4 Magic Ingredients to Make Hanging Baskets Low Maintenance and Produce Lots More Flowers, All Summer Long

The secret to growing a gloriously abundant hanging basket lies in prepping the potting soil to give the plants the consistent supply of moisture and nutrients they need to grow well. Get that right and you won’t have to spend nearly as much time tending to the plants, to enjoy still-brilliant results. More hanging-basket blooms for less effort? That’s the sort of gardening ratio we like here at Gardening Know How!

A hanging basket is a harsh spot for any plant, offering limited access to nutrients but fully exposed to the elements with torrential rain, baking sun and bracing winds saturating or quickly drying out the soil. So, whether you're planting a hanging basket of flowers for hummingbirds or for yourself to enjoy, or a suspended container of strawberries or tomatoes, it's vital to make that environment as nurturing as possible.

Your first step lies in choosing the best hanging basket plants for your conditions. But then, adding these magic ingredients when planting will make all the difference to how well they grow, and how much work you need to put in to keep them performing at their peak. As far as hanging basket tips go, these are most effective at creating a low maintenance hanging basket that's still incredibly abundant, reduce the plants’ stress as well as their reliance on you, so they flower all summer long.

1. Coconut Coir

The biggest issue that affects how well plants in hanging baskets grow is lack of moisture. Suspended in mid-air, the soil in containers dries out far faster than it would in a container on the ground. And it’s not just the hot sun that dries soil, but wind. During a breezy or hot spell, even in a hanging basket that's reliably watered every day, the soil will yo-yo between saturated and parched, and that stresses the plants.

Yes, the plants will probably survive – but that energy they're using to simply stay alive could be redeployed to encourage them to flower more abundantly instead.

Adding a couple of handfuls of coconut coir to your potting mix evens out moisture levels a treat as this natural material rapidly absorbs water then slowly releases it. A byproduct of the coconut industry, coco coir is made from the fibrous outer husks and can hold around three times its volume in water. You’ll see just how much, as it’s bought in dehydrated bricks or handy pellets, both available from Amazon, that need rehydrating before use.

Many premium moisture-control potting soils such as Burpee’s Potting Mix rely on coconut coir to provide this benefit, but it’s easy to add your own. And, if you’ve got any left over, coco coir makes an excellent mulch as it improves soil aeration, too.

2. Water Reservoir

Another way to hold onto moisture in a hanging basket is to use a drip pan such as these 5.1 inch-diameter inserts from Amazon. Only use a small reservoir like this in a larger hanging basket though. The idea is that the tray fills with just a little water to feed back into the compost to keep it moist until the basket is watered again; if the reservoir covers the base of the basket, it not only significantly reduces the already restricted growing space, but can lead to root rot, which affects many hanging-basket plants such as begonias, petunias and fuchsias.

Research into watering hanging baskets conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society found that maintaining consistent levels of moisture was key to performance. The study showed that plants need a regular supply of moisture, rather than lots of it, to flower well: 12-inch baskets, each planted with six petunias, produced a similar amount of flowers when given 12 fluid ounces of water a day, as those given 34 fluid ounces a day did, because of the wasted run-off. The research also found that irregular watering led to less water absorption, as run-off increased when the compost was very dry as well as when very wet.

3. Continuous-Release Plant Food

Producing abundant flowers month after month means plants will quickly use up soil nutrients, often running out of steam by midsummer. So, when you’re planting your hanging basket, mix the correct dose of a granular continuous-release plant food such as Osmocote’s Smart-Release Plant Food Plus, available from Amazon into the compost to steadily supply your plants with nutrients for six months. This is a far better way of feeding hanging basket plants than using a liquid fertilizer when you water, when most will end up on the ground.

If you find your planters flagging at the end of the summer, when nutrients start to dwindle after this six-month supply, you can encourage a last flush of flowers by pushing a plantfood stick such as Jobe’s Fertilizer Spikes for Potted Plants & Hanging Baskets, available from Amazon, into the compost. These are also a good solution if you’ve already planted up your hanging baskets.

Do be careful not to overfeed, though, as an excess will draw moisture from, and harm, your plants. Some potting mixes formulated specifically for container growing, such as Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, already have fertilizers added so don’t require any extra – check the packaging carefully to see how long the nutrients will last for.

4. Vermiculite

Vermiculite is a natural material mined in many countries including the USA, that has the ability to absorb and release not just water, but nutrients. This makes it an invaluable ingredient in hanging baskets, where watering can quickly wash nutrients from potting soil.

This magnesium aluminium iron silicate is used in many industries so do buy a product intended for horticulture such as this organic vermiculite from Amazon. Add a handful to your potting mix, aiming for a ratio of around one part vermiculite to five or six parts potting soil, and it will also aerate the compost for healthy plant growth. Adding a shallow layer on the surface will help to reduce water evaporation from exposed soil while the plants mature to provide cover, too.

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