Hanging Basket - how much and often to water?

molmalone

Re Hanging Basket and Watering.
How i water mine is to pierce just one hole with a pin in bottom of coke or other plastic container,this will release the water at a steady rate and will not seep through the bottom of the basket the moment it is watered.Repeat until compost saturated. You stand bottle in bare space in basket.

OddjobKIA

all depends on what you have in your basket ( im guessing lobelia) and how much sun there is basically water them untill the sea had dried up....

emweaver

How often shoudl you give flowers plant feed?

Also with rose trees, how often do these need fertilising?

tanith

purplepatch wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. Like I said, I'm very ignorant with these things, but as far as I can see, it is mainly pansies but with trailing ivy and also there is some sort of shrubby type thing in the middle to add height that looks a bit like the same foliage family as the horrible leylandii that we've got in our garden, whatever that might be. There aren't many flowers at the moment so it's hard to see exactly what's what yet, lots of buds though. Don't think any geraniums though, they've got quite distinctive leaves if I'm not mistaken - nothing like that in there.

I live in the southeast and I feel fairly confident that we won't get any weather conditions that are too extreme now. Fingers crossed anyway.

I gave it a water earlier, just using an empty 2 litre coke bottle as my hose pipe doesn't reach round the house that far:rolleyes:. I must have done about half the bottle and the water was just draining straight through - is that the sort of amount of water it needs or should it be more/less? I guess it's hard to overwater when the water can drain away easily.

Oh and it's pretty much in full sun depending on the time of day. Assuming the sun ever comes out of course!

If the water is draining out that quickly it sounds like your basket has already dried out... if I was you I would lift it down and immerse it in a bucket filled with water and leave it to soak.. then continue to water it at least twice a day...they need to feel damp all the time and I agree I don't think you can overwater hanging baskets.....

mjr600

Cut down on watering by using the clear plastic bags which you use to buy fruit with at the supermarket and place a couple in the bottom of the basket over the moss before filling with soil.

They will help to stop the all the water running through and reduce evaporation.

purplepatch

Well so far so good, it's flowering like mad and looks stunning.

Can I just check re dead heading - how much am I supposed to take off, I've just been going to a couple of cms below the flower, is that right? (told you I was ignorant :rotfl:)

purplepatch

Bump.... anyone?

Kaz2904

Ha, my deadheading goes as far as picking off the petals that withered and died! So you're already doing better than me as I've not got a clue.

purplepatch

Kaz2904 wrote: »

Ha, my deadheading goes as far as picking off the petals that withered and died! So you're already doing better than me as I've not got a clue.

Yeah, but that might be what you're supposed to do!

purplepatch

Oh heck. A couple of dreary rainy days and I forgot to water. But nice weather again today and I just went outside and everything has wilted and looks very floppy indeed. I've taken it down and put it in the shade and given it a good water. Will they come back or have I managed to kill it already?!?! I can hear DH already.:rolleyes: