GARDENING : Those Blooming Baskets Can Be a Breeze
Pink marshmallow fuchsias cascade from a dark-green bed of baby tears. The hot-pink blossoms of a dwarf bougainvillea are mixed with a trailing ivy geranium with pink flowers. Golden marigolds spring from a bed of white alyssum, orange petunias and trailing ivy.
Peek under most any patio cover in Orange County and you are likely to see hanging baskets such as these swaying in the breeze and sprouting a colorful bouquet.
One of the most popular varieties is the moss basket--a wire basket lined with sphagnum moss and filled with potting soil and plants.
These are relatively simple to create because wire baskets are available in a wide range of sizes and styles, and adding the moss is easy, with a bit of instruction. Baskets are also fairly inexpensive, depending on the size selected.
One of the most popular basket sizes is 14 inches wide and deeper than many of the basket styles, which are somewhat shallow. The 14-inch basket can be lined with moss and planted for about $30, depending on the plants selected.
Itemized costs might be: wire basket, $4; bag of sphagnum moss, $9; potting soil, about $3; three color packs of six plants each, about $9; a one-gallon plant, about $3 and three four-inch plants, about $3.
Already planted, the baskets sell from $23 for 12-inch, shallow baskets up to $250 for huge, heavy 30-inch baskets. You probably won’t save a lot of money by making your own, but you will have a chance to try your hand at this elegant form of gardening and create a colorful hanging bouquet from a wide palette of plant materials.
Many people want to make their own baskets, according to Toni Parsons, production manager at Roger’s Gardens in Newport Beach, where she has supervised the creation of hundreds of the baskets.
“I think it’s the pride of being able to put it together yourself and successfully grow it,” Parsons says.
It’s just “the fun of doing it,” agrees Barbara Miller, who conducts free weekend workshops, at the nursery’s Newport Beach location, on the creation, care and feeding of moss baskets.
First, Miller shows people how to transform a soggy mass of moss into the lining for a basket. The moss is soaked in a large bucket for several hours. It is suggested that some type of plant food containing vitamin B and other nutrients be added to the soaking solution to get plants off to a good start.
Miller’s instructions for lining the basket begin by taking a handful of the soggy moss and squeezing out the water. Planters then form a tight ball of moss and push it through the top two horizontal wires of the basket, while also pressing it tightly against a vertical wire.
Take another handful and repeat the process, pressing this against the first insertion of moss. Repeat this process until moss is tightly tucked around the entire rim of the basket. Turn the basket upside down and use the closed blades of small gardening shears to press the second wire from the top tighter against the moss. Then use the shears to shape the moss evenly around the rim.
The inside of the basket is lined by taking a handful of moss, squeezing out the water and patting the ball of moss into a flat sheet in your hand.
Start with the bottom of the basket and layer in overlapping sheets of moss. Repeat this until the bottom is covered to about a 1-inch thickness. If an area appears to be too thin, or has a hole, just add some more moss. Repeat this procedure to line the sides of the basket.
When the basket is fully lined, set it aside for at least one day to dry out a bit.
Now it’s time to plant.
Maybe you want a fern springing from a bed of impatiens or a mixture of pink begonias, trailing blue or white lobelia and ivy. The color trend for the last few years has been “pinks, lavenders, blues and whites for both sun and shade,” Parsons says. “But we are seeing an interest in a touch of yellow this year and quite a bit of white is being used. White is very pretty at night.”
Miller says plant selection is critical to success. “Try and pick plants that are compatible,” she tells her workshop audience.
Baskets should be planted with either sun plants or shade plants and with plants that have similar water requirements. If you have some shade plants mixed with those that need sun, or drought-tolerant plants mixed with those that need frequent watering “one of them’s not going to do well,” Miller says.
It’s also important to decide what you want to get out of a basket. If you plant only seasonal color, then that basket will probably have to be replanted in a few months. For a sun basket that “will last for years if it’s taken care of,” Miller suggests ivy planted on the sides, with begonias (richmondensis variety), lantana, ivy geranium, petunias and trailing lobelia planted in the top of the basket. The petunias will die out when cooler days arrive, but by then, Miller says, the rest of the plants will have filled out to cover the space.
Miller says some people put year-round plants on the sides of the basket and change its top as seasons change.
Some people don’t plant the sides of baskets at all. They just plant the top and let the plants trail over. A basket planted with just impatiens may soon disappear beneath a thriving plant.
To plant the sides of a moss basket, poke holes in the moss, starting at the bottom of the basket and alternating the holes high and low (but no higher than the sixth wire in the basket).
