In article , gb gardener
wrote:

Could anyone recommend the perfect spring or summer basket and what
plants they would consist of. Challenge or what?

Best spring choices seem to be highly foriferous annuals, & I hope someone
will give you a list if spring/summer is the only time you want your
baskets to look good. For myself I prefer perennial hanging baskets that
have year-round features.

For year-round hanging baskets I would recommend any of the more highly
ornate dwarf-leaf variegated & ruffled English ivies. They look perfect
even in winter.

Fuchsia magellanica blooms all summer & all autumn (here in Zone 8 anyway)
but may need trimming back at some point in winter when it gets scruffy;
the new spring growth of 'Aurea' & variegated forms of F. magellanica are
highly colored long before blooming (leaves tend to turn a more normal
green when the red flowers appear).

There are also a couple very fine & easily obtained variegated forms of
Vinca major which will hang from baskets as lengthily as desired, & remain
good-looking through winter.

For a low-maintence rarely-watered hanging basket, Delosperma herbeum the
White Iceplant will fill a basket & spill over the sides within a year.
It's white flowers will occur spring through autumn. It needs full sun.
Common Delosperma cooperi also flowers late spring through early autumn,
then in winter the succulent chains dangling from a basket take on orange
& pink hues. Some other iceplants like Delosperma ecklonis don't have as
long a bloom period but still look good spilling out of a pot or basket
with year-round presence. I have eight different iceplants in pots & the
one most persistent in flower is D. herbeum.

Another dangly succulment that looks good all-year outdoors is Sedum
sarmentosum, graveyard or stringy stonecrop, though it flowers only in
spring.

-paghat the ratgirl
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