The Best Hanging Flower Basket Ideas (With Pictures and Plant Care Guide)
Having beautiful flowers in hanging baskets can provide stunning floral displays at eye level. Depending on the hanging basket flowers you choose, you can have blooms from spring until fall. Use a single species to create a mass of colorful blossoms. Or, you can combine different colored flowers to hang in a basket together. Hanging baskets are excellent to beautify a front door, or add color to a porch, decking area, or garden arbor.
The best flowers for hanging baskets are petunias with their trumpet-like flowers, trailing flowering begonias, dangling colorful pansies, cascading blooming lobelia, and black-eyed Susan vines. Depending on the amount of sun you get, impatiens, geraniums, clematis, and trailing lantana hanging basket plants are excellent choices. Generally, the best types of outdoor hanging flowers need plenty of sunlight.
Hanging Basket Ideas – The Best Flowering Plant Ideas for Hanging Baskets
There is no limit to the colorful floral displays you can create in a hanging basket. Combing bold colors can make an eye-catching impact with bright yellow, purple, or red flowers. Or, you may want a mixture of beautiful green foliage with small delicate blooms that hang well in a shady spot.
How to Choose the Best Flowers for Hanging Baskets
When choosing the best hanging basket flowers, there are several factors to consider. Of course, the type of flowers, foliage, and size of the container can help choose which flowers to buy. Look for flowers that have drooping stems, cascading foliage, or have a creeping nature. These features create maximum visual impact from your blooming hanging basket.
Caring for Hanging Flowers in Baskets
Water the hanging basket flowers often and thoroughly to keep the potting medium moist. Deadhead flowering plants when the flowers fade and die by pinching off the blooms at the stems. Fertilize flowers in hanging baskets frequently to promote healthy growth. Prune trailing, straggly stems that hang down from the basket to encourage bushier growth.
The Best Flowers for Hanging Baskets (With Pictures)
Let’s look in more detail at the best types of flowers to plant in hanging baskets. You can hang these flowers anywhere you want to create stunning colorful displays during the growing seasons.
Begonias
Begonias are the perfect flowers for hanging baskets. They bloom in spring, summer, and fall and don’t need a lot of sunlight to thrive. Tubular begonias have long pendulous flowering stems that hang down over hanging baskets. These classic hanging basket flowers have attractive red, yellow, orange, and pink cascading blooms. Hanging basket begonias are very easy to care for, and they grow well in partial shade and even full shade.
Begonias hanging in shady locations bloom profusely from spring until the end of fall. The large green fleshy leaves contrast with the showy, double flowers that dangle elegantly from the pot. Other types of begonias are similar to fuchsias—only easier to care for.
When growing begonias in hanging baskets, use well-draining soil that is always moist. Protect from direct sunlight and strong winds. Tuberous begonias are tender perennials. So, you’ll need to take the containers indoors during winter.
Fuchsias
Fuchsias are spectacular perennial flowers for hanging at your door, balcony, or porch. Dangling clusters of stunning red, deep purple, brilliant white, or luscious pink blossoms grace these hanging baskets. Fuchsias have both a bushy and cascading nature meaning they can fill a hanging basket with foliage and flowers.
Fuchsias are excellent hanging basket plants for fall with flowers looking like dangling bells. They provide beautiful colors from spring through until the first frost. Usually, these flowers are in various color combinations such as pink and white, red and lavender, or multiple shades of purple.
These hanging basket flowers grow well in partial shade or full shade. In warm weather, you’ll need to water the hanging basket twice a day to keep the soil moist. They are cold hardy to -10°F (-23°C) as long as there is plenty of mulch on the hanging basket during winter.
Black-Eyed Susan Vine (Thunbergia alata)
Black eye Susan vines are one of the few flowering vines that thrive in hanging baskets. The climbing vines have lush green foliage and delightful yellow or orange flowers with a black center—hence the name “black eye.” These annual plants bloom in baskets from summer until fall. The long trailing vines look spectacular hanging down from a suspended container.
The climbing nature of black-eyed Susan vines means that they will also scramble up the hanging basket chains. You can hang the baskets fairly high because the dangling vines can reach between 3 and 6 ft. (0.9 – 2.4 m) in length. Although yellow and black is the most common color combination, cultivars also come in orange, pale yellow, cream, and pink colors.
