LOOKING AFTER YOUR PLANTS WHAT YOU’LL NEED THE EASY GUIDE TO ● Watering – Pots and baskets ● Deadheading – Snip off dead • Trowel • Water-retaining gel areMaint prone to drying out and enanceflowers at regular intervals to Too ls • Watering can • Moss, leaves or liner should be watered frequently – promote new growth. • Bucket • Plants of your choice perhaps twice daily in the height ● Time-saving tips: HANGING • Containers of summer. Avoid watering in ● Sow seed of trailing nasturtiums • Baskets For more information: the heat of the day. direct into the compost. • Potting compost www.rhs.org.uk/advice ● Feeding – If you didn’t add fer- ● Add water-retaining gel to gen- Baskets • Slow-release fertiliser www.plantforlife.info BASKETS & tiliser when planting, push a few eral potting compost to help plant food tablets between the prevent plants from drying out, plants into the soil to around or use special hanging basket finger depth. Give a weekly liq- compost that contains fertiliser CONTAINERS uid feed to keep plants looking and water-retaining gel. healthy and flowering longer. ● Place a pot underneath when HORTICULTURAL TRADES ASSOCIATION ● Pest control – Greenfly and watering to collect excess water. blackfly can be controlled with ● Don’t waste precious compost THE HORTICULTURAL TRADES ASSOCIATION IS RUN sprays. Ask your local garden when planting deep containers BY THE GARDEN INDUSTRY FOR THE GARDEN INDUSTRY Containers centre or nursery for advice. such as chimney pots. Unless It isHTA dedicated to providing services, products, advice and information Snails often breed under ceram- you’re planting particularly to help support and promote the business activities of ic pots. They can be controlled deep-rooted plants, use the garden retailers, growers, landscapers, wholesalers, with one of the many slug and contents of last year’s growbags manufacturers and service providers in the UK. snail remedies available from to fill the bottom half or insert ● Tel: 0118 930 3132 or visit www.the-hta.org.uk your garden centre or nursery. a large plastic pot in the top. ● HTA Specialist Group – British Bedding and Pot Plant Association (BBPA) www.thebbpa.org.uk ● PlantforLife – visit www.plantforlife.info CONTAINERS IN WINTER Create winter colours with hardy cyclamen, winter pansies, ornamental ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY cabbages,Wint primulas, ivy ander small conifers. When temperatures drop, if you haven’t room to put containers under cover, insulate plants and pro- THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY tect pots from cracking by surrounding with newspaper or bubble plastic IS RHSTHE UK’S LEADING GARDENING CHARITY and tying with string. Keep clay or ceramic pots raised off the ground. Membership benefits include: Winter baskets benefit from a dense lining to protect their roots from ● free entry with a guest to RHS Gardens Wisley, freezing. A recycled circle of knitwear (cut up an old jumper), some old Rosemoor, Hyde Hall and Harlow Carr; tights or a few sheets of newspaper are all ideal. ● free entry to more than 140 recommended gardens; privileged entry and reduced-rate tickets for RHS flower shows; ● free gardening advice service; ● and free monthly edition of The Garden magazine. ● Call 0845 130 4646 or visit www.rhs.org.uk Photography: Tim Sandall, GPL/Graham Strong, GPL/Stephen Hamilton Made from at least 50% recycled paper; the remainder is from certified forests WHERE DO I START? PLANTING CONTAINERS Whether you live in a town house, flat or a country cottage, anybody can PREPARATIONCont & PLANTINGainers TIME: 20–30 MINS PER CONTAINER trySt containerart gardening. From a couple of window boxes to a roof terrace Containers or patio filled with pots and tubs, containers are a great way to brighten ● Select a container 30–45cm in ● Place small blocks underneath up your outside space and bring pleasure to passers-by. Because you diameter. Add at least 3cm of pots to help drainage. can control the planting environment in a pot or basket, you can provide drainage material – gravel, bro- ● Consider how tall the plants will the best conditions and position for particular plants to flourish. ken pots or crockery, pebbles or grow – you don’t want window If you want to bring the garden right up to your door, hanging baskets broken polystyrene plant trays. boxes blocking out the light! are a simple solution! They can be fixed on a house or garden wall or ● To create colour all year round, suspended from the beams of a porch or the branches of a tree. choose a selection of evergreens Colourful and satisfying, pots and hanging baskets don’t take long and flowers. Try growing shrubs, to prepare and provide months of pleasure, so why not have a go at herbaceous perennials (plants container gardening today? that die back in winter