/box stores to be able to fit them in displays. Now I wonder if they also get over-fertilized early to create the effect of bountiful bloom for the customer. Smacks of false advertising a tad. Personally, I do not want to purchase plants "at their peak".

I worked for over a decade for a florist, long years ago, and one of the things I did was to create silk flower arrangements. I have a plethora of silk blooms and greenery in my basement as I enjoy making large and small arrangements (especially for the holidays). Eureka!! The light bulb is lit! Perhaps I will just create some hanging baskets with this artificial stuff, lol. From a distance, they will look good for the rest of this year (albeit a tad faded if in the sun too much)... Watch this space, hee hee.

I purchased FIVE hanging baskets, then planted them in large pots. I water them daily. Give them 6 hours of full sun......and I use Miracle Grow Bloom Booster 10 - 52 - 10 at least once a week. This year the baskets had white & red striped petunia + Red Verbena. They were lovely...until hail got them yesterday!....they'll recover....

Note: I like saving plants. I got all 5 baskets in a distressed state, $5ea...and they recovered in a week.

nicole -- You obviously have a greener thumb than I, lol. My garden helper, who is also my mail carrier, is the same: she insists on taking plants that I have deemed heading towards death with the barest minimum of healthy leaves and manages to get them to thrive. She is a Plant Whisperer. Perhaps I ought to give her my hanging baskets (and when she succeeds, ask for them back, lol). Your red verbena is gorgeous!

roxsol -- I do like to serve up a bit of humor in my posts! Or snark, as the case may be. =)

(Is your real name a variation of mine, perchance? I've always wondered. I usually go by "Rox" with my nearest & dearest...)

roxanna, I am a Roxanne.

My nearest and dearest call me ”Rox” or ”Roxy” , as well, except my husband who has always called me Roxanne.

My father always called me ”Rocky”.

Hanging baskets are too much work . Honestly, you could water them twice a day. I buy hanging baskets and plant them in pots. I do pretty much the same as Nicole. Water daily and feed Miracle Grow from time to time. Mine are all doing well at the moment.

I planted impatiens in my window box and they got very leggy so I cut them back and they look good now.

My mom was visiting and amazed at the hanging baskets hanging in town. She asked the local nursery that maintains them, and the secret was to fertilize them weekly.

Fertilome Blooming & Root

But I do think not all hanging baskets are created equal. Some seem to be light on soil (cheaper to ship?) and dry out really fast. I can avoid this by buying ones grown locally but still prefer to plant my own.

They look lush because they came out of a greenhouse. They're tropical plants.

When they start looking old, cut them back and feed them. It may take a few weeks for them to get full again.

My wife got one in May jam packed full of plants, 7 to be exact and basically nothing but roots in the pot. It's still doing good and it only gets 3 or 4 hours of direct sunshine a day. I give the pot 2 quarts of water per day, and every two weeks I fertilize it with Miracle-gro Water Soluble All Purpose Plant Food and mix per instructions of the container and give the plant 2 quarts instead of just water for the day. BUT and a big BUT why most people's hanging baskets peter out is improper fertilizing.

The Miracle-gro has only 11 of the 13 nutrients required to live and stay health, So I need to add the missing two nutrients to the plant. They are Calcium and Magnesium, the 4th and 5th most required nutrient after Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphate. If the fertilizer your using is missing one or more of the following fertilizers below the plants will suffer.

These are the nutrients in the order of which the plant requires the most; Nitrogen, potassium, phosphate, calcium, magnesium, sulfur. and in much smaller quantities, Chlorine, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, boron and the least amount molybdenum.

Odds are slim to none you'll find a fertilizer with all 13 nutrients at any local store for a reason. You will find some with all the nutrients except Calcium and Magnesium so I suggest you get a bottle of CAL-MAG fertilizer or other calcium and magnesium fertilizers and mix in separately.

What arcy said.

I too worked in a greenhouse for several years. Hanging baskets were planted in February. They were planted thickly and watered/fertilized heavily and in early April it was my job to ”slow them down.” They were lush and full by then, but our weather here is fickle and it was a bit too early for people to buy them. I cut them down by HALF, but by the end of April they were lush and full again.

By the first of June, they need another heavy cutback. If the buyer hadn’t kept them watered well, sometimes even a cutback wouldn’t revive them.

So I guess - yes, it could be considered a conspiracy by the greenhouse to dupe the public. I almost never buy hanging pots because I know the drill. Water, water, water, water, cut back. I spend my money on perennials in the ground instead.

Magnesium Sulphate = Epsom salts...disolve in water. I only do this for my perennials. Annuals last 4 months...then Winter snow starts in. Also ground up charcoal.....old fireplace ash...is great for the soil.

You will often find that when you water hanging baskets or even container plants by a certain point, the water runs across the surface of the soil, down the sides of the basket and out the bottom. In addition to the other suggestions, I will use a dowl to poke holes from the top into the soil so the water gets into it, and/or occasionally set the pot in a bin of water so it can soak up moisture from the bottom.

