How Not to Murder Your Hanging Basket in July

Good morning,

I know most of you are in a battle right now. A battle against the heat and trying to keep everything watered. You’ve practically become a dairy farmer, stuck at home because if you leave for more than a day, your hanging baskets and pots might not survive. You’ve worked hard to keep them looking beautiful, and now you’re tied to them.

It’s a common problem. It’s one I talked to my Mom about in the early spring. She had these big beautiful pots on day one. Some were in coconut lined pots. My first words are “You’re going to need staff to live on your porch full time all summer to keep those watered” . It’s not her fault. We emerge from winter and yearn for flowers. So what do we do? Buy fully finished hanging baskets that have 12 flowers when 4 was probably the appropriate amount for the size pot. A 12-14 flower pot needed to be 4 times that size.

Mistake one: overplanting. Pots that should have three, maybe four plants end up with twelve, because you want them to look amazing from day one.

Mistake two: using coconut liners or small plastic pots that dry out constantly and fight you the entire time.

I can help here and you’ll thank me later. With a short-term investment, you can have the nicest hanging baskets in town and they’ll be much easier to maintain.

Yes, it will cost you two to three times more upfront. But next year it will be cheaper. You’ll already have the baskets and can buy smaller plants to fill them in.

The secret?
It’s not really a secret. You’ve seen them hanging outside high-end shops, restaurants, and in cityscapes. They’re larger wire baskets lined with moss or a type of pot called a BloomMaster. You think they just want the biggest and best and money is no object. The truth is these sizes are what’s necessary when you want less maintenance.

They’re bigger and heavier, and they hold much more soil and water. That gives roots room to grow and helps the plants handle the heat. You're basically taking your large ground planters, turning them into moss planters, and hanging them up.

In the case of the BloomMaster, you’re planting on the top and the sides of a pot you would normally have on the ground. The result is a lush, full basket that doesn’t dry out after a few hours in the sun.

If you want to see some examples, check out these incredible baskets from Garden Gateway. They’ve inspired me for over a decade. Not all of them are moss baskets or BloomMasters, but the larger ones are.

You absolutely can make these yourself for just a little more than buying a nice hanging basket. They’ll be a showpiece all season long, and you’ll already have the base to do it again next year.

Here’s what you start with:

When it comes to basket design, I’ll leave that up to you. I love color and a mix of hanging and upright plants. When planting on the side, you’ll want to stick with trailing or short mounding plants. Upright plants tend to reach for the sun and grow against the flow of the basket. But again, we’ll leave the design talk for another day.

The key here is to start with smaller, plug-sized plants. That makes it cheaper. Sure, your basket might look unfinished for a few weeks while it fills in, but your future self in July and August will be glad you were patient.

Where do I get these supplies?
I always start with my local garden center. Tell them what you're looking to build, and they might sell you the supplies they use for their own baskets. They know you’ll likely buy more plants, and you should support them for helping you out. They’ll often have the baskets and bulk moss, and they can usually order what you need if you ask ahead, ideally in the fall. You might even find discounted baskets, with great frames or BloomMaster baskets at the end of the season for less than the cost of raw materials.

The backup plan is online. As much as I hate to say it, Amazon carries most of this. Otherwise, a quick search will turn up garden supply retailers that will ship direct. Heck, maybe I’ll start carrying these things someday myself. A bale is a LOT of moss but share with a friend or use for a few years.

How do I put it together?
Those gaps in the basket sides can look intimidating. That was my first question and until I practiced, the moss just fell out. Some fine people have put together a great video on how to moss a basket. I built these for 20 years and can tell you, there’s definitely an art to it.

You’ll see in the video, but the key is using long-fiber moss, getting it wet, and pressing it firmly into place like you’re slapping on a pancake. As you backfill with soil, it all holds together. If the gaps are too wide, I cheat and run a little fishing line across to give it support. The moss hides the line completely, and it makes a big difference.

Want to make it really simple?
Use a BloomMaster pot. It’s plastic and maybe not as classy-looking as moss, but once it’s full, you won’t notice the middle, and it’s much easier to work with. I’ll often add moss to the bottom six inches for water retention. Fill it with quality soil (ideally one with water-holding crystals), plug in your plants, and you’re set.

It turns into a showcase piece, and all you have to do is water from the top. Just know it gets heavy. You only want to move it three times: once to plant and let it grow out of the way, once to place it in its final spot, and once to take it down at the end of the season.

Here is the video:

Do you feel better now? That trick about wrapping your plug in moss—I do that on all my baskets now. Before you read this, you probably thought those fancy baskets were just people showing off. But turns out, they’re big for a reason: they last longer and they’re easier to water.

What inspired this? Two things. First, my mom called to say her coco-lined baskets were fried and she was taking them down because they needed water two or three times a day. Second, I was in Aspen. It's dry but not hot, and the town was packed with stunning hanging baskets. All of them large and full, so I checked the centers. Every one of them: either a Bloom Master or a big moss-lined frame. Same story in downtown Chicago.

I'm heading back to the Midwest for a month or so from the Mountains. August is peony, iris, daylily and hosta moving season so I needed to head home. We'll talk more about that next week. Until then, stay cool and enjoy the summer flowers.


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