(light breezy music) - Spring is just around the corner, and that flower muse (hand knocking) is knocking at your door.

And it is telling you it is time to think about all the daydreams you have for your flowers, your patio pots, all the beautiful greenery and aroma that you want right at your front door.

I am gonna help you tailor your hanging basket for your balcony, for your front door, so it's perfect for your climate, your environment, and aesthetically pleasing.

But before we can make all those daydreams come true, we wanna give a shout-out to our sponsors, Merit Medical and Red Butte Garden, for making this video possible.

All right, let's begin at the very beginning.

Your basket, what are you gonna choose?

You can go with a plastic variety, which is generally cheaper.

There are downsides 'cause, obviously, it's plastic but you can reuse it year after year if you wash it.

You also have your fiber-molded baskets.

Those are awesome because they're biodegradable, but they're only able to be used once a year.

Or you can go with a wire basket that has coco coir that will hold your plants in.

This is more reusable.

It just really depends on you and how you want your basket to look.

After you have determined which kind of pot you wanna use, you also need to think about your size.

Shallow, smaller pots, that means you're gonna be watering more frequently, less plants.

But if you have a deeper pot and it's not gonna rip out your ceiling or your roof, then you can put more plants in and have your water retention last longer than it would in a shallow pot.

The other thing to consider when you're looking at your pot size is how many plants are you gonna be able to fit in there.

If you have a tiny, shallow little pot, probably only gonna be able to get one or two plants in it.

If you have something like this, this is more of an 11, 12-inch pot, you can get usually about anywhere between four and nine plants, depending on what you're planting.

Or you can go a little bigger, and obviously, you can put some more plants in there.

You also need to consider what kind of plants you wanna grow.

Because one plant, even though it might look just itty bitty, this little plant goes 48 inches long.

So think about what kind of plants you wanna put in your pot.

Make sure that you give them... Obviously, you don't need to give them the space that you would if you put 'em in the garden, but give them space so that they either can take over or not take over everybody else that's in the party.

No worries, we're gonna go over more about plants and their growth habits in just a bit.

But before we do that, let's talk potting soil.

Not all potting soil's created equal and you can't just get dirt from your garden and shove it in your pot.

You need it really light and fluffy.

You can use coir, you can use peat moss, or go buy a nice mixture that's already pre-mixed.

You want something that is really good at retaining the water and full of nutrients because the whole point of that hanging basket is to make it lush and beautiful.

Another key thing is don't be heaping this up.

It's not your bowl of ice cream.

You don't need an extra scoop.

Keep a good inch, half inch from the top so that way, the water will hold and it doesn't just spill over or spill off.

Next, before we get into all the plants, let's talk watering.

Now, depending on your basket and depending on what you have in it, if it is in full sun right next to the concrete or right out your front door and just getting beaten down from a south-facing or west-facing side, it's gonna be needing a drink probably every day.

If you're lucky and you have a deep pot, every other day, but you really need to keep your eye on it.

Now, if you're putting your pot on a north-facing side or an east-facing side that's not terribly sunny and not terribly hot, your pot may only need to be watered every three to four days.

If you live in a really windy spot, you may also wanna consider watering more frequently.

Or you might wanna consider having more of a plastic plot that can help retain the water 'cause if you have a basket like this, it's gonna dry out significantly faster than this one.

So a couple recommendations: Either make sure that you have a watering can available or a hose nearby that you can make sure that you're constantly watering.

Or be smart and if you can, get yourself a drip system.

It is the best thing you can do, I promise.

Because especially when you go outta town or you forget, just let that go on a timer and let it take care of your plant for you.

It's really important at the beginning when you have your potted plant that you don't overwater it.

It will need more water throughout the season, but just make sure that you're not saturating that pot at the beginning.

A good rule of thumb is stick your finger in and if it comes out wet or the soil sticking to it, you don't need to give it any more water for the day.

Now, hanging baskets, they're lush and beautiful for a reason, and it's not just because you talk to your plants.

I highly recommend if you're doing your own pot, that you add a slow-release fertilizer to start off with.

You can sprinkle it in as you're adding the soil or you can just put it in at the top, but a slow-release fertilizer.

And then after that, using fertilizer at least once a week or every two weeks.

A high recommendation is using a water-soluble fertilizer because that is getting the nutrients to the plant right away.

You have to think you are watering this plant or this pot constantly, all the nutrients is getting washed away really quick.