Soap = soil emulsifier ........soap allows water to soak in, not run off. Miracle Grow has it. Or...add a drop or two of dish soap to a quart of water.

Holes allow bugs to burrow...and air will dry out the soil more quickly.

Thanks, Kevin, for the advice! It comes under the headings "You CAN teach an old dog new tricks" and "You learn something new all the time". I have ordered some of CAL-MAG and will use it with my MiracleGro, and hope for a good outcome. Nothing much to lose at this point, and some of my hanging baskets are not too far gone.

Onward and upward, she says! =)

When I lived in Texas, I had petunias in hanging baskets. I had to water them twice a day! and deadhead them, and I think I just did a Miracle-Gro of some kind, I really didn’t pay attention to fertilizer types back then. Now I hate petunias. I mean, they are pretty and I like looking at them, but I won’t have them at home. I live up north now, and have ferns in baskets, and they are happy. I used to overwinter them but they take up space I don’t have and are messy, so I just bite the bullet and buy new ones in the spring.

I used to get hanging pouches of impatiens and begonias for the fence, where it is shady. So pretty, a nice spot of color! But that nursery closed, and I haven’t since seen them in my normal places nor ventured around to find them elsewhere.

I love everyone else’s hanging baskets, so I live vicariously.

bpath -- I've seen those hanging pouches offered on the Big A site -- 5 for 13$. I think it would be easy to plant your own, since you have a spot for them! Likely for next year since you'd need small-ish plants as starters.

I loathe petunias because of the necessary dead-heading, which is horribly sticky. Ugh!

Bluebell -- When I worked at the florist shop, one job that I actually enjoyed was to submerge the potted plants in water until the air bubbles ceased to rise, at which point the pot would be fully hydrated. I have done this with my containers ever since and it is very satisfying. With my huge containers full of lilies now, I can't do that, but I have plant saucers under these which I fill with water AND add top-watering. Works well, too.

It's far too hot and humid here today for me to go outside, so I am relaxing while listening to fabulous Mozart. Great way to enjoy this day. Glad I watered everything last evening!

Thank you everyone for answers and advice! It is appreciated. =)

I used to care for a couple. BIG baskets with lots of root room. Frequent watering. Ivy geraniums in the sunny front (I can keep geraniums alive and looking good here about 5 yrs if we remember to move into the garage for a harder freeze (anything below about 28F). Cut back hard early Spring.

I'd have fuchsias in the back. I don't do either any longer. Our lot is an acre and I have plenty to do besides fuss with something overhead. Our city does huge baskets that seem to look nice all season. I do see summer help with an electric driven water cart on the sidewalks often. They are mostly petunias which I don't really care for 😊

I have a friend who hangs baskets from every conceivable possible place. She has a full time job so I don't know when she finds the time to deadhead and care for them. You are ducking and weaving trying to get to her door. Truthfully, her walkway and entrance look like one of the box store garden aisles - way overdone!

I have three hanging baskets, one my daughter gave me on Mothers Day and the other two I made myself. I also have three hanging ferns that I bring to my basement greenhouse to winter over. They are all doing okay. I am going to start cutting back. I just walked through the yard counting everything in my old urns and pots, and I have 65!!. Six of them are huge lantanas in pots I winter over in the basement. I cut them back to two inches and now they are past my shoulders. The rest are impatiens, coleus, petunias, dracenas, and begonias. I used to have more, and every year I cut back.

Roxanna, when you get your Cal-mag don't mix it with the MiracleGro, mix it alone in it's own container of water and apply separately.

I said there is a reason they don't include Calcium and Magnesium in the same solution with all the other nutrients. The reason is mixing the calcium and phosphate together in the concentration required will cause a chemical reaction forming "calcium phosphate" precipitate and become insoluble so the plants can't use it including the phosphate it binds with. The exact same thing happens to Magnesium when mix in a nutrient solution, a precipitation reaction resulting in "Magnesium phosphate". So both will lock up the phosphate too.

I've mixed soluble calcium and phosphate together and watched them turn into little white floating sediments right before my eyes. The formed compounds won't become soluble and available to plants unless the PH drops below 3 or rises above 12, but plants don't grow in those ranges.

I don't do hanging baskets anymore either because of the upkeep. Daily on the watering (sometimes twice when it's been hot and dry) and regular feed... and pinching depending on the plant. Like those geraniums and wave petunas- when I worked at a nursery, it was a daily task to pinch those things, ugh. Ferns were usually the easiest. I feel cut and come again lettuce and tomatoes were probably the hungriest.

Thanks, Kevin, for the additional advice!! The cal-mag will arrive on Friday and I will be careful. Can't wait to see if using it will save my baskets -- I am somewhat hopeful...!