Annuals for suspended containers and pots

According to my personal scale of garden aesthetics, the maximum 10 scores certainly have plants in pendant containers.

They hung all the summer cottages, including the fence, as well as all the trees suitable for this. Depending on their current hobbies, they are either busy with ampoule tomatoes (which look no less impressive than flowering plants), or with a large collection of ampule tuberous begonias. But their most frequent inhabitants are, of course, a variety of annual flowers. So today we will focus on them.

Which flower is most often grown in suspended containers? Correctly, petunia and her numerous relatives (surfium, etc.). Of course, I grew it all for many years, too. But today there is not a word about the popular and already somewhat banal petunia. Fortunately in the world there are dozens of other plants, including rare ones, perfectly suitable for hanging pots.

Bacopa

I'll start with not the most popular, but quite me enchanted plants. Bakopa, like many other our pilots, by its nature perennial, but not hibernating in our conditions. But if you want and have a light and cool room, you can save it until the spring, and it will please you again, and cut off old shoots and use on cuttings.

Bacopa is a grassy creeping plant whose branches can be extended up to 70 cm in length. Small and absolutely charming flowers are white, pink and purple.

Flowering lasts almost the entire season and passes in waves. That is, the buds are tied and opened abundantly almost simultaneously, after flowering, they fall, and new ones grow in their place. All bacopa care is watering and pinching the shoots. Bacopa is hydrophilic, since in nature it grows in well-moistened areas near water bodies. Pots with it should be placed in the sunniest places, because in the shade, its shoots will be greatly lengthened and thinner, stretching toward the sun, and flowering will be extremely modest.

Several times I tried to grow a bakop from seeds, but even with a very early sowing, it blossoms quite late. Therefore, it is easier to buy ready-made seedlings, although it is very difficult to find it (like seeds). But it's worth it!

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Cataracts

Another not the most popular flower. In culture, only one species is used - pink cataranthus, which is often called a periwinkle (its leaves and flowers in shape are really similar to a real periwinkle). Catharanthus flowers are white and different shades of pink. It can be easily grown from seeds, but they will have to be sown no later than February. To get flowering plants in June, it is better, as in the case of bacopa, to look for ready seedlings.

Often it is sold as an indoor flower, but it feels great on the street, especially in hot summer, when its flowering is especially plentiful. The cataract well grows in the penumbra, or rather, where it is lit by direct sun, at least 3-4 h per day.

Its main advantages are very decorative foliage (and not just flowers), unpretentiousness and continuous continuous flowering until autumn. Unlike bacopas, it does not form a waterfall of long, flowering shoots, but a lush flowering hat of glossy and almost non-yellowing leaves and rather large flowers.

Lobelia

Well this plant is known to all. In hanging pots, both ordinary lobelia and its ampel species look equally well. Since the seeds of lobelia are microscopic, and the cultivation of her seedlings has always been a torture for me, I sow the seeds immediately in pendant pots around the beginning of the middle of April. And before the onset of warm weather I keep them on the glassed balcony.

With this method blooms lobelia in the middle of July and blossoms until the frosts. It is unpretentious, rather drought-resistant, but prefers sunny places or a very light penumbra.

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Balsamins

These plants I adore for the fact that in my not too sunny old garden pots with them can be hung almost everywhere, and not look for places with a scarce sun. They are beautiful and very abundantly bloom even in the shade of trees, so usually I hang pots with them on apple trees.

And in general, balsam with their tender, like sugar flowers I really like, especially since almost every year you can find new varieties and hybrids of unusual colors, including bicolour and terry. For the most part, these are variations of Waller's balsam. 10 years ago, we had seeds of ampel balsam. But the image on the bag, in my opinion, is somewhat exaggerated.

