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Maintaining Your Hanging Basket

The keys to maintaining your hanging basket really fall into three categories: water, fertilizer, and other maintenance.

Watering is the hardest part of maintaining a hanging basket, or any container plant.  You can't keep the soil too wet because it will result in root rot problems, you can't keep it too dry or the plant wilts and dies.  You want to hit the happy medium.  Here are the rules of thumb for watering hanging baskets:

1. Be sure your pot has drainage holes
2. Water only when the top of the soil is dry to the touch
3. Water until water comes out of the drainage holes
4. Don’t allow your pot to sit in standing water

Fertilizer

Your container plants are only getting nutrition if you provide it to them.  After watering, fertilizer is the most important thing to keep your plants thriving.  I usually recommend adding a slow or controlled-release fertilizer to your hanging basket right after you buy or plant it.  This will provide your basket with a good constant dose of fertilizer.  Be sure to follow the directions on your fertilizer package to make sure you don't damage your plants. 

Other maintenance

There are two other things you may want to do to help maintain your basket for the long-haul.  First, some plants may need deadheading.  Most Proven Winners® plants have been selected to not need deadheading for continuous bloom.

The second thing you may want to do is a midsummer trim.  Hanging baskets can become a bit stretched or open looking over time, even when you are doing everything right. Giving the basket a haircut will rob you of some flowers, but it will increase branching, tighten the habit, and help keep the basket looking good long-term.  Your flowers should come back with in a few days to a week or so and your plant, given enough fertilizer, is likely to start growing more strongly again.