When it comes to creating great-looking hanging baskets, Tim Pollak thinks big. And bold. An outdoor floriculturist at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Pollak produces an ever-changing display of giant baskets filled with edible greens, such as leaf lettuce, and gold, red and yellow Swiss chard, as well as herbs, and stunning mixes of colorful flowers and foliage for sun and shade.
This spring, don’t settle for a ho-hum hanging basket from the discount store. Create your own over-the-top lush look. Decide, of course, whether you want to change your baskets with the seasons or choose plants that flourish from spring to fall.
“Plants that do well in spring, such as nemesia, pansies and diascia, tolerate cold night temperatures — and if you can place them in shade in the summer they will last a bit longer,” Pollak says. Gardeners willing to do a little more work can do a three-season change of their hanging baskets: Start with lettuce in spring, then plant heat-tolerant annuals in June; replace them with lettuce in late summer when cool weather returns. For busy gardeners who plant once, he points to new varieties that can create a showstopping look throughout the summer.
Plant breeders have been busy improving annuals that are more heat-tolerant, lower-maintenance and longer blooming. “There are new trailing types of lobelia that can tolerate our heat and humidity,” Pollak says. Tuberous and wax begonias, browallia, creeping zinnia (Sanvitalia), double-flowered calibrachoa and verbenas are some of his favorites.
Anne Roberts of Anne Roberts Gardens in Chicago (annerobertsgardens.com) creates lavish hanging baskets that grace many outdoor cafes. “I tell clients not to get sold just on flower color,” she says. “I’ll use cordyline for its rich dark foliage in place of the common (Dracaena) spikes, and Juncus (corkscrew rush) is another great foliage plant for the center of a basket that goes from spring to fall.”
Roberts uses large wire baskets (24 inches across) with coco (coconut) liners or sheet moss and a potting mix of coir (coconut fiber). For a lavish look, she packs in plants by making slits through the sides of the liner. “We plant the top but also plant every few inches in the bottom and side of the basket for a full look.”
Hanging baskets need not be suspended from a hook, says garden designer and artist Liz Olsen of Avant-Gardenscapes in Barrington (avant-gardenscapes.com) “You can create a dramatic statement by placing a basket on a pillar where the flowers can cascade. It’s nice to place them on a pedestal at eye level in a planting bed or on a chair for a whimsical point.”
Don’t overlook houseplants for shady spots. “We usually include a few ferns,” Pollak says. “They’re adapted to our summer months outdoors in the shade and they add texture for interest.”
Trailing plants create fullness when they spill over the pot, but look beyond the ubiquitous ornamental sweet potato vine. Roberts suggests golden creeping Jenny (Lysimachia aurea), which is more delicate and less aggressive in a basket than “Marguerite” sweet potato vine, but has the same chartreuse color.
“Vines don’t always have to climb up,” Pollak adds. “Throw in some black-eyed Susan vines (Thunbergia alata) or cardinal climber (Ipomoea x multifida), which is a great one for trailing down.” Buy vines in pots or grow them from a few seeds planted in the basket’s edge.
Trending now: Plant picks from the pros
AngelMist spreading angelonia “is a newer angelonia that’s a tougher plant than older varieties. It can tolerate heat and drought,” says Tim Pollak. Full sun to part shade.
Double-flowered calibrachoa: “They’re really cool,” Pollak says, “and you don’t have to worry about deadheading (removing spent flowers). Full sun to part shade.
Baby-wing begonia: “This plant has smaller leaves and is more compact than the dragon-wing begonia,” says Anne Roberts. “It blooms nonstop in sun or shade and it will be covered with flowers all summer.”
Nasturtiums: “I’m using some of the old-fashioned annuals, like nasturtiums,” Roberts says. “It’s such a great spiller instead of a vine. The flowers are not only beautiful, they’re edible. I’m bringing it back and I’m making it sexy.” Full sun to part shade.
For shade, Pollak looks to bacopa (it can grow in full sun but does well in part shade, and benefits from afternoon shade) and browallia (part to full shade).
Edibles: Swiss chard is underused but ornamental, Pollak says. “It goes and goes without melting out in the heat.”
Illusion and “Sweet Caroline” sweet potato vines: “You’re not limited to lime or bronze — there are seven or eight new colors.”
— N.K.
Plant like a pro
“Use a soil mix intended for containers,” advises Tim Pollak. Topsoil or garden soil can be killers.
Use baskets at least 12 inches deep and wide. Pollak recommends using five or six plants (purchased in 3-inch pots) for a standard 12-inch basket, or seven to nine plants from a flat.
Give them a good drink. “Use a water wand and keep watering until the water begins to come out of the bottom of the pot,” says Anne Roberts.
Pollak is a big proponent of slow-release fertilizer because it eliminates the guesswork. “Mix it in with the soil before planting,” he says, and suggests checking the potting mix label to see if fertilizer is included. “The label may say that the mix will feed the plant for a certain number of months and you don’t need to add any at planting time. However, when that time is up, you can add some granular fertilizer to the soil surface and just scratch it into the top layer.”
Use a water-soluble fertilizer every three weeks. “The leaves will absorb the fertilizer when you’re watering overhead,” Roberts says.
— N.K.
