Let’s see if this sounds familiar. You bring beaming baskets of luscious geraniums and fuchsias home in early spring only to find them dried out and dying in a few weeks. Or your children give you a beautiful potted begonia for Mother's Day that doesn't last until Fourth of July!

Don’t worry. It’s not totally your fault. Most commercially prepared baskets are usually planted in plastic pots in a prepared growing medium designed to grow plants in a short period of time. Not only do plastic pots dry out faster, but the growing medium will only sustain your hanging baskets for a few weeks.

To get your basket off to a great start, it is recommended to repot hanging baskets into a larger container with a high quality potting mix, like PRO-MIX for Containers. PRO-MIX®; is the number one potting mix preferred by professionals for more than 30 years.

Here’s the bonus! PRO-MIX for Containers contains water-absorbing crystals that release stored water to the roots when they need it. This means you water about half as much.

Your hanging baskets won't dry out as quickly so plants will have enough water to flourish, flower, and fight off pests.

Customize your own hanging containers or hanging baskets
For longer lasting, more satisfying baskets, why not make your own, using a soilless mix like PRO-MIX for Containers with water absorbing crystals.

Here are just a few suggestions for creating your own baskets:

For sunny spots, experiment with cell packs of either cascading or small upright petunias, trailing ivy leaf geraniums, or fragrant heliotropes. For a small pot, one fuchsia or geranium will do. The larger the pot, the more plants that will fit.

For part-shade, consider snapdragon or nicotiana as the centerpiece.

A favorite combo for summer-long color in shade is tuberous begonia or coleus, impatiens, and trailing lobelia. All come in so many colors, you can grow a blooming rainbow.

When mixing and matching plants in one large container, a good rule of thumb is to limit your selection to three different types of plants. For example, use marguerite daisies for height, petunias for mass, and vinca vine to cascade. A combination of three varieties is attractive yet easy on the eye.

For the best displays, place taller plants, like begonia or coleus, in the center or the back, edge the basket with smaller or trailing plants, such as lobelia, and fill in with shorter plants like impatiens.


“Potting Up” Your Baskets

Before you fill your container determine how much mix you think you’ll need. Fill your baskets about 10 percent less with PRO-MIX for Containers than other products because the water crystals absorb water and increase the mix volume.

Then lightly moisten the desired amount with just enough water to make the mix loose and fluffy — but not soggy and messy — and fill about one-third of the container.

Now place one plant in the center and several — 3, 5 or 7 — encircling it, leaving 4 to 6 inches between plants. The number of plants depends on their size at maturity but always plant in odd numbers, in order to allow plant foliage to fill the basket appropriately.

Add slow-release fertilizer granules and then fill the container with PRO-MIX for Containers up to an inch from the rim. This allows for the crystals' full expansion.

Water gently to settle the mix and activate the absorbing crystals. Then gently press the mix to firm the plants in position, being careful not to compact the tiny air spaces. Roots thrive in a loose soil with lots of air to breathe. Keep the mix moist for the first several weeks after planting.

For the rest of the season, PRO-MIX for Containers requires less frequent watering. When you do water, add generously to re-hydrate the polymer crystals.

Starting your own hanging baskets is certainly a rewarding gardening task, and when you use PRO-MIX for Containers, you’ll be rewarded with more lavish baskets that last longer and more time to enjoy them.

PRO-MIX is manufactured by Premier Horticulture, the industry’s leading producer and distributor of value-added growing media. With its 19 peat bogs and 15 screening & bagging plants located in Canada and the US, more than 16 million bags of growing media, Sphagnum peat moss, potting mixes, planting soils and compost are produced annually for professional and retail markets.

   
 
   
   
 

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