Hanging Basket
‘Hanging basket’ refers to the practice of growing plants in certain kinds of plat baskets and other containers of pleasing design and suspending them, after placing them in wire frames, in conservatories, corridors, rooms and under shady trees to have great ornamental value. Hanging baskets are usually made of galvanized wire or wood, as single plant in such baskets, those which are crect growing, intermediate in size with graceful foliage may be selected. Similarly, plants which are intermediate or dwarf in growth habit with dropping graceful foliage with or without bloom are also a fitting material for massing in these baskets. Selected plants should have a ability to grow and bloom in hanging basket.
It is necessary to prevent the soil in the basket from drying rapidly. For thins purpose, the basket is lined with moss or gunny bag or coconu fibre, and then filled with soil which can hold moisture for sometime. The soil for hanging baskets consists of two parts: each of Ieafmould and rich 10m and one part of well rotten cow dung. The plants in these baskets may ne started ether with seeds or seedlings or cuttings depending upon the species. Regular watering and feeding the plants with liquid manure are the two important practices to sustain the growth of the plants for quite a long period.
The following is a selected list of plants suitable for growing in hanging baskets.
Adiantum sp, Asparagus sprengeri, Begania recumbens, Impationts repens, Nasturtium sp. (Tall Kinds). Nefrolepis ( a kind of form), Orchids such as Vanda, Phalaenopsis, Saccolabium, Pilca microphylla, Potunia hybrids, Sedum sp., Setercasea, Tradescantia, Verbebna, Vecna variegate, Zebrina.