7 Trailing Plants That Look Terrific Cascading From a Hanging Basket – April is the Perfect Time to Add Them to Your Garden Planters

No hanging basket is complete without a trailing plant that spills its stems over the rim for backyard drama. Not only does a cascading hanging basket plant disguise a sometimes ugly planter, it turns the wasted space beneath into a riot of lush leaves or fabulous flowers. Whether you want to fill the entire container with a single standout spiller for a statement planter, or pair a smaller trailer with beautiful hanging basket blooms to add texture, a trailing plant is a must. And don't worry about packing your container with plenty of plants: as long as you prep the potting soil with the right ingredients to make a hanging basket low maintenance and keep it well watered, it'll be just fine.

One of the plants in our edit has stems that trail to a stunning 10 feet long; another has silver leaves that create a wonderful waterfall-like effect. One has blooms that'll bring abundant butterflies to your backyard; another has unusual flowers that will stop everyone in their tracks and demand to know what this beauty is! And all of these thriller spillers are straightforward to grow, whether you're an expert or beginner gardener.

Which of these terrific trailing plants for a hanging basket will suit your garden best?

1. Dichondra Silver Falls

LUMINOUS SILVERY STEMS & LEAVES

With shapely silver-toned leaves on long stems that cascade to 4 feet, Dichondra argentea ‘Silver Falls’ positively shimmers in a hanging basket. Also known as the silver nickel vine, it’s quick to grow so is cheap and easy to start from seed so, although it’s a tender perennial, most folk grow it as an annual in zones 3–10, and seeds are available from Eden Brothers, or you'll get an even faster result with young plants from Burpee.

Drought- and heat-tolerant, 'Silver Falls' is happy in sun or partial shade, and those fast-growing vines don’t need pinching. Tuck a young plant into a hanging basket of blooms or grow a whole planter-full for a fabulous foliage waterfall.

2. Midnight Gold Petunia

FABULOUSLY UNUSUAL FLOWERS

Plant your hanging basket with Petunia ‘Midnight Gold’ and everyone will want to know what these opulent trailing flowers are! This new petunia variety has highly unusual blooms, both in their form and purple and gold palette. So while petunias are a little bit like Marmite – you either love them or you hate them – everyone is sure to adore this cultivar.

Stems trail to 2 feet long but plants also grow in a mounding habit to 8 inches high, making for an abundant ball of 2-inch blooms in a hanging basket. Petunias are a faff to start from seed to skip straight to the good bit with young plants, available from Burpee. Treat Petunia ‘Midnight Gold’ plants as annuals and they can be grow in all zones; in zones 9–11 they may survive the winter and last for another 2–3 years.

3. Black-Eyed Susan Vine

BELOVED BY BUTTERFLIES

While Black-eyed Susan vine is usually grown up a trellis, Thunbergia alata is just as happy dangling its vining stems downwards from a hanging basket. Growing to 8 feet long, they make quite a patio spectacle!

As well as the standard black-eyed Susan vine with orange and yellow flowers, available from Eden Brothers, the ‘African Sunset Mix’ variety brings a beautiful blend of warm-toned blooms in a glorious mix of apricot, salmon, rose and soft yellow, all with the same signature dark centre. It’s also available from Eden Brothers.

Quick and easy to grow from seed, Thunbergia alata is usually grown as an annual in zones 4–9.

4. Sweet Potato Vine ‘Marguerite’

For a hanging basket trailing with 4–9-feet-long stems of big chartreuse-green, heart-shaped leaves, Sweet Potato Vine ‘Marguerite’ creates a hanging basket like no other. Ipomoea batatas ‘Marguerite’ has larger, brighter foliage than many other ornamental sweet potato varieties, with individual leaves often reaching 5–6 inches across, so it really deserves showcasing in a container, rather than its usual task of fast ground cover.

Sweet Potato Vine ‘Marguerite’ grows from tender tubers so it’s often grown as an annual in all zones, though it will survive winter in zones 9–11. However, in colder zones, you can easily store the tubers in vermiculite in a frost-free spot over winter to replant the following spring. Its vigorous nature also means it’s simple to take cuttings before the first frost, which will easily root in water to be grown as houseplants over winter.

Young plants are available from Burpee.

5. Calliope Geranium

LUSH BLOOMS EVEN IN SOUTHERN HEAT

This stunner has been bred to cope with high heat so, even if you live in zones 9–11, these voluptuous, velvety blooms can grace a hanging basket in your garden. And if you’ve never tried growing geraniums before, ‘Calliope’ is a great spot to start. It’s a cross between a zonal geranium – so it has blooms from May to October – and an ivy-leaved geranium – so its trailing foliage is aromatic, bright green and oh-so shapely. It’s also a doddle to grow, even if this is your first time, and you can choose from the ruby-toned ‘Calliope Dark Red’ or bright pink ‘Calliope Lavender Rose’, both available from Burpee.

They’re happy in sun or part shade and can be grown in all zones. Calliopes are perennial in zones 9–11, or treat them as an annual in colder zones, or overwinter indoors. This is a semi-trailing variety so you’ll enjoy a mound of flowers with stems spilling a foot or two from a hanging basket, so it’s a knock-out patio feature with months of flower power, as long as you keep deadheading fading blooms.

6. Creeping Jenny

LONG STEMS DENSE WITH GOLDEN LEAVES

The vigorous nature of creeping Jenny means it can be a spreading pest if you let it loose in your borders. Contained in a hanging basket, however, those fast-growing stems will quickly cascade into a wonderful waterfall of golden-green leaves. And, because the stems are dense and their myriad small leaves are rounded, the effect is a textural treat. This is a super plant to add to a planter full of flowers as the color is the perfect foil to make the blooms look brighter.

Perennial in zones 4–9, plants are available from Home Depot. Do be careful with it though: self-rooting stems means Lysimachia can spread indefinitely in the ground, crowding out native plants, and it’s classed as an invasive species in Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

7. English Ivy

LOW-EFFORT EVERGREEN LEAVES

If you’re looking for a textural plant to create a hanging basket with a sleek, modern vibe, look no further. For year-round trailing green foliage in partial to full shade for next-to-no effort, you can’t beat perennial English ivy, hardy in zones 4–11 and available from Nature Hills. While this plant is normally grown up a wall or fence, or as ground cover, Hedera helix is happy to grow in a hanging basket, with vines trailing 10 feet long if left to their own devices, so it’s great for adding privacy to pergolas – try hanging a few baskets along an outer strut for a curtain of lovely leaves. So lovely, in fact, that many people grow English ivy as a houseplant.

For a little extra va-va-voom, English Ivy ‘Thorndale’ has bigger, glossier leaves patterned with prominent creamy white veins. It’s a little less hardy so suitable for zones 5–11, and plants are also available from Nature Hills. It’s more sun- and heat-tolerant, though it’ll do best if sheltered from the extremes of afternoon sunshine.

In a hanging basket, it’s best to prune a third off stems in early spring, to maintain dense growth.