hanging-flower-basketsIt is simple and easy to add fabulous colors and spectacular highlights when you accent your garden with hanging flower baskets. In fact, hanging baskets of flowering plants as garden accents can be traced back to the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

There are plenty of flowers which bloom well in hanging baskets for every location, no matter whether the location offers deep shade or full sun exposure. You'll have no problem locating plants appropriate for accent baskets for your garden. It is simply a matter of choosing flowering baskets to hang which love the environment which is available in the area of you garden where you wish to hang them.

To select the best plants for the area in which you wish them to flourish, carefully read the tags in potted plants or the information on seed packets to determine the amount of sunlight, moisture, and care required as well as the expected height of the mature flowering plant.

Do It Yourself Hanging Flower Baskets

You can choose to purchase hanging flower baskets from your lawn and garden center which you simply bring home and hang. However, if you want to save money, have more fun, and like to do things in the garden yourself, you can purchase planters of the appropriate size, purchase flower plants ready to transplant and create your own hanging flower basket garden accents. If you really like to do it yourself, you can even grow some flowering plants from seeds which you can harvest from the flowers and use to grow next year's hanging flower baskets.

Accent flowering baskets can be really gorgeous if you use a pot with side holes in it. This allows you to insert plants around the sides of the planter as well as into the pot so the resulting hanging basket will be as lush as possible. Small strawberry pots in terra cotta are also great choices for hanging flower accent  since these pots provide areas in the sides in which plants can be inserted.

You may wish to accent your garden with hanging flower baskets by choosing one of the easy-to-grow, yet beautiful, popular selections below:

Geraniums: These flowering plants require very little care in order to thrive. Some of the newest varieties grow in vine-like or weeping configurations, called ivy-geraniums, so that the flowers appear on draping stalks. Geraniums forgive most common gardening mistakes unless severely abused, making them perfect for low-maintenance and novice gardeners. In fact, the most common ways to fail with geraniums is to give them too much attention or too much water. These hardy plants tolerate full sun and extremely hot weather and require little fertilization. You'll find a wide range of colors from pure white to shades of pink, red, and lavender with flowers which look much like small roses. Removing the dead flowers, called dead-heading, will increase the number of flowers. To accent your garden with hanging flower baskets of geraniums, simply plant three to five pots into a single large basket. You can hold these accent hanging baskets over the winter by moving them indoors.

Nasturtiums: Cheerful, colorful flowers cascade from these easy-to-grow plants. The blossoms can be harvested for use in salads or garnish for deserts since they are edible and taste great. Nasturtiums are perfect for gardeners who love to save seeds for next year. They like lots of sunlight but in extremely hot weather need shade for coolness in order to continue flowering. Since these flowering plants don't transplant well, they make the best hanging baskets when grown from seeds.

Trailing Begonia: Shade-loving trailing begonias, such as the "Brazilian Heart" or "Fragrant Beauty", produce fragrant blossoms which are shaped much like a heart. When not in bloom, the foliage is quite attractive as well. You can propagate new plants from cuttings and over-winter the plants indoors.

Sweet Alyssum: If you love butterflies and humming birds, accent your garden with this hanging flower basket. The fragrant, trailing plant will produce flowers from spring through fall and is an annual which is easily started from seeds. Choose areas with good sun exposure, although the plants will do fine in partial shade. Often seen with white flowers, some of the newer varieties offer fabulous purple flowers which are especially beautiful cascading over the sides of hanging baskets.

Wave Petunia: This group of petunias is fairly new and offers cascading stalks about three inches long, making them perfect for hanging flower baskets using planters with side-insertion holes to maximize the trailing effect. The huge flowers are about three inches in diameter and can be found in white as well as all shades of pink, red, and purple. They love sun and can be started indoors from seed.