Hanging Baskets

May baskets were a big deal back in the eighteen hundreds and nineteen hundreds. People would fill little baskets with candies and cut flowers and hang them on the door knob of their neighbor.

are notorious for deflecting irrigation. Water. Yeah, I think you're watering that basket, but it's deflecting off the off the foliage. And then of course angel wing bogonias also have become very popular over the past.

other story. I like cool whip containers because I can store nuts and bolts and nails and that kind of stuff. So what do you do with that ten inch hanging basket? Because I like to upsize into a twelve inch, fourteen inch or sixteen inch basket, maybe a Sphagnum moss basket, or just go online and look, there are a multitude of great twelve to sixteen inch sized baskets that you can purchase to upsize your your hanging basket.

you know, kind of containers. And I understand that's the lowest cost for garden centers and that's why they do that, But I always do prefer to get my mom a bigger hanging basket that's in more of the moss type or even the cardboard, the cord fiber, yeah, that pressed cord fiber even, that's just something that looks a little bit more organic, so that while the hanging basket is growing out, and most do eventually grow out, that's kind

of why they're hanging baskets, because they're big plants that are going to overgrow the basket in time. It just looks a little you know, more organic and nice. But I think it's a great idea to invest in really high quality hanging back baskets which aren't going to cost that much, that go with your decor of your home, and that you can plant into every single year, and

that's always going to look a lot nicer. And that's a good way to save the money by buying the inexpensive plastic hanging basket, but give it more of that upscale.

along the top. Also, if the soil dries a little bit, it contracts away from the side of the pot, then you're watering that pot. It's running across the surface down the sides and not getting the rootball.

Is you're going to have a really gross, dirty dipe that is just full of soil and water that is not doing anything for your planet except actually taking away space that could have been soiled that could have actually helped it. So, no matter what you've read, and a man, I tell you off topic, but I feel like the misinformation on social media right now is just going through like a wildfire. It's just we are in the season,

So don't believe everything that you hear. And please, if you are repotting a hanging basket, do not put a diaper in it.

including the bubblegum supertunia. But boy do they perform as a hanging basket. So we'll talk about that. We're also going to talk about on a different subject, tulips and the different types of tulips. Now that they're in bloom, you can see the different types of tulips that you could grow in your garden. We'll also talk about that in segment for today. While we're on this subject of hanging baskets, and I think this is a subject stacy that probably you and I both have very strong opinions on.

Let me give you a limb a rick that I wrote about hanging baskets. It's called the basket case. My baskets hang around my place, hung without enough headspace. Be very careful where you tread. You're liable to bonk your head and become a basket case. So if your head you clobber, take some asp for that throbber. Don't be upset. Get a grip, because that basket is next going to drip on your clean white shirt. It will slob.

quality rubber washer. Because there's nothing worse than holding that watering wand up and having that water run right down your arm, into your armpits down your side and it's cold and it's miserable.

my traditional welcoming greeting. Obviously, Happy Mother's Day. Yes, Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful mom, uh and to moms everywhere. And you know, we're talking about hanging baskets because it is a classic gift. And I think one of the reasons that a hanging basket is such a classic gift for mom is because they do tend to be little bit more expensive. Yes, you know, and whether or not your mom really considers herself a gardener, it is a

little bit. Especially a big nice one is a bit of a splurge.

a fabulous hanging basket all season long. Now, obviously, you know this show is primarily about Proven Winners colored Choice shrubs, so we do have a vested interest in Proven winners. But I will say honestly that when it comes to hanging baskets, Proven Winners plants in a hanging basket are usually pretty clearly denoted. They either have the tags in

them or a special hanging basket tag. And you know, if if this is your first time tuning in, it is really worth mentioning that all of the Proven Winner's annuals, all of the Proven Winner's plants in general, but this is especially important for Proven Winners annuals, and talking about hanging baskets, Uh, they are all tested to really outperform

what is already on the market. So you know, we've talked numerous times about say, super Tunia Vista bubble Gum petunia, which is super popular, probably the best selling proven winners, uh you know, annual, And the reason for that is because it doesn't need dead heading. So your mom might say, oh, I don't like petunias. They need dead heading, they smell terrible.