Remove the plants from the color packs and break up the root balls slightly. Then wrap a piece of moss around the roots and insert the plants from the outside, one at a time. Push the moss tightly around each plant when the root ball is inside the basket.
When you finish installing one tier of plants, add enough potting soil to cover the roots and plant another tier, or possibly two, depending on your design and the size of the basket. Add potting soil for each layer.
The top of the basket may be planted with a one-gallon plant as a focal point and maybe three 4-inch plants, or possibly all 4-inch, 6-inch or 8-inch plants. Add as much potting soil as may be needed, but keep it 2 inches below the rim of the basket.
Water the basket and place it in partial shade for a couple of days. Then, you can move it to the shade or sun location appropriate for the plants selected. When hanging the plant, be sure to use a swivel hook (available for about $1.30). This will make a big difference in how evenly the plants grow, Miller says, because it allows the basket to rotate.
Now you have a beautiful basket. But how do you keep it that way?
“Probably the most important part is feeding and watering the basket,” Miller says.
Soil in a container is quickly depleted of nutrients and needs additives. She advises adding flower food to baskets every two weeks and a soil activator every two months.
For effective watering of hanging baskets, Miller suggests using a water wand (available at nurseries for under $10) that attaches to a hose. This provides a gentle soaking. Using a hose alone might erode the soil, according to Miller.
Frequency of watering depends on whether the basket is in the shade or sun and how hot the weather is. And, deeper baskets may tend to hold moisture longer than shallow ones. As a rule of thumb, Roger’s Gardens’ staff suggests watering three times a week for sun baskets in warm weather and two times a week in cool weather. They suggest once or twice a week for shade baskets.
But Miller says it’s important to check the baskets and not let them dry out. She suggests simply using a finger to test the moisture of the soil.
She also recommends adding a small amount of a product called Broadleaf P-4, a synthetic compound that helps retain moisture in the baskets.
“This cuts down on your watering by 75%,” she says.
HANGING BASKET CARE SHEET
1. Soak the moss overnight.
2. Construct the top rim caps. This rim serves as a lip to hold in soil and water around the top edge of the basket. Using a small fist full of moss, squeeze out most of the water to form a tight ball. Push it through the top two wires of the wire basket against the closet vertical support wire. Add another ball of moss, pushing it tightly against the first ball and continue around the entire rim. Allow the top and second wires to hold the moss in place. When the moss starts to spring back to fullness, it will naturally cover the wires.
3. Form the moss lining. Push the pre-soaked moss through the basket wires from the inside to form a one-inch thick layer starting at the base and lining the entire basket. Make sure there are no holes in the mass--especially under the rim.
4. Begin with the bottom tier. Poke planting holes in the moss with fingers or shears. Select a pony- or color-pack plant sizes so that the root ball will be smaller and easier to work with. With a small amount, wrap the root ball in moss then insert the plant from the outside, gently pulling from the inside. Once the plant is in place, using a pencil, pull the moss back in place around the neck or base of the plant. Once a tier is planted, add enough Roger’s Potting Soil to cover the roots. Push down lightly on the soil.
5. Add potting soil. Once a tier is planted, add enough potting soil to cover the roots. Push down lightly on the soil.
6. Plant remaining tiers. Continue as in steps 4 and 5, working your way up towards the rim remembering to add soil as you finish each tier.
7. Plant top of basket. You can easily use 4-inch, 6-inch, 8-inch or 1 gallon-size plants. Add potting soil after placing top plants making sure soil level is about 2 inches below the top rim.
8. Water the basket. Water throughly and then hang your basket for a day or two in an area where there is bright, filtered light. Then hang basket in a permanent location suitable for the types of plants you have used (sun or shade). The frequency of watering will depend on the weather, the location and the type of plants. Do not allow plants to dry out (wilt) between waterings. When you do water, use low water pressure and a water wand. Make sure the basket is throughly saturated, applying water 3-5 times, pausing between each application to allow water to drain through the basket. For full sun plants in warm to hot months, water three times a week; two times a week in cool weather. For shade plants, water once or twice a week according to the weather.
9. Location. Choose a suitable location in terms of full sun, shade and wind.
10. Fertilizer. A general rule is once plants are established (after 2 weeks) you can begin to feed the plants every two weeks with flower food during the warm growing months of April through September.
11. Spraying. Identify the pest or disease and use a product that is formulated specifically for that particular disease of pest. A general rule is to spray once a week for three weeks--to eliminate the problem.
12. Grooming. Always remove spent flowers and dead leaves to promote more flowering. Pinch leaf tips to create fullness. Keep soil clean of flower and leaf debris to discourage disease.
Source: Roger’s Gardens, Newport Beach
