Directions For Filling Hanging Baskets
To fill a wire basket, first obtain some of the green moss to be found
on the lower portion of the trunks of trees in almost any shady piece of
woods. This is to be used as a lining to the basket,
turning the green
side out, and entirely covering the inside of the wire form with the
moss. Before filling the basket with soil, place a handful of charcoal
or gravel in the bottom, which will hold the moisture. Fill the basket
with rich, loose loam, such as will not harden by frequent waterings.
Plants that are peculiarly suitable for hanging baskets are quite
numerous, and from them a selection may be made that will please the
most exacting taste.
It is a mistake to crowd too many plants into a basket, if they grow
they will soon become root-bound, stunted, and look sickly. If the
hanging basket be of the ordinary size, one large and choice plant
placed in the centre with a few graceful vines to droop over the edges,
will have a better effect when established and growing, than if it were
crowded with plants at the time of filling. Hanging baskets being
constantly suspended, they are exposed to draughts of air from all
sides, and the soil is soon dried out, hence careful watching is
necessary in order to prevent the contents from becoming too dry. If the
moss appears to be dry, take the basket down and dip it once or twice in
a pail of water, this is better than sprinkling from a watering-pot. In
filling hanging baskets, or vases of any kind, we invariably cover the
surface of the soil with the same green moss used for lining, which,
while it adds materially to the pleasing appearance of the whole, at the
same time prevents the soil from drying out or becoming baked on the
surface.
The following is a list of choice plants suitable for hanging-baskets.
Those marked thus (+) are fine for the centre, those marked thus (*)
have handsome foliage, and this mark (**) indicates that the plants have
flowers in addition to handsome foliage:
**Begonia glaucophylla scandens.
+Oxalis.
**Begonia Rex, very fine.
*Fittonia
+Cuphea platycentra (Cigar Plant).
+Pandanus (Screw Pine).
+Dracaena (Young's).
+Neirembergia.
+Centaurea gymnocarpa.
**Geraniums, Mrs. Pollock and Happy Thought.
*Tradescantia discolor.
*Peperomias.
**Gloxinias.
*Fancy Ferns.
+Ageratum (John Douglass, blue).
+Achyranthes.
**Variegated Hydrangea.
*Ficus Parcelli.
**Gesnerias.
*Variegated Grasses, etc., etc.
TRAILING PLANTS.
**Fuchsia, microphylla.
Sedum (Stone Crop).
**Ivy-leaved Geraniums.
German Ivy.
Indian Strawberry Vine.
Kenilworth Ivy.
Lycopodium.
Moneywort.
**Trailing Blue Lobelia.
*Cissus discolor.
**Lysimachia (Moneywort).
**Tropaeolums.
**Torrenia Asiatica.
**Mesembryanthemums (Ice Plant).
**Cobaea scandens.
**Pilogyne suavis.
+Lygodium scandens (Climbing Fern).
Previous: Hanging Baskets
Next: Wardian Cases
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