Super Tunia Vista bubble Gum doesn't need dead heading. So you're choosing plants that will actually perform better and bloom all summer for mom and not just one of those ones that are going to peter out. And then you know, your mom's like, well, that was a crummy hanging basket. So they really do make the better choice. I'm not just saying that because I work here. I'm saying that because I know the process and everything that goes into them.

like this other plant in there. So they are like really scientifically tested to make sure that all of the plants in there are compatible and will give you that nice colorful look all season loss it will look like what you bought, which is important. But when it comes to hanging baskets, shrubs, which we usually talk about here on Plants on trial, not the first plant that comes to mind. I mean, if you stretch your imagination, you

can say, okay, well maybe like ivy. Ivy is in theory, Actually not ivy is a woody plant, though of course in hanging baskets they don't ever really reach that point

where they're actually putting on woody growth. That's probably as close as you could find, generally speaking, to any kind of shrub or woody plant truly woody plant in a hanging basket, and over the years we have definitely experimented with different plants in hanging baskets in our R and D facility research and development, trying to find out if there are other plants that we can put in a hanging basket and you know, make that a more interesting

way to kind of decorate and enjoy plants. And most of them have not been successful because generally speaking, with these woody plants, they want to grow up, and so when you try to put them in a hanging basket, which you want to grow usually down and have that cascading effect, they won't do that. They'll just grow up and they'll try to cling to the basket hangers and it just does not work out that well. But there is one major exception, and that is well one of

them is today's plant on trial. The major exception fairy trail cascade hydranges. Love that plant, so you can kind of guess by the name right there, trail and cascade. These are hydrangeas that naturally grow with a very cascading sort of trailing habit. And the first and original plant, which has actually already been a plant on trial, was fairy trail bride cascade hydrangea. And this was a plant on trial a little over a year ago, and it

was the first one in the series. And this is a plant that was sold in the EU and the UK as Runaway Bride hydrangea. So Runaway Bride got a ton of notoriety because it won in twenty eighteen the Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year and people went bonkers for it. They had never seen anything like it, and it was not actually available in the US until we were able to get the rights to it in about twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two. So it's a fairly recent plant to be available here in the US,

and we're really thrilled about that. And you know, it is actually developed. Some people might not know this by Ushiosakazaki, who is the same plant breeder who developed the Supertunia Vista series too Supertunia Vista bubblegum All time bestseller, Proven Winners annual. He also developed Fairy Trail Bride, so you know it's got some serious chops with his talents behind it. So Fairy Trail Bride is a lace cap cascading hydrangeles,

that's what we call them. We call them cascade hydranges because we really wanted to differentiate them from big leaf hydranges hydroge of macrophylla, because they are a bit different. So they look a lot like it, but there are

some really key differences. So we really felt that to help communicate that to people and understand their different habits and need of care, that we should give them kind of a new category because they're a wide hybrid of different hydrange of species, So we call them cascade hydranges, which really goes to describe their habits. So instead of just growing upward and rounded like most hydrangees do, it grows these long, arching, horizontal stems and it sets flower

buds at each individual leaf node along those stems. So it's almost like and it's a little bit weird to say that, to say this, but it's almost like a viburnum, like a double file viburnum, which also looks like this in the spring where you're getting that kind of, you know, very distinctive look of the flowers kind of stacking along the stems. Sure, yes, tearing. So fairy trail bride, like I said, is a lace cap, so the flowers are very large and open. Today's plant on trial, fairy trail

white cascade Hydrangea is a mophead cascade hydrangea. So I personally am an equal opportunity hydrange of flower appreciator. I like both the mopheads and the lace caps, and in fact, if I did have a choice to live with only one for the rest of my life, I would actually choose the lace caps. Myself. I do prefer them, but I get why people like the mophead because those are the ones that are big and round and you just want to kind of like put your hands around because

they're just so like fluffy. So fairy Trail white cascade Hydrangea is today's plant on trial, and that's what makes it really different. So when you see these plants side by side in the garden center, and there are going to be a lot of these in garden centers this Mother's Day, you'll really be able to decide which one

you personally like better. There is also fairy Trail green cascade hydrangea, which is like fairy Trail white in that it's a mophead, but the flowers are green, like that nice fresh green color.

very similar to growing a big leaf hyder range. So they bloom on old wood just like the big leaf hyder ranges do. So that means they set their flower buds in winter, and that means that they also are going to not need pruning. So it's a great plant to give as a gift because it's very low maintenance. But of course there's going to be a tag in there that explains all of this, so don't worry. You can give it and you don't have to like explain all of this extra information. So no pruning, blooms on

old wood. It does bloom much earlier than big leaf hyder ranges do. So for us outdoors, it's gonna bloom usually probably by about early June, whereas, of course in the garden center they've already been forced to bloom because everyone wants to give their mom a beautiful plant that's already in flower. So don't be totally deceived by the bloom time. But they do bloom quite a bit earlier

than the big leaf hyder ranges do. Now there's one key differ that we really want everyone to know about these. Because they do bloom earlier than big leaf hydranges do, they are actually more susceptible to spring frost damage. So they bloom on old wood. They have their flower buds all through winter. Spring comes along, it starts to get warm, the plant starts to leaf out and open up those

flower buds a little bit more. Because it is going to be so much more close to its bloom time than a big leaf hydrange, it actually can make those flower buds a little bit more susceptible to cold damage even than a max. So what we recommend for these is that you plant them in parts sun only, and