It doesn't have the ability to pull it.

It doesn't have the ability to pull it from the ground if you were to put it in the ground.

So you need to feed this baby.

It needs a lot of attention and love.

And with that, a 20-20-20 fertilizer is the best bet so that you can get your NPK.

The N is gonna make green and lush, and then P and K are gonna make it strong roots and big blooms.

There are lots of different varieties of fertilizer you can use.

You can have the synthetic.

You can have organic.

You can make your own compost tea.

There's a lot of different things that you can do, but my recommendation is ideally to get to that 20-20-20.

When you are choosing the flowers or the plants that you wanna put into your hanging basket, make sure to consider how much sun or no sun does that area get.

Because all depending on what that formula is or how many hours you get of sun is going to make your basket a fail or a success.

Generally speaking, full sun is usually considered six to eight hours or longer.

And if you want full shade or part shade, six hours or less.

Usually you will find a tag in any of the varieties that you're wanting to plant.

And on the back or on the front, it will tell you full sun, part sun, full shade.

Make sure that you're paying attention to this.

Again, that is gonna be key to making sure this pot is blooming all summer long.

Some great annuals to use in your pot for sun are supertunias, superbells, trailing verbena, lantana, geraniums, lobelia, there are certain celosia that work really well.

There's also coleus that is full sun.

But make sure that you watch for coleus because most of the time, it is shade, but there are full-sun varieties that are amazing.

Sweet potato vine, euphobia, helichrysum.

There are so many different varieties that you can choose from.

Here is a full-sun pot.

We have a great potato vine, some verbena, some sunpatiens and petunias.

This will loves six to eight-plus hours of sun.

For shade-loving plants, your list seems shorter, but it really isn't.

There are great impatiens you can use.

You can also use fuchsia, coleus again, begonias, trailing ivy.

There's a lot of those deep colors that you can use in your pots.

You can also use sunpatiens, a favorite of mine.

Geraniums also can go in the shade, but they do like a little bit more sun.

Okay, we're gonna make a shade basket.

And so I'm using some begonia.

I have coleus, fuchsia, some creeping jenny and some other beautiful varieties I'm gonna add to this pot.

Rookie mistake: don't put your hanger on.

Don't get too excited.

You wanna wait until after you put your plants in place because this can kind of get in the way, but we're gonna be okay 'cause everybody does it differently.

Now I'm gonna start with my focal point, which is going to be this coleus, and I love this coleus.

It has a really dark chocolate vein with a bright chartreuse green.

I'm gonna put this guy right in the center.

It's gonna get super full and lush.

So I'm gonna let it be my focal point or what people call the thriller.

Talking pots, people love to talk about this, but you have your thriller which means your center if you're going just for pots or for hanging baskets.

Then you have your filler, which is what we're gonna work on next.

I'm gonna add my fuchsia.

Ooh, and I'm gonna add this beautiful dragon wing begonia.

So generally, you like to have it planted more in a triangle.

That usually will help fill all the corners and nooks and crannies.

I have the fuchsia going in first.

I'm gonna put those two off on either side.

And then, I'm gonna put this dragon wing begonia just right here 'cause I know it's gonna get super full.

It's gonna have this beautiful pink flower that will go on it.

I also like to point my plants out just a little bit.

Now I'm going to put my creeping jenny in.

Creeping jenny is my spiller.

So with a hanging basket, you want something that's gonna spill over the edges.

So we're gonna take this creeping jenny, plop it in here.

I'm gonna point those little strands going out.

And last but not least, another trailing variety is my purple heart right here.

And look at this beautiful variation on this leaf.

I'm gonna put it in that corner, again, pointing out so everybody has their spot, their space to fill in.

And then, we're gonna water it in and watch it grow.

So this is about an 11-inch pot.

I used about, hmm, I have more varieties than I usually do.

I have one, two, three, four, five.

So usually for a hanging basket, I like to keep it between three and four varieties.

But I just wanted to make this one extra special.

And I really love this plant.

So I added a fifth.

I'm breaking all the rules.

This shade-loving pot is still partial shade.

That's where I'm gonna put it.

So about six or less hours in the day is what I'm gonna look for.

If you go too low, like two hours a day, you're probably not gonna get the explosion that I'm looking for.

But in the sweet spot is about six hours of sun.

I can't wait to see this pot bloom and see how gorgeous it's turned out with all the love, all the fertilizer, all the sun and watering.

Until next time.

(quirky music fades)