Plant in full sun and water often and thoroughly during the growing season. The potting soil should be fertile, well-drained, and fertilized regularly.
Trailing Lobelia (Lobelia erinus)
Trailing lobelia is a great hanging basket plant that produces a mass of small blue flowers. The flowering bushy plant flowers in late spring and early summer. If the summer is especially cool, the blooms may last until early fall. The beautiful flowering foliage spills off the edges of hanging baskets, containers, or window boxes.
Hang lobelia plants in a sunny location that gets some shade. As with most hanging basket flowers, lobelia needs regular watering to keep the soil moist, but not waterlogged. After the flowers have finished blooming in early summer, replace them with summer and fall flowers such as lantana or million bells.
Apart from electric blue-colored blooms, lobelia cultivars also have flowers that come in white, pink, and reddish-purple colors.
Trailing Lantana (Lantana montevidensis)
Lantana is a sprawling shrubby plant that has dangling stems when growing at height. The sun-loving plant produces dainty flower heads made up of a cluster of pastel-colored flowers. These hardy flowers blossom from spring through fall and even into winter.
Also called weeping lantana due to its trailing flowers, the blooms give off a strong scent. These hanging plant flowers can give both a vertical accent and pleasant summer aromas on patios, balconies, or deck areas. You could also hang a plant at your front door to create a visual impact for visitors.
Hang trailing lantana baskets in full sun to enjoy its delightful flowers. Dangling stems reach lengths of between 3 and 5 ft. (0.9 – 1.5 m). As long as it gets plenty of sunlight, lantana plants will flower throughout the season. Lantana is an easy-to-care-for hanging basket plant because it grows well in medium moisture. So, you don’t have to water them as frequently as other hanging basket plants.
Cascading Geraniums (Pelargonium) – Ivy Geraniums
Ivy geraniums have a trailing nature and colorful flowers that look stunning hanging from suspended pots. These are excellent fall hanging basket flowers because they flower from April until October. The lush foliage of cascading geraniums has single flowers with graceful tumbling stems that look like a waterfall of summer flowers.
Geraniums are relatively easy to care for in hanging baskets hence are a popular hanging plant. They can survive in soil with average moisture, and they may withstand periods of dryness if you forget to water them occasionally. You need to hang the containers in full sun or light shade. Once the hanging plants are established, they are drought-tolerant plants. However, they are not cold hardy—they grow outdoors as annuals in cooler areas and perennials in hot climates.
Deadhead the dead flower to encourage more blooming and a bushy appearance and to prevent legginess.
Petunias
Petunias are one of the best hanging basket plants due to their dense flowering foliage that spills over container sides. Famous for their colorful trumpet-shaped flowers, petunias flower all season freely from late spring until fall. These fast-growing spreading plants quickly fill hanging baskets with beautiful flowers.
The mound-forming and spreading nature of petunia plants give height and depth to hanging baskets. Lush flowers come in colors such as purple, burgundy, pink, white, yellow, coral red. Some outstanding petunia flowers have multicolored petals with contrasting colors. You can also plant a variety of petunias in one hanging basket to create stunning colorful floral displays.
Hang petunia flowers in full sun to partial shade. With plenty of watering, petunias will flower throughout the season. Some types of petunias—Grandiflora and Multiflora—require deadheading to thrive. The smaller Milliflora varieties—perfect for easy-care hanging baskets—don’t need deadheading.
Dianthus
All varieties of dianthus flowers grow well in hanging baskets. Also known as carnations or pinks, dianthus flowers appear on the ends of long stems. These flowers stems are excellent for giving outdoor hanging baskets height and spread as other flowers dangle down toward the ground.
Hang your baskets outdoors in full sun for the showy blooms to appear in spring and summer. Flowers come in many colors, including multiple shades of pink, red, and white. Some of the most spectacular dianthus flowers have ruffled multicolored petals. These flowering plants require minimal care with low watering needs in full sunlight.
Trailing Violas (Pansies)
Violas will create a colorful ball of flowers when grown in hanging baskets outdoors. Hanging in full sun or partial shade and moist soil, violas—also called violets or pansies—are some of the most spectacular spring and summer flowers. Violet flowers are famous for their striking vibrant, velvety colors. They are also one of the few plants to produce black flowers.