Such long flowing shoots have never worked for me, its stems are only slightly longer than in traditional varieties. However, this does not spoil it at all. Virtually any balm will look in a pendant pot amazingly. Only planting it is better to thicken, 3-6 plants in the pot, to form a three-dimensional flowering cap. Grow balsam from seeds is very simple, they are large, seedlings

grows quickly, it turns out strong and easily transferring the transplant. Sow, however, will have in March, but in the case of balsams this for some reason does not bother me at all. Especially in the form of finished seedlings, you will never find such a variety of varieties and hybrids, like seeds.

Like bakopa, and catarrhatus, balm can be kept in a cool cool place in winter (sometimes it survives even on the windowsill in the apartment), and in spring cut the bush and cuttings to root (they instantly form roots even in a glass of water). With my favorite and rare varieties, I usually did. Especially since balsams grown from cuttings bloom almost a month earlier than those grown from seeds.

Marigold

Traditionally, they are grown as a curb, but almost all varieties of marigolds rejected and fine-leafed look great in suspended containers. Varieties belonging to the first species form accurate flat caps, while the latter look like whole clouds with openwork foliage and small flowers.

Marigolds can be sown at the end of April immediately in hanging pots (in the case of frosts they are easy to put into the house), or seedlings can be grown. I prefer the first option. Since marigolds are plants that grow beautifully both in the sun and in partial shade, pots with them can be placed almost anywhere.

Nasturtium

In pendant pots, both dwarf compact varieties and medium length sticks look great. In the bright sun, the bloom will be more abundant, but the leaves will dry faster and turn yellow. Seeds can be planted immediately in the pots at the end of April, but do not get carried away by the amount. On an average pot, with a diameter of 30 cm, 4-5 plants will suffice.

Cladanthus

A fairly rare plant, ideal for hanging containers. Against the backdrop of a cap from a delicate openwork, daisy-like foliage, bright yellow daisies, somewhat resembling calendula, unfold.

The cladanthus does not tolerate frosts, but it develops quite rapidly, in spite of the small seeds. I sow them right in the pot (not sprinkled with earth) at the end of April and, before the emergence of sprouts, I keep on the glassed balcony, covered with glass or film. After that, if the weather permits, I take to the street.

Cladanthus blooms in late June and blooms to frost, forming ever new shoots and flowers. Extremely cute, unpretentious and drought tolerant plant! The only requirement is a lot of sun. Even in light partial shade, flowering noticeably weakens. If you have never grown cladanthus, I highly recommend it!

Gypsophila

An annual gypsophila forms a charming white or pink cloud in a hanging pot. It can be sown immediately in a pot, and it blooms very quickly. Alas, flowering does not last very long - this is its main drawback.

Eschsolcia

Drought-resistant and sun-loving eschscholzia is a worthy and unpretentious candidate for hanging containers. They sow it immediately in a pot, it grows quickly, blooms early and looks pretty. But it has the same minus as the gypsophila - short flowering.

Mini flower beds in baskets and pots. I plant.

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CHOOSING CONTAINERS

Plastic pots with a "mustache"

This is probably the most common option, which has many advantages. The most budgetary option. You can find it in any garden center and a large flower shop.

There are a variety of sizes, so suitable for any plant.

Most often have a terracotta or white color, but you can find colorful. Very light. Plastic walls retain moisture well.

Durable enough and can last about 8-10 years (if not drop).

But such pots have their own huge minus. Plastic "mustache" - the mount is extremely unreliable and short-lived. From my own experience I can say that it is extremely rare that they last more than 1-2 seasons. And then you have to search for a new "mustache", which, by the way, is by no means universal, i.e. not suitable for every pot.

Plastic pots and flower pots on chains

They cost a little more, but metal chains - the mount is much more reliable and durable than the "mustache". Often, such pots are produced in large volumes (8-10 l), which is very convenient, because a large pot requires rarer watering and is more suitable for moisture-loving annuals. Alas, several roses I came across with the fact that the plastic from which such pots and flowerpots were made was clearly not designed for the large weight of the soil and quickly deformed, and sometimes burst at the point of attachment of the chains.

