Learn how to care for hanging baskets and planters to keep them looking beautiful all summer long. Easy tips designed to give you the most gorgeous blooms!
The Outdoor Extravaganza
If you’re following along on The Household Organization Diet, you know that this month is dedicated to working on getting the yard ready for spring and summer. For extra inspiration, I’m also going to be joining Shauna from Satori Design for Living for her Outdoor Extravaganza. For the next three weeks, an awesome group of bloggers will be sharing their best tips for creating a beautiful outdoor oasis. This week we’ll be focusing on outdoor flowers and plants, so be sure to check out all of the ideas at the end of this post.
How to Care for Hanging Baskets and Planters
I’m just starting to work on putting our outdoor hanging baskets and planters together. It’s actually one of my favorite things to do each spring and I love tending to all of my planters throughout the summer. Over the years, we’ve had a lot of hanging baskets and planters and my skills at keeping them alive {and thriving!} throughout the summer have definitely improved.
Today I wanted to share my fool-proof tips for keeping your annual baskets and planters looking their best all summer long. It does take a little bit of work, but caring for your flowers can be quite therapeutic and a great way to spend some time outdoors. Incorporate these simple tips into your summer routine for your best planters and hanging baskets ever!
Tips to Keep Your Hanging Baskets and Planters Looking Good All Summer
Water Often.
Hanging baskets and flower planters typically need more water than flowers in a garden. How often you will need to water your baskets will vary depending on the time of year and temperatures. I can usually get away with watering our planters every 2-3 days during the cooler spring days, but I up it to once per day during the summer months. If it’s exceptionally hot or windy out {or if you have smaller baskets}, you may even need to water twice per day. Follow these tips for the best water guidelines…
- Try to water your plants at the coolest time of day so the water doesn’t evaporate as quickly.
- Smaller hanging baskets and planters will generally dry out quicker than larger baskets {due to the smaller amount of soil}, so be sure to check them more often.
- Give the hanging baskets enough water so that the water streams down through the drainage holes. The baskets should feel quite heavy with the water weight.
- If you’re not sure if your planters need water, poke your finger down into the soil about an inch to see if it is dry at that depth. It’s time to water if it is!
- Remember that there is such a a thing as too much water! If the soil is too wet or the planter remains in standing water, root rut can occur. It’s all about finding that happy medium! 🙂
Dead head.
As the flowers die, be sure to remove them by pinching them off where they meet the stem. Not only does this make your baskets look better, but it also encourages more blooms. There are some flowers, however, that don’t require this, so check the care instructions on the specific flowers you’re planting. It might save you a little time!
Fertilize.
A little bit of fertilizer {either a liquid fertilizer OR a dry release fertilizer} can go a long ways! I only started doing this a couple of years ago and it made a big difference in our planters. The fertilizer will replenish any nutrients in the soil that are depleted with watering and will help to create fuller looking baskets. Make sure that you fertilize when the soil is moist – not when the plants are wilting – and follow the directions on the specific fertilizer that you’re using. As your flowers grow, they may require more fertilizer than they did at the beginning of the season. It’s also a good idea to re-fertilize if your flowers are out in a heavy rainfall as the excess rain can drain the fertilizer.
Trim once or twice a season.
Planters {and especially hanging baskets}, can start to look prety straggly by mid-summer. You don’t want your hanging basket looking like it has a mullet! If this happens, give them a little “haircut” to increase branching and create a fuller looking basket for the rest of the summer. To trim, use a pair of sharp sheers to trim off at least a couple of inches. Baskets with a lot of trailing flowers may need a little bit more. You basically just want to even things out. Be warned that you may lose some pretty flowers short-term, but your baskets and planters should bounce back quickly and will be much healthier in the long-term.
Plant only what you can care for.
I’m always so excited to go to the garden store each spring and want to buy everything! As tempting as it can be to buy a ton of flowers to plant, be sure that you only purchase what you actually have time to care for. A few nice hanging baskets and planters that are well loved looks SO much better than a lot of planters that are wilting and straggly. Once you get in the routine and know how long it takes you, you can always add more if you would like!
Rotate your hanging baskets around.
