How To Care For Hanging Plants

Hanging plants, pots or baskets are a means to easily spruce up your home or patio, but what do gardeners need to do in order to keep them happy?

Whether your place is home to a giant pothos vine that lives in your kitchen window, or perhaps a few colourful baskets of petunias on your balcony, knowing how to look after hanging plants is crucial if you want to keep them in tip top shape. 

However, the perfect strategy is often linked to what lives in the pot or basket, and where that pot or basket is placed in and around your home – so how do you get it right?

Seven Tips On Keeping Hanging Plants Happy

While opting for hanging plants is often a visually pleasing choice for many green thumbs, it’s also a practical one. Depending on their location, hanging plants can significantly free up floor space, along with keeping out the way of animals (both your pets, and others like wild rabbits or wallabies who may be partial to a nibble). 

In essence, growing plants in hanging baskets is more or less the same when compared to pots or beds, but there are some slight variances in their care that need your consideration. 

Plant Appropriately – Keep in mind that not all plants are best suited to hanging baskets or pots. Mixed plantings also look great too, it’s just a matter of choosing plants that have similar requirements when it comes to sun and water. Pay attention to the amount of wind, sun or shade the hanging plants can expect to receive, and choose accordingly. 

Consider The Weight – If you’re hanging plants outside, choose the largest hanging basket possible. However, be sure to remember that it has to hold a lot of weight, so ensure that it has a strong chain and that it is hanging from a spot that can cope with its weight, especially when it is fully saturated. For the indoor varieties, ensure that your hook is firmly in place for support. 

Expect More Watering – For indoor hanging plants, the only access they have to water is what you give them. If water streams from the drainage holes but the soil still seems dry, try submerging the pot in a bucket of water, as this will give them a thorough soaking. Most hanging plants will tell you when they need a drink, so pay attention to their behaviours. 

Deadhead Blooms Regularly – For flowering hanging plants like petunias and pansies, when the flowers inevitably fade and die, remove them by pinching them off where they meet the stem. This promotes the formation of new flowers, as failure to do so may risk the plant putting its energy into creating seeds instead. 

Choose The Right Support – When introducing hanging plants to your home or verandah, choose a pot or basket that’s best suited to the area as opposed to one that looks the “prettiest”. Plastic baskets have the advantage of reducing water loss and some even come with self-watering saucers which help to ensure that the potting mix remains consistently moist. 

Cut Back When Required – If the plants start to look scraggly or not quite themselves, don’t be afraid to cut them back if and when required. Most common hanging plants, such as vines and flowers, will produce denser new growth, and often appreciate the “haircut” in order to get rid of any yellowing or dead sections.  

Add organic matter – Hanging plants are just as hungry as their ground living counterparts. The difference is they can be neglected as their soil can be more difficult to access and inspect. It is also a good idea to take your hanging plants down once a season to top up with mulch or organic matter. This will ensure that the soil they are living in is in tip top shape. Remember to give your hanging plants a feed with an organic plant food like Biotic booster every few weeks to keep the soil and plants healthy and happy. 

Don’t Forget To Feed Them – In restrictive pots, your plants will require food to “top up” the nutrients that they need to grow. While many fertilisers are manufactured using synthetic materials, they can damage the soil in the long term. By using a plant food and probiotics, you are effectively reintroducing these natural microbes in an organic and chemical free manner. 

Where To Source Indoor Plant Food 

While there is a wide range of solutions available on the market for outdoor plants and gardens, our indoor varieties can suffer due to poor soil health that stems from living in a confined space. As a unique liquid soil conditioner, Indoor Plant Booster is a plant food that’s perfect to keep your indoor and potted plants in tip top shape, including those that reside in pots, hanging baskets, and even those nestled on the verandah. 

If you’re ready to give Indoor Plant Booster a try and introduce it to the flora that you share your home with, be sure to water your plants thoroughly beforehand to assist with absorption. For best results, simply pour the recommended amount directly onto the soil, ideally around the base of the plant. 

At Bioweed, we specialise in organic solutions to ensure that your garden reaches its full potential the natural way. Our range of products such as Indoor Plant Booster are all chemical free, and are providing Australians with safer products to use both in their gardens and in their homes. Based on the Sunshine Coast, our range has been embraced by people from all walks of life, and are backed with twenty years of research and industry knowledge.