Flowering Hanging Planters

Flowering Hanging Planters Bring Unexpected Beauty To Your Home

All the info you need to make your own: the pots, the plants, the tips. Hanging planters are so easy to put together, and the baskets here are just stunning.

Brighten Up Your Spring and Summer Porch with Hanging Pots of Flowers

Something so inviting about a porch with pots of hanging flowers. Artistic hanging baskets with well-chosen plants spilling over the sides spell out summertime evenings full of flower fragrance and firefly sightings.

PORCHES SHINE WITH FLOWERING HANGING BASKETS

Containers overflowing with petunias or bright geraniums are just the right touch for a hospitable entry, and hanging planters take advantage of vertical spaces. Just one hanging planter can add a spot of color right at eye level. I like a row of three across the front porch, facing the street.

However you line them up, hanging planters are a wonderful way to add a little green and a lot of curb appeal to your home.

WHAT YOU’LL FIND IN THIS ARTICLE:

Front Yard Container Design Tips

Whether you choose a single plant or a mixture (a container recipe), keep in mind the fact that one single punch of color carries more visual weight than many smaller ones. Likewise, large size flowers and leaves ar more impactful than many smaller ones.
Therefore, ask yourself:

• Is my hanging planter for close-up viewing or do I want to make a statement of color to a viewer from the street?
• Do I want to combine different plants with a monochromatic theme?
• Do I wish for an overall green look, only?
• Is the color combination bold enough to carry visually if viewed from a distance?

Adorn the front entry or the patio

The front entry is one of the classic areas for hanging baskets of foliage or flowers. Matching containers give cohesion to the look of several hanging planters.  It is more attractive than a jumble of different styles.

They can all be hung at the same height or given varied heights, but similar containers with similar plantings will provide repetition that pleases the eye. Such repetition gives a sense of order.

Don’t let your array of  hanging planters look hodge-podge:

Put similar planters together to give the display more continuity, for the best effect. If not exactly matching, try to have something that unifies them: color, shape, or size.

14-inch Hanging Planters – Art designs to make your porch the talk of the town

Essential Hanging Planter Tips For Planting A Beautiful Pot

• Don’t overfill your container, three to five plants for most hanging planters should be enough.
• Some believe that containers need to be a complicated affair, but the simplest recipe of just a few harmonious plants often gives the best effect.
• Repeating several containers of the same plants multiplies the effect for an even bigger visual impact. Just make sure the plants stay healthy with the proper light, moisture, and feeding conditions met throughout their growing season.
• Moisture retaining soil and potting methods help.
• Trimming (a midseason “haircut”) the lanky growth, keeping old blooms dead headed will keep your hanging planters looking amazing all season, too.

Keep The Plants Moist

Frugal Ideas

There are so many recipes for combining plants in your planters, that it is a snap to create spectacular looking hanging planters for your porch. No need to buy expensive “pre-planted” combos.

It is more economical to pot up our own, and if care is taken for using good soil and amendments, the plants will quickly establish and provide a very nice show.

Try purchasing a ready made pot of a single type of flower, divide it up into plantings for several pots. Put those, along with additional accent plants,  into those you are making in your own, better looking, hanging planters.

I like the inexpensive pots of the new petunias or geraniums for this last idea, because they are easy to grow, respond well to this type of division, and the new trendy colors are more available in pots.

DIY Savings

Artful Hanging Planters

A large array of artistic planters are available to us today.

If water drips through the bottom drainage, utilize this to water a planter pot in line with the draining water. The colorful fabric of these collapsible planters will give an artful look to your porch scene. Made of nylon Fabric with a waterproof liner, sturdy metal chains and hook.

I featured the planters on this page because they are so strikingly attractive, and I’ve never seen anything quite like them. The colorful designs remind me of Craftsman style decorative home accessories: artistic touches in even the most practical things. Unfortunately it seems they are no longer offered for sale.

How To Make A Hanging Planter

Product List For Completing Your Creation

Everything for a blooming show

Gather together just a few supplies to make your blooming planters healthy and ready for a full season of pretty flowers and foliage.

It simplifies making baskets if you have something of an assembly line, making as many of your baskets together at one time. Filling the pots with soil and then watering can get a bit messy at times, and a one-time assembly makes cleanup easier.