Planting pansies in hanging baskets is the best way to brighten up a doorway, patio, or balcony. A proliferation of multicolored flowers drowns out the lush green foliage. Some cold-hardy violets produce flowers in late winter. Stunning varieties of pansies have some of the most brightly-colored hanging basket flowers to choose from.
Water pansies regularly throughout the growing season and hang the baskets in a sunny spot that gets some shade. As well as being excellent hanging basket plants, violas are good for full-sun ground cover or used in borders and rock gardens.
Verbena
Verbena flowers growing in hanging baskets are heat and drought-tolerant plants. The spreading foliage droops over the side of hanging baskets and brightens up any area when in full bloom during the summer. The green foliage is smothered in a multitude of pink, purple, red, or blue flower clusters cascading to the ground.
The dangling flowering stems can grow up to 12” (30 cm) long. The upward and spreading growing nature give these hanging baskets plenty of height and spread as well as draping flowers.
The best places for verbena flowers in hanging baskets are sunny areas that get some shade. Plant in well-draining soil and allow the soil to partially dry before thoroughly watering.
Million Bells (Calibrachoa)
It’s easy to mistake million bell plants for petunias because they are in the same family. These flowering plants are terrific for growing in hanging baskets as they create a mound of flowers. Spilling over the side of the containers, the flowers completely cover the hanging basket.
Million bells are some of the easiest hanging basket plants to grow. Hanging in a sunny spot, regular watering ensures a steady supply of colorful blooms from spring until fall. The small trumpet-like flowers don’t wilt in the hot summer sun. They are also excellent garden flowering plants to attract bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies.
There is no need to deadhead million bells in hanging baskets. All the care they need is regular feeding, watering, and pruning of leggy stems.
Impatiens
Indoors or outdoors, impatiens flowers are an excellent choice for growing in hanging baskets. The spectacular array of colorful flowers adds visual impact at eye level to doors, patios, balconies, or hanging from stakes in yards.
When growing in gardens, impatiens thrive in partial shade, average watering, and in moist soil. The stunning bushy plant blooms in spring, and the flowers continue until fall. The delightful purple, red, white, and orange flowers contrast with long, deep green leaves.
Hanging inpatients in baskets indoors is also a great way to brighten up any room. These flowering hanging basket plants grow well in low-light conditions and adapt to full shade well. Easy care for these plants means that you only have to water when soil is partly dry, and you don’t have to deadhead flowers.
Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima)
White sweet alyssum looks like summer snowfall as it cascades over the sides of hanging baskets. The small scented flowers, which also come in purple or pink, spread quickly and will soon be draping your containers. These easy-to-care-for container plants thrive in full sun and are fairly drought-resistant. Pruning after the plant has flowered can encourage a second bloom.
An idea to use this flower in hanging baskets in summer is to plant sweet alyssum around the edges of your container. The brilliant flowers hang down over the side of the basket and provide a stunning contrast to other flowers.
Clematis
Clematis is a genus of climbing vines that will hang down over the sides of hanging baskets if unsupported. The striking star-shaped flowers grace any type of container that is hanging indoors or outdoors. Some varieties of these trailing plants have large, showy flowers, and others have small flower clusters.
When planted in hanging baskets, clematis plants prefer full sun with some shade. Keeping the soil moist, but not soggy, ensures prolific blooming in spring, summer, and fall. The foliage can grow large and bushy and can be almost covered in purple, pink, or white flowers. So, make sure that your basket has a sturdy support to hang from to enjoy its beautiful colors.
If you are hanging a clematis indoors, choose an east-, south-, or west-facing room near a window. Plenty of sunshine will keep your indoor hanging basket blooming from spring until fall.
Read our article about the best plants for hanging baskets to learn about other attractive hanging plants for indoors and outdoors.
How to Plant Hanging Basket Flowering Plants
Planting flowers in hanging baskets is different from growing other plants in pots. You should line the basket with coconut fiber (coco coir) or a moss liner. Place a plastic tray or sheet with drainage holes at the bottom to retain some moisture to keep the potting soil moist. Fill the basket with a well-draining potting mix and plant your hanging flowers.
To create a stunning hanging basket, plant your focal flowering plant in the center. The focal plant can be one that grows upward to create height, or it can be a pendulous type to dangle over the side. Then, surround the focal plant with trailing flowering vines or cascading evergreen plants to create a vertical accent. To enhance your flowering hanging basket, cut holes in the side of the liner to plant more flowers.
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