we actually recommend that that part sun occur in the morning. Now, this might all sound like oddly specific, but there's a good reason for it, and that is that when you plant it in that part sun for the morning, if a frost or freeze does occur, the frost or ice crystals will actually melt very slowly instead of all at once, like when the sun comes over the horizon hits that all of that cold water instantly melts onto that bud

and damages it. Interesting, so if you plant it so it is shaded in the spring in the morning, then what's going to happen is that those ice crystals will melt very slowly, and that will help to prevent the damage to those flower buds. You can also just throw a blanket or a towel or something like that over the plant on any night that one of these frosts or freezes threatens. But that's really the only kind of

tricky little thing to know about it. If you buy your Mama hanging basket once, you should can certainly enjoy it as those flowers persist. But once those flowers start to fade in a few weeks, it can just be taken out and plant it in the garden.

ensure they outperform what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable, beautiful shrubs to accentuate your home and express your personal style, look for Proven Winner's Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local garden center or learn more at proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's Gardening Friends and No, I am not attempting another greeting variation. Although if you have a suggestion for me, you can certainly leave it

as a comment on YouTube. I would be interested to hear it. I'll keep workshopping it and we'll see. Not that I have anything wrong with greeting's gardening friends, but you know, it's just just exactly you know, some alternatives something else. But you know, we understand that not everybody is actually like a gardener. You know, some people are interested in plants, they want to be better homeowners, they want to be able to take care of their landscape.

My schedule has been a little hectic, but once things calm down a little bit, I will go back to adding the resources there because we do want those there

for you. So you know, this is the garden industry, so it's a little bit of a little bit of a hectic time for us here on time, right, But in any case, you can also go there and email us with your gardening questions and if you need an urgent answer, since we only do the show once a week, you can also go to Proven Winner's Color Choice dot com or Proven Winners dot com and use the contact form there to reach out and you will get a

personalized answer, not an AI answer from a bot. You will get an answer from an actual horticulturist who wants you to succeed. And that's one of the things that makes Proven Winners different.

He received an order or an online order of plants, and they were in rough shape and he was worried about them, and so I thought this would be a good opportunity for us to kind of talk about for people who do order plants online, kind of what to

expect and how to deal with these situations. Now, I love shopping in garden centers, and I think it's important that people realize that, for the most part, you're always going to get the best value in plants by shopping at a garden center because you don't have to worry about shipping, and you're not then paying to have you know, this giant three gallon container, if they indeed even offer a three gallon sized container, you know, shipped halfway across

the country or whatever. Everything's been trucked. It's you know, locally grown, so you will spend less for a bigger plant in person. But of course, sometimes people want to buy something and their stores don't stock it, and the people can't you know, the people who own the garden center are unable to source it. So ordering online in

those conditions can be a really good alternative. And for the most part, I would say that the majority of online plant nurseries are really good and really reputable, and they want to help. They don't want you to fail. They want to send you a good product. But of course, lots of things can go wrong in between the time it leaves their greenhouse and arrives at your at your doorstop.

And you know, we've all had packages of things that were less fragile than plants arrive on our doorstops in less than ideal conditions, So you can imagine if something goes wrong with the plants in the shipping, how they're going to arrive. So I would say, first of all, if you notice something wrong with your plants when they arrive, reach out to the company right away. You don't have to be angry. They're going to want to help.

very often they will recover. They just need some time to kind of recover from that shipping shock, and you can sort of tuck them back into their containers. So they may ask you to wait and see what happens, and you know, take that with a grain of salt, knowing that they will back up their product, but that you should, you know, give it a chance to see

if it will recover. Make sure that you water them right away, unless they are coming out very, very soggy, which is not typically the case, but crazy things do happen. Water them and keep them in a shaded location. This is important because you know, not only have they been in a protected greenhouse, now they just spent a week or so in a dark box and now they're in your backyard and they're just like, what in the world is going on here? So you don't want to just

expose them right away to bright sunshine. Remove any packaging as you're keeping them, if they're wrapped in plastic.

don't be shocked. They most likely did not send the wrong plant. Although it's always worth asking. But a lot of these plants either don't develop good leaf color in the greenhouse environment, or they developed it fine in the greenhouse environment, but they lost it being in a dark box for a few days. So we see this a

lot with our blacklace elderberry. I'll tell you if there is one plant that people order by mail order that they've written me about and said I don't know what to do it doesn't look good, it is probably black lace elderly. This plant does not enjoy being in a dark box, and it shows that by turning green instead of the dark purple that it actually will be in the in the gardens. So you know, don't panic. If

you see that. You can certainly let the company know just in case there was a mix up, and they will note that in the order. But for the most part, you know, they just need a few days acclimate, get out into the sun and they will take on the color and be everything that you dreamed of. Are so just a couple tips there from people who are looking at purchasing plants online.

finish line till the very last minute. And so once that growth comes out, usually for us in Michigan here it's probably Memorial Day weekend. I've found for my summer efics. Once that happens, that growth is going to be very delicate, the way that it comes out of the root mass or the crown of the plant, very easy to damage that.