5 Things You Need To Make Superb Hanging Baskets

1. The great looking container
2. Light soil or compost (don’t use heavy garden soil) Like Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, which is economical.
3. Added time-release fertilizer “FoxFarm American Pride Time Release Fertilizer” is a good one.
4. Moisture additive: anything similar to “The Dirty Gardener Water Retention Granules”. Miracle Gro also has a special moisture retentive formula.
5. Your plants, usually trailing types, but a center plant with height to it is nice, too.

DIY Planter From Wood

Best Potting Soil, IMO

Of anything I use, this is my favorite soil mix for hanging planters. With the winds my porch planters can quickly dry out. That is why something with “moisture beads” makes such a difference.

Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Potting Mix, 8-Quart (currently ships to select Northeastern & Midwestern states)
Buy now

I use this soil to make sure my plants have adequate moisture. It has moisture retentive ingredients.

List of Flowers for Great Displays

Which plants would look good with your new hanging planters?

Container Recipes

Pleasing Flower Combinations

Following a recipe can take to guesswork out of putting together planters with the right combination of growing requirements, pleasing forms and colors. Sometimes it sparks a look that you may not have otherwise thought of. If you like this idea, I have a large number of recipes on these pages:

• Favorite Annuals In Containers
• More Favorites For Hanging Planters
• 5 Container Recipes, 5 Tips
• Summer Flower Combos

Ingredients For Perfectly Purple

• double petunias
• vinca
• purple angelonia

Instructions

1. Place soil inside your pot, about halfway to top.
2. Arrange Angelonia center to side, place Vinca spilling over two sides, and three petunias around the edge of the planter.
3. Fill with remaining soil to top, tamp down and make sure planter is watered well.
4. Hang in a sunny location.

Make A Mixed Summer Hanging Container

Simple, But Stellar

White Lattice Look Hanging Planter – In Sturdy Resin

White Wicker Hanging Baskets

White lattice is the classic look for porches: porch furnishings, trellises, baskets. Now someone has made hanging planters out of a tough resin in a look that just says summer, lemonade, and porch rockers.

Don’t Forget Tropical Foliage Plants

More and more, I see innovative flower pot designs that include typical tropical houseplants along with the usual annuals. By themselves for a shady place, or as part of a stylish combination of color and foliage, they make great hanging plants for summer porch decor.

• 5 Tips For Container Gardening
  Five tips and five flower combination recipes to kick-start your summer container garden.
• Care of Hanging Baskets
  U. of Missouri hanging plant tips

Assorted Hanging Planters, Ceramic or Woven – Filled With Colorful Blooms

Make A Cone Style Display

Tips For Terrific Hanging Planters

HOW TO PUT TOGETHER A GORGEOUS PLANTER

1. Use mainly trailing plants that can spill over the sides.
2. Center the pot with a mounded plant that gives a little height
3. Plants can be all of one type ( like petunias) or mix a few plants that like the same conditions (light and moisture)
4. Choose large size planters for biggest impact. At least 14 inch diameter is best.
5. Line the inside of moss baskets with a plastic liner, create a reservoir for water for better results.
6. Water regularly
7. When newly planted, allow basket plants to settle in before exposing to elements. Try larger plants to stand up to weather conditions earlier than very small new plants.

Make Your Own: Upcycle Bottles

Watering System – Ease the workload of watering the plants

Harness the energy of the sun with this solar powered (three rechargeable AA batteries needed) automatic watering system.

Watering every 3 hours, it irrigates your plants for you.

Patio watering system for when you have lots of plants and want to automate the chore of watering containers.

Find More Hanging Planter Ideas

Inventive idea, using common gutters to create a wall of hanging plants.

From Beginner To Advanced Hanging

Jelly Planters

Source: Angus and Celeste

Planter Tutorials

Whether you want to create your own hanging planters or just pot up some plantings in containers you have bought, these tutorials take you through the process. Expert advice for free.

• How to Care For Hanging Petunia Baskets
  How to Care For Hanging Petunia Baskets. A large hanging basket filled with colorful petunias is one of the most popular ways to adorn porches and decks. These beautiful baskets pop with vivid colors and stay attractive all summer long with …
• BHG serves up plant recipes
  Use these easy plant-by-numbers recipes to put together the most beautiful hanging baskets in your neighborhood.
• Hanging Basket Care
  Tips for taking the best care of your planted baskets.
• Annuals for Specific Uses – Gardening with Annuals – University of Illinois Extension
  Choose your annuals from an expert list