and grow again the next year), climbers, CHOOSING POTS & PLANTS heathers, rockery/alpine plants, miniature roses, herbs, straw- PLANTING HANGING BASKETS Containers come in all shapes and sizes – for example pots, troughs, half berries and dwarf conifers. The Hanging baskets are mostly made from simple lightweight wire frames, barrels,Choosing window boxes and mangers in materials such as clay, stone, ter- choice is endless, but here’s two plastic, wood or natural materials, but it really doesn’t matter what they racotta, wood, plastic and wire. When choosing a container consider the examples to get you started: Hanging Baskets site – natural materials look good against traditional buildings and walls look like as before too long they should be covered with an abundance ● You can also line sides with STUNNING SUMMER: Planted in of flowers! Half-baskets or troughs are especially suited to garden walls or among plants, while plastics and fiberglass suit more modern envi- bubble plastic to protect against late spring/early summer, this dis- and the extra protection may well mean that they bloom for longer. ronments. And consider the size of your plant(s) – you don’t want your frost and reduce water loss. play will flower until autumn and When your hanging basket is full of compost and plants it can be quite container swamped or it will rapidly need repotting. Provide plenty of is ideal for a sunny site. Plant an heavy, particularly when wet. So your fitting needs to be secure. If you large drainage holes in the base and ensure ceramic pots are frost proof. Osteospermum (African daisy) in are fastening your basket with a bracket, the bracket itself will be on Old chimney pots, sinks, buckets and chamber pots can all be used. the centre, surrounded with ver- view, so an attractive-looking design will do much to complete the Dozens of plants do well in containers and hanging baskets. Here are bena in white and pink to purple finished appearance. Whenever you hang up a basket, check that just a few from which to choose: and edged with trailing, silver- the fittings, the bracket and the chains are all safe and secure. CONTAINER PLANTS THAT GROW ON FROM YEAR TO YEAR: clematis, leaved Helichrysum petiolare. dwarf conifers, patio roses, shrubs such as choisya or hydrangea PATIO PARADISE: Planted in NON-HARDY CONTAINER PLANTS (DAMAGED OR KILLED BY FROST): autumn, the bright colours of this PREPARATION & PLANTING TIME: 20–30 MINS PER BASKET fuchsia, Impatiens (busy Lizzie), geranium container will erupt in spring. At ● Take a basket about 45cm in HOT COLOURS: Planted once CONTAINER BULBS: crocus, hyacinths, low-growing tulips and daffodils the front of the pot, plant blue diameter and rest it on a bucket frosts have finished, these clash- PLANTS FOR SUMMER HANGING BASKETS: begonia (trailing types), ● Add good quality potting com- hyacinth and white tulip bulbs at so that the side plants hang ing red, pink and orange flowers bidens, Felicia amelloides (blue daisy), fuchsia (trailing), Helichrysum post containing fertiliser just three times their own depth and down as you plant them. give a flavour of India and should (trailing), herbs, Impatiens (busy Lizzie), Lobelia (trailing), Lotus below the rim of the pot. cover with compost. At the back, ● Place a basket liner inside or bloom well into autumn in a sunny berthelotii (coral gem), pelargonium (ivy-leaved geranium), Petunia, ● Plant bulbs towards the bottom plant some small daffodils, such you could use moss or leaves for position. Plant three Lotus or Plectranthus (Swedish ivy), tomatoes, strawberries, viola or pansy. at three times their depth. as Narcissus ‘Tête à Tête’. a more natural feel with a tray Nepeta plants in the sides, then in the base to conserve water. add three trailing ivy-leaved gera- ● Half-fill the basket with good- nium and two red Verbena in the quality potting compost. top of your basket. Water daily. ● Plant a mix of foliage and flow- WINTER BLUES: Re-plant baskets ering plants or a mass of one in September or October with a variety for impact. With wire mix of blue, yellow or white win- baskets, gently push small ter pansies, bulbs and evergreens. plants from the outside through Plant three trailing ivy plants in the sides of the basket, taking the sides of each basket and add care not to damage their roots. five or six plants of winter-flower- ● Top up with potting compost, add ing pansies at the top. Position ● Put a permanent plant in the a central large plant then work five or six crocus and dwarf iris centre of containers, or at either outwards with smaller plants. bulbs below the compost between end of window boxes. Place ● Water well and keep out of full the pansies. Hang in a sheltered, trailing plants around the edges. sun for a week before hanging up. sunny spot and keep well watered..