And if you were to damage that growth in the transplanting process, it may not be able to put out more growth that season, and whether or not it can survive that really depends, because then it won't have the benefit of photosynthesizing all summer long to do that. Overall, I have transplanted summerfic hybiscus a lot in my time. I mean, I've transplanted more than my share of them, just because you know, I change my mind about colors. I have a lot of them, and they are actually

very amenable to transplanting. And even if you accidentally cause quite a lot of damage to their roots, and their roots are really thick, they're almost like woody roots. They're not really fleshy roots. They're very fibrous. But even if you like cause some damage and you break them apart a little bit, or you know, lose a big chunk of it, the plant can recover. It may or may not flower, or it may flower less as it's trying

to recover from that substantial root loss. But overall, I feel like these plants are very, very amenable to transplanting. The trick that I have found is, especially if you do a good job at digging up the root ball, which you should attempt to do if at all possible.

Trying to fit that into the new hole is like not an easy task, you know, because they're throwing all over the place, and you got to position them, and you've got to put a little more soil on this side so that you kind of even out what's going on this side. So they take a little bit of a steady hand to figure out exactly how you're going

to get them in there. But if you just put the extra soil in, you know, a container or a tub or some things that you can kind of use it to maneuver the plant in Overall, I have found, you know, knock on wood, but I haven't lost any to transplanting.

talking tulips, so please stay tuned. Thanks for listening to The Gardening Simplified podcast, brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested by experts with your success in mind. Learn more at Proven Winners color Choice dot com.

It was a frilly type of tulip that had the green streaks and multi colors in it, and I said, well, that's a parrot tulip, and they're like, what's a parrot tulip? And then I realized a lot of people do not know that tulips basically are in different classifications. So there's all sorts of cultivars and hybrid tulips with registered names. But they organize these tulips into groups by shape, heritage,

and flowering time. And I thought I'd take one minute just to share with you that there are many different types. For example, there are single early tulips which are perfect for forcing in pots, double early tulips that almost resemble peonies, triumph tulips which are a mid season cross of early and late Darwin hybrids which have a big traditional look,

single lates that are very elegant. And then you get into some of these interesting tulips lily flowering look that have this flared lily look to them, fringed, crimped, wildly cut feathery viid flora which have the green streaks in them from base to tip. The Rembrandt tulips I mentioned, the parrot tulips, the double lates, the calfmania tulips, petite, very early flowering, All of these are I love the Fosteriana tulips Red Emperor is one very large flowers, but

short plants ten to sixteen inches. Greggy I tulips distinctive modeled foliage, very short, but big blooms on them. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that not all tulips are created the same. And when you buy them and fall and put them in the ground, do a little bit of research and look, because fringed or lily or parrot tulips are sensational.

cool old look. And I think this is an important thing to mention because, you know, being tulip time out here in West Michigan, a lot of people will see the city of Holland plants all of these tulips, so they have that really long season of bloom, and so those early start blooming and everyone says, oh my gosh, it's tulip time ruined. All the tulips are blooming. Now,

no they're not. That's just the early tulips. But they really do include all of these different groups so that you have that perpetual, you know, ongoing show of flowers

that bloom at different times. And you know, so if you're shopping just at like a local you know, box store or even a garden center, you're not likely to get that much detail on what type you're buying, Like it might say that it's a Darwin Hybrid or something like that, but for the most part, or just say like you know, Red Emperor or what, I just have the variety name. So if you want that extra information, it does pay to do some research and you know,

order online. A lot of bulb suppliers that you can order online from will offer a discount if you buy in spring and reserve your plants to be shipped. The bulbs will be shipped in fall. And yeah, so that's a great way to get really really cool tulips that your neighbors are not going to have. But but you have tulips, they've got to be in your deer compound.

neighbor's fence. So I kind of try to use that to get a little stand of some of some species seals because species tulips are my favorite.

trigger plants in your landscape. Of course, Boston ferns are a classic, especially if you've got a shady porch. Mini vista supertunias. Any of the supertunias do fantastic in hanging baskets. Stacey, I can't help it, but I'm a huge fan of super venas yep. I think perfect for hanging baskets. Silver falls, dichondra trailing out of the basket.

They'll just fry and they'll stop blooming, Whereas the proven Winners lubilia are all tested to keep blooming in the heat, so they might need some shade when it's really hot, and if you live in a hot climate, they're definitely going to need some shade. But that's one area where you can count on a better performance than your standard lobilia.

and thank you all so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful week.