Hanging baskets can provide a splash of colour outside your front door, but they require a huge amount of water compared to other garden displays. With heatwaves becoming more frequent, hanging floral displays need extra care. Gardeners' World expert Alan Titchmarsh has shared a simple, cheap tip to keep them hydrated longer.
On his new YouTube channel, Titchmarsh recommends adding water-storing crystals to the compost. “You can add them to the compost, sprinkle them in, work them in with your fingers, and once water hits that, they expand and become a kind of gel. They stop the hanging basket drying out,” he explains. These crystals, available at any garden centre for a few pounds, increase the time between waterings.
Titchmarsh also advises using a sturdy, wide-framed basket and standing it on a bucket for stability while planting. He suggests chopping holes in the coir lining to allow plants to peek through, and using the cut-out pieces to fill gaps. For best results, he recommends a specially formulated trough and basket compost.
For plants, Titchmarsh lists ivy for trailing borders, bacopa Megacopa Blue with bluish-purple flowers from June to October, Diascia Flying Colours Appleblossom with pink blooms from summer to early autumn, and Million Bells (Calibrachoa) with petunia-like flowers. He also highlights an all-succulent basket, noting that succulents have their own water supply in fleshy leaves and can go without water for days. Flowering varieties like Echeveria do well in bright, indirect light and prefer rainwater over tap water due to fluoride sensitivity. However, Echeveria must be brought indoors before the first frost.
