Plant These Hanging Basket Blooms in April for Beautifully Abundant Backyard Displays, Even if You’re a Beginner Gardener

The best flowering plants for hanging baskets bloom for months without much help from you, and are tolerant enough to cope if you forget to water for a few days. Oh, and they look absolutely gorgeous, too! All these faff-free flowering plants fit these criteria and more, so they’ll bring a fabulous flurry of pretty petals to your garden that lasts all summer and into fall. You’ll also find all the growing info you need for standout results.

I’ve recommended my favorite varieties – and you can forget any notions that hanging basket plants are rather old hat. Those clever plant breeders have created wonderful new cultivars, some specifically with hanging planters in mind, for ever-more fantastic flower forms and a superb range of attractive colors. So whether you want an elegant basket of ice-white petals or a blowsy billow of peachy blooms, a standout sphere in shocking pink or a bold planter spilling with dramatically dark flowers, there’s a beautiful variety to suit.

April is the perfect month to plant a hanging basket. All these flowers are incredibly fast-growing so start now and you’ll have blooms by the time it’s warm enough to sit outside on your patio in May. And the beauty of growing these tender (killed by cold) plants in a hanging planter is that you can easily pop the basket indoors if a snap of cold weather is forecast or, if you have a greenhouse, simply leave the planter inside till the danger of frost is passed.

At this time of the year, your best bet is to buy tubers or garden-ready plants: they’re cheap as they’re typically sold in sets of three or more, and are quick to bloom. And frankly, raising these warm-weather beauties from seed is quite a faff as they require very particular conditions – so far better to skip straight to the good bit!

Which of these beautiful hanging basket plants are the perfect ones for your backyard?

Best for Sun: Petunias

Petunias put on an outstanding performance all summer in a hanging basket, and these sun-lovers bloom continuously from spring to the first frost of fall. There are varieties to suit every backyard and every gardener. Most carry a lovely scent, the foliage is lush, and many have a trailing habit, some cultivars growing 3-foot-long stems for a stunning cascade of flowers.

Most modern hybrids are self-cleaning so they don’t need deadheading to keep flowering, though snipping off spent flowers is always a good idea for tidy plants, faster reblooming and healthy growth. Snipping off any very leggy stems will keep the plants flowering all over, too.

It takes a lot of energy to fuel this bumper show of flowers so use a potting mix with slow-release food included such as Miracle-Gro Potting Mix from Amazon, and also feed once every 10–14 days with a soluble high-potash fertilizer such as Espoma Organic Bloom from Amazon.

It’s best to buy petunias as small plants in April, and you’ll need 3–6 plants for a 12-inch basket. If they’re trailing varieties, angle the plants outwards as you position them into the compost for a dome-shaped display. Hang your basket in a spot that gets at least six hours of sunshine a day and water well. Aim to keep the compost consistently moist, which may mean watering every day in the heat of summer. If you can, try and water the compost rather than the plants.

I found the best selection of petunias at Burpee.

TIP Stand your hanging basket in a big plant pot to hold it stable while you plant it up.

Best for Shade: Begonias

Most plants that are suitable for the well-drained, exposed conditions of a hanging planter love to bask in the sun – but not begonias! Look for Begonia x tuberhybrida and it'll thrive in the shade and flowers from May till October.

The best way to buy begonias at this time of the year is as tubers, and you’ll need around three for a typical 12-inch basket.

Plant the tubers rounded side down and hollow side up – if you’re not quite sure which is which, look for the ‘eye’: that needs to face upwards. Use any container potting mix, preferably one with a slow-release feed and moisture control such as this mix from Amazon as begonias are hungry plants. If you’re using up some leftover potting soil you’ve already got, mix in a handful of perlite such as this from Amazon, to improve the drainage.

Fill the planter to an inch from the rim. Then push the tubers into the compost, so the roots are in contact with the soil mix but the tops are exposed. Firm the compost around the tubers then water, aiming to water the compost rather than the tubers.

