Zamzows Top 5 Hanging Basket Tips
At Zamzows, Hanging Baskets are Life! Well, that may be overstating things a bit. It is, however, one of our favorite Mother’s Day traditions. The thing about hanging baskets is, you want them to last all season. So here are Zamzows top five hanging basket hacks to make sure you have the most beautiful hanging basket all season.
Zamzows Thrive Bloom
Have you experienced this scenario? You get your baskets home and they look great for the first few weeks. Then, the flowers begin to fade and there are no new flowers to replace them. The soil mixes in hanging baskets are designed to promote good drainage, however, they don’t have a lot of nutrients. When feeding your hanging baskets, you want to use food that is high in Phosphorus. Feeding every 3-4 weeks with Zamzows Thrive Bloom will provide what they need to stay full of beautiful flowers all season long.
Dead Heading
Deadheading is sometimes necessary to keep your plants blooming all season. Deadheading is simply removing the spent flowers at the stem. This essentially makes the plant think that it needs to make more flowers for reproduction. Often, you can simply pinch the spent flower off, for plants that have thicker steam like geraniums, small pruners will be helpful. Over the years, many growers have developed varieties that will not require deadheading. Whenever possible I recommend getting these varieties. Many of the Proven Winner annuals require little, to no, deadheading.
Sun or Shade
The amount of sun or shade you have is an important consideration when choosing which baskets you purchase. The last thing you want to do is hang those beautiful fuchsias on the hottest part of your porch.
Watering
Obviously, watering is needed to keep your baskets alive. However, how much, and how often, gets a little tricky. Over the years in the stores, I picked up a few helpful tricks to make sure you get your baskets watered perfectly. Typically, baskets should be watered once a day, however, this is not always a given. If you can take your baskets down from their hanger easily, set it on the ground to water. This does a few things, one, it is easier to water them when they are below you, two, because you have lifted it you know how heavy it is. If your basket is very heavy then you know it has plenty of water and you can skip this one.
If you can’t easily take it down, there is another way to test how much water is in the pot. The fiber pots that most hanging baskets are made out of have a pre-drilled hole in the bottom. Using your finger to feel the soil through that drain hole will give you a good idea if it is time to water. To really help your pots hold moisture, try using some Soil Moist Polymers. Adding a little bit of this stuff to your baskets greatly increases how much water they can hold throughout the day.