Metal baskets with coconut fiber

This is the most ideal, but also the most expensive option. The very metal base on the chains can last you a very long time. It does not break down and does not crumble with time like plastic. But here the inner tab of the coconut fiber from time to time will have to change.

Theoretically, they can be found in large garden centers, but these are new costs and time to look. However, it is these metal baskets that nevertheless seem to me most convenient. I use them not so long ago and try to choose the largest ones, with a diameter of about 35 cm. Moreover, if you want to plant seedlings in them, you can not only top,

but also by making small holes-cracks in the walls. In the end, you will get a blossoming ball. By the way, the soil in any case need to be poured not directly into the coconut tab, but by placing polyethylene inside and making a few holes in it to drain the water, otherwise you will have to water this pot five times a day. Coconut fiber does not retain moisture almost.

Wall pots

If for the above options you have to buy brackets or hang them on the trees, then for wall mounting it is enough to drive two carnations into any wall or wooden fence.

I prefer the latter, because as a continuous two-meter-high fence of boards brings me yearning, and pots with blooming annuals are very adorned. Such pots are most often made of plastic and serve for years 5-6 (they are further broken in the place of fastening to the wall). But you can if you want to find and wall variants of metal baskets with coconut tabs.

Containers-bags

Such bags are a rather narrow cylinder made from a soft, water-resistant synthetic material such as oilcloth. In its walls are made holes for planting seedlings.

While it is small, this design does not look very aesthetic. But as it grows, the container itself becomes almost invisible and turns into a continuous blooming cloud. Honestly, I myself did not put flowers in such sacks, but I saw them from others. The design seemed to me quite reliable and durable.

Homemade Containers

This is an option from the series "when you really want, but there is absolutely no money." As pendant containers can act any pots, buckets, old pots and bowls, 5-liter plastic bottles from under water, etc.

For their suspension, you can use ropes, chains, wire and everything that is at hand.

By the way, in a variant with plastic bottles, seedlings can be planted (as in bags) in the holes made in the walls. Thus, after a while, when the plants grow, the bottle itself will not be completely visible.

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GROWING FLOWERS IN SUSPENDED CONTAINERS AND BASKETS - FLOWER TIPS

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ALL SEASON FLOWER BASKET

At the entrance to the house in the summer there is a wicker basket with flowering annuals. So that it is not empty in the spring, I place a container with blooming bulbs inside. To do this, in the fall, I fill it with soil and plant the bulbs, leaving it in a cold greenhouse for the winter and covering it with lutrasil in several layers.

In the cold season, a hanging basket (as well as other free containers) can be decorated with coniferous legs, sprigs of white deer, Matsudan willow, Kontorta hazel, hawthorn, sea buckthorn

SURPRISE

With the onset of spring, we are surprised to notice that buds swell on some branches from the winter composition. Young shoots appear later. The hanging basket unexpectedly becomes a good place for… grafting. By the way, containers can be completely different - these are carts, tubs, garden vases, etc. or beautiful perennials. I begin to prepare the composition in October-November, until the ground froze. The main thing is to securely fix it so that no element is damaged and changes can be made.

Option 1

Fill a suitable container with damp earth or sand. I insert branches of deciduous and coniferous plants. Between them, you can beautifully place inflorescences of perennial asters, ears of cereals, orange lanterns of physalis Franchet, bunches of mountain ash, etc. In late autumn, on the eve of severe frosts, I once again well moisturize the substrate and remove flowers and cereals. I correct the branches, if necessary, add something else. Frost quickly grasps wet sand - and the composition holds on tightly.

Option 2

I collect pine and spruce cones in the forest and hang them from the branches by thin but strong threads of dark green or black color so that they do not stand out against the background of conifers. Closer to the New Year, I add glittering tinsel and sparkling toys to the “winter bouquet”.

© Author: Maria ANASHINA, garden blogger, Moscow

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GROWING ANNUALS - INTERESTING VIDEO

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Also an article on growing colors in containers you can read here

© Author: E. CHERNYSHEVA

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