If you notice the one or two of your baskets is doing a lot better than the rest, try rotating their location if possible. We have two hanging baskets on either side of our front porch but one side always gets a strong blast of the afternoon sun while the other side is a little more temperate. By mid-summer, one basket was looking great and the other was looking pretty sad. For the past few summers, I’ve switched the baskets every week, and it’s made such a difference.
So that wraps up my favorite tips for maintaining hanging baskets and planters. I hope it’s inspired you to head down to your local garden store and pick up some flowers this weekend! There’s usually an awesome selection by this time of year and some great sales on for Mother’s Day! {A little yard labor would be a good Mother’s Day gift too!}
More Outdoor Plant and Flower Ideas
Before you go, be sure to check out these posts from my amazing friends! There are so many awesome ideas to help you create that outdoor space you’ve always wanted. Enjoy!
Satori Design for Living | On Sutton Place | City Farmhouse | Maison de Pax
The DIY Mommy | A Pretty Life | Vinyet Etc. | Life On Virginia Street
The Happy Housie | Clean and Scentsible | Casa Watkins Living | Postcards from the Ridge | Finding Silver Pennies
You also may enjoy these posts…
Summer Front Porch Decorating Ideas
Thanks for the reminders! I need to do a much better job of dead heading!
That’s actually my favorite part. I find it very therapeutic! lol!
That pergola with hanging baskets is beautiful. Can you believe I’ve never done hanging pots? Every year, I consider them, but never get around to doing it. They’re so pretty. Maybe this is the summer ha ha!
I love hanging baskets. They look even prettier once they all fill in and start spilling over. 🙂 I feel that this is your summer!!
Such great tips. I’m thinking of adding more hanging baskets this year. I love yours. I also think fertilizer is important. I did that this year and I think it’s made a world of difference to our lawn and other plants.
Definitely!! I used to think that it was just a money grab but I really do notice a difference.
So many good tips Jenn! It’s so good to remember only to plant what you can care for…I’m guilty of creating too many pots, and by midsummer I can barely keep up with deadheading!
It’s always so tempting at the garden store though! SO many beautiful blooms!
This is my first year attempting hanging plants… it’s for a sponsored post so I really hope I planted the right flowers, yikes! Really gardening is a learning experience, isn’t it? Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!
Gardening is definitely more like a fun experiment! lol! I’m sure your baskets will turn out lovely. xo
Jenn these are great tips and ideas! I admit that I shy away from hanging planters since I forget to water them, but I’m loving your ideas that I may give it another go! 🙂
The watering can definitely be a bit of a pain but they’re well worth it! 🙂
When you redhead. What do,you mean? I have lots of petunias, but not sure where I should cut them off.
It’s really easy! Just clip off the blooms once they turn brown and cut the stems directly above the next set of leaves. If they’re starting to look straggly, I’ll cut them down even more (usually once or twice per season). In this case, it does take a little longer for them to bloom again but they will last longer overall. 🙂
Great tips. I water ours often, am good at dead heading and add a fertiliser now and again. I’ve not thought about moving them round though, that’s such a good idea. I also get a bit carried away in the spring so really thinking about what we can manage is a good idea too, thanks.
The weather around here has been so up and down this summer – rainy for days then super hot and dry – my plants don’t seem to know what’s going on. They’ve been a little more work than typical. 😉
The floral added to all those spaces really makes it pretty. Thank you for sharing this post on the link party. So happy I found this great post! Happy Summer, Kippi
Thank-you!! And thanks so much for hosting. Hope you have a wonderful summer too!
Great tips! Watering my planters is my morning ritual. 🙂 Thanks for sharing with SYC.
hugs,
Jann
Thanks for linking up at our To Grandma’s House We Go DIY, Crafts, Recipes and More Link Party! Pinned!
Your annuals all look so lovely Jenn. Great tips and post!
Thank you for sharing at Create, Bake, Grow & Gather this week. I’m delighted to be featuring your helpful tips post at tonight’s party and pinning too!
Hugs,
Kerryanne
I love these pointers for hanging baskets and planters! I am also an over-zealous flower buyer. I buy all the plants and then when it comes time to planting, I am continually ending up with several that have died because I didn’t get around to planting them soon enough! I love your pics!
It’s so hard when they all look so pretty! 😉
Your pants looks stunning and I might have to make one my self like yours. I have 2 hanging baskets that are now beginning to look half dead. I kept forgetting to water them daily. Great tips over all. Thank you!