Begonias like consistent moisture so keep the compost moist, which may mean watering every day in the heat of midsummer. If your hanging basket is an open frame lined with coco coir (like this one from Amazon), adding a plastic liner will help provide that even moisture. Use any plastic sheeting – an old compost bag is perfect – and cut a circle larger than the planter diameter. Cut a few straight lines from the outer edge towards the centre (like the spokes of a wheel) and fit inside the coir liner. You don’t need to do this with a solid-sided planter.

While you don’t need to deadhead a tuberous begonia to keep it flowering, it's best to for a tidy plant tidy that's free of disease, that reblooms frequently. Feed every two weeks with a liquid tomato fertilizer such as Espoma Tomato! from Amazon.

Right now, the best selection of begonias I found is at Eden Brothers.

TIP Too much fertilizer can burn roots in a hanging basket so it’s better to dilute to half the recommended strength and use it twice as often.

Best for Exposed Spots: Calibrachoa

If you want to hang a basket in a sun-baked backyard spot that gets buffeted by the wind or hit by heavy rain, calibrachoa should be your go-to plant. These weatherproof beauties are incredibly tough and thrive in conditions that would cause most other hanging-basket plants to wilt in protest! They don’t need deadheading, either, so you can hang them high without making life difficult for yourself.

Also commonly known as million bells, calibrachoa look like mini petunias with 1-inch trumpet-shaped flowers and a trailing habit that creates a hanging basket cascading with blooms. While plants will tolerate partial shade, plenty of sunshine brings the most flowers.

Use a moisture-control potting mix such as this from Amazon and before you add your plants, use your index finger and thumb to pinch off the tips of all the calibrachoa stems. This causes the stems to branch, for twice as many flowers. You can keep pinching off the tips as the stems grow for bushier plants with more blooms.

Water until it drains from the base of the planter. Calibrachoa need a little less moisture than most other hanging-basket plants so water when the compost surface feels dry, which may be every day in the heat of midsummer. If you can, try to water in the morning so the foliage dries quickly in the sun. Add a high-potash liquid feed like this Espoma Organic Bloom from Amazon every 1–2 weeks to fuel lots of flowers.

You can buy Proven Winners calibrachoa on Amazon, while Burpee also stocks some good garden-worthy varieties.

TIP Windy conditions dry out hanging baskets as much as sunny ones, so your plants will need extra water on blowy days.

Best for A Mix of Sun & Shade: Impatiens

Impatiens are the perfect choice for a position that gets partial shade, and they’re also known as busy Lizzies on account of their continual, colorful blooms. Their ideal home is gentle, dappled sunshine but if your chosen spot is more sun-baked for half the day then plunged into deep shade for the rest, look out for the Sunpatiens series. These cultivars have been bred to fare better in high heat and strong sunshine.

These lovelies have fairly brittle stems that can snap in strong wind so they’re better for a sheltered spot.

They like consistent moisture so make life easy with a potting mix that has in-built moisture control such as this from Amazon. Impatiens are small plants so you can pack plenty into a basket, between 4 and 10 in a 12-inch basket, depending on the variety and how long you want to wait for a full effect. Because impatiens are compact, you can slit the planter liner and push rootballs into the basket sides as well as planting normally. Water well to settle the compost around the roots, until water trickles from the base of the planter, and keep the compost consistently moist, which may mean watering every day in the heat of summer.

Most impatiens varieties need feeding once every 10–14 days with a high-potash fertilizer such as Espoma Organic Bloom from Amazon. If you’re growing a Sunpatiens variety, though, fertilize less as they're lighter feeders – dilute to half-strength and apply every 2–3 weeks. If you’ve bought small plug-plant impatiens of any variety, using a balanced (10-10-10) fertilizer such as this from Amazon for the first few weeks instead will encourage strong growth, then switch to the high-potash feed to aid blooming.

There’s no need to deadhead for more flowers with a modern variety, but doing so will keep the basket tidy, encourage faster reblooming and healthy plants.

I found the best selection of impatiens at Burpee.

TIP Rotating your planter 180° every other week will encourage even growth all over.

Hanging Basket Essentials