Anyone have any good suggestions for hanging basket in full sun all day long?

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Penny - For the past two years I have bought a red Blizzard geranium - also known as Swiss geranium I think...It is a beautiful brillant red and a good beacon for hummers. My hummers did use this despite my doubt - once they found it it was used for my autumn hummers quite a bit. It blooms profusely all season. I have one overwintered on the sunporch - part of it croaked but am about to put out the half that did not and feed it to bring on the blooms. I'm sure you will hear about better ones but this is very pretty.

Carol
Milford, CT
Zone 6

Thanks Carol
I have never heard of it but I will look for it.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Penny,
I bought plants at Home Depot to make up two hanging baskets today. In one, there will be a red geranium, surrounded by blue annual lobelias and a deep pink verbena.. The other will have a trio of Million Bells: Scarlet, Saffron and Tangerine. I'm hoping the colors will at least attract the hummers so they can find the other sources.I'm putting in some Osmocote so I don't need to fertilize them often.The ready-made baskets were beautiful but the prices were not.

Priya
Zone 7, Maryland

Thanks Priya,
]I had forgotten all about Millon Bells. I did those two or three years in a row and they did very well. I also like the idea of the mixed baskets. Yes the pre-made basket prices are really high here too. They are beautiful but with just a couple of packs of annuals you can create the same thing for so much less. I have more hanging pots than I know what to do with because our previous mail carrier brings me all their pots at the end of the season. I just finished reorganizing all my pots by size out in the garage so all i will need to pick up will be a few packs of flowers and I am set. I got the soil the other day.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Penny,
I'd agree with the Million Bells. My mother in law has a very sunny place for her one basket of flowers and year after year she forgets to water just one day and they die. Last year I gave her a basket of million bells. I added the watering crystals to the pot and they still looked in August even though she missed a day watering them now and then.

Badding Brothers has a lot of different color combinations to inspire you for the one you make if you're going there soon. Of course we all know that you will have red in it!

Carol WNY
Amherst, NY
Zone 5

Thanks Carol
I was going to try and go today but never made it so maybe tomorrow or Tues. I can get over that way. Good idea about adding the soil moist crystals too. I may have to do that as where I want to put the baskets is going to be in sun all day.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Priya, the million bells not only catches hummers' attentions, the hummers do feed from them as well...at least my Anna's do. I had a large basket of them hanging from the SW corner of my back porch for 3 years...the same plants survived 2 winters in a row without ever taking the basket down. Each spring, they just put out new growth & took off. This last winter was especially bad for this area & the million bells bit the dust...but I was very happy I got 3 years out of them! I recently read they like to get a little dry between waterings. I wanted to plant them in the same pot with a brugmansia, but decided it might be a little too wet for the million bells' taste. I went with fuchsias and bacopa instead.

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Million bells Ok Ok, I can go shopping. My pocket is full! lol

Seriuosly, "watering crystals to the pot" I learn so much on this forum. I have always stayed away from hanging baskets because in my full sun they dry out too fast and they are harder to water (gotta actually raise my arm up Can't be serious if I tried) I never knew you caould add these water crystals to the soil. I will google them.

Pam NJ 6B

Pam
The crystals go by several brand name Agri-Soak is one and Soil Moist is another. I know there are probably more. The Crystals are little beads and it only takes like half or less of a teaspoon to a pot. When they get wet they espand to a gelatin like bead and the soil draws its moisture from those beads if it starts to need water. Again more is not necessarily better. It can be expensive too but many places now sell little packets because it does go a really long way.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Penny I usually do Wave series Petunias which are always available at local nurseries, this year I want to try Nastriums and let them trail , they are decent for hummers. Now if I can only get them to germinate!!

Zone 6b New Jersey

visit my hummer photos athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/38829896@N00/

Million bells do attract the hummers and they will try them out. I like them but, they seen to be doing just fine and then they croak. I wonder if those watering glass globes might work. I see our ACO has them for $2.00 each this week. The watering globes would help out those that don't like to lift ther arms, myself included.

birdlegs
zone 5
S.E. Lower MI.

Stephen,
I forgot about Nasturtiums and guess what I have a container that I sowed of Empress nasturtiums just for my hanging baskets. Last year I sowed them too early and they were all over the place but by the time it warmed up enough to go out they had croaked from neglect. They sprouted really fast last year. This year that I waited later and really need them they haven't sprouted. I didn't soak my seeds...never have and they always come up qquickly. This year they are taking their sweet time like everything else it seems.

Well I am thinking Nasturtiums (if they germinate), million bells, swiss geraniums and maybe some wave petunias in the mix. That should give me a few nice baksets.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Another one that does well in full sun is Lantana. Nasturtiums are a great idea too and were a hummingbird favorite for me last year.

Lisa

Lake Country
Southern Wisconsin
USDA Zone 5b
heat zone 4/5
sunset zone 41
http://thehummingbirdgarden.blogspot.com/

I really like nasturtiums, but they are a major aphid magnet. Last year I planted seeds for a variegated-leaf nasturium & they were really pretty...about the time they started to bloom, the aphids wiped them out. I thought they'd survive the attack (I've seen that before) and the birds would eat the aphids, but the plants totally croaked. Don't give them much fertilizer - you'll get a lot of foliage and fewer blooms.

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Penny,

Last year I had put Petunias in one and the other had the Bat faced Cuphea with a blue variety of Lobelia. this year I found a metal basket on a 6' pole which will have the Russelia equisetiformis in it. Since that plant is going to be huge and heavy, I didn't want to put it in just any hanging basket. I had a hard time finding a urn that was cheap. I didn't want to have to pay $50 + for it and I wanted something high enough so the blooms didn't drag on the ground (in our case on the patio cement when it's windy...it would rip it to shreds).


Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Lisa, I hadn't thought about a Lantana. I usually put mine in the ground. Good thought if I find the right one this year.

Patrick
Never knew that aphids wre attracted to nasturtiums. I may have to watch out for them and use appropriate measures.

Susan Louise
I did the Bat-faced cuphea 2 yrs in hanguing baskets ant it looked great but they are a japanese beetle magnet in my yard so I have quit growing them.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

I've got a million bells in a window box and it is already the size I thought it would get to be by mid July. Can I cut it back and get it to bush back out again? I did finally see the hummer back and checking it out a couple days ago.
dell

Dell the few times that i grew million bells they did grew and fill out a basket in no time at all. Yes you should be able to pinch it back so that it fills in more.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Of all of the plants mentioned, Lantana, especially Dallas Red, has been the most used by the hummingbirds in my yard.

I have some heat tolerant fucshias in hanging baskets, also rusellia.

Joan Garvey - Metairie, LA Zone 9

Glad you mentioned fuchias. I bought one last week because the nursery told me they could cope with the heat of summer, and I figured, yeah welllll.... maybe there IS a possibility if you can grow them in Louisiana!
dell

Joan,
If my rusellia ever roots I will probably put one in a hanging basket. I think that would make a very nice display.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39