These can be grown from seed but the seedlings are the victims of so many insect pests that it is better to purchase small plants in February and grow them on in the warm house for spring and early summer sales.
Feathery green trailing growth, plus small white flowers which often produce small red fruits, make this a froth of green for the window box or planter. Here it is seldom bothered with pests unless the season is exceptionally hot and dry, then it may become infested with red spider.
If you have old plants left over, you can divide them with a sharp knife, potting up the pieces of long white tubers and foliage in 4-inch pots of greenhouse soil. They also make wonderful hanging basket plants for the patio or greenhouse.
Begonia
Nearly everyone knows the little wax begonia (B. semper-florens), with its shiny leaves and white, pink, or red flowers. You can purchase a large plant of the wax begonia and propagate most of your own stock through cuttings grown in the warm house, buy small potted plants for retail, or grow these fibrous-rooted begonias from seed. The procedure from seed is like that for most house plants, (page 112).
Equally good for window boxes are the hanging basket types of tuberous-rooted begonias. The single or double flowers range from white and yellow through pink, salmon, and red.
Dracaena
Most gardeners think of dracaena as a house plant but it makes a good tough item for outdoor planting in summer. And you can always tell your customers it serves double duty. When the window box season has finished, it can be dug up, potted, and used as a house plant.
This is another item I believe is best purchased as small potted plants. You won't want too many to start with?probably no more than 2 dozen?and they are low priced. D. fragrans has green leaves but many varieties have striped and speckled foliage. There's D. Massangeana with a wide golden stripe along the leaf midrib; D. Godseffiana, with flecks of white on its foliage; D. Goldieana has green and silver foliage; and D. Sanderianq, a slender plant, with glossy green leaves margined white.
If you have plants left over, you can propagate more from tip, stem, or root cuttings struck in a propagating bed or case. They must be grown in the warm house.
Heliotrope
The dwarf form of heliotrope, with its heads of blue or white flowers, makes a wonderful plant for window box or planter (and is fine also for bedding or as an accent plant).
Heliotrope is easily grown from cuttings taken in the fall. These are sold in pots the following spring. Grow the cuttings in any medium you prefer, in a warm house. As soon as they are well rooted you can plant them in 3-inch pots of greenhouse soil. When the plants reach the height you want, cut out the top so the plant will branch.
Hoya Carnosa
Often called the wax plant or Swedish ivy, this plant with its heavy, glossy, green or variegated leaves and huge clusters of waxy white or pink flowers makes a marvelous summer window box plant. And it, too, serves double duty. In the fall it can be brought into the house and used in a hanging basket or trained up the side of a window.
It's best to buy this one as rooted cuttings; pot them in rich soil, and grow them in the warm house. You probably won't want to start out with more than twenty-five. If you keep some over and want them to flower in your greenhouse, do not take tip cuttings. The blooms form on the tips and after the plants have flowered, they will produce a second-year flower crop on these same tips.
Pandanus
Here's another plant which doubles for window box and in?door garden. The green foliage is bordered or striped with white or yellow.
As a starter, buy un-rooted cuttings and root them in flats of light soil mixture at 65 degrees F. When they are rooted, in about 3 weeks, pot in 3-inch pots. Plants started in March are ready for later spring sales.
Thunbergia
Although generally reserved for greenhouse decoration, thunbergia makes a good trailer for the window box. Its flowers, produced freely throughout the summer, are white, cream, orange red, and in shades of blue-purple.
Thunbergia, called clock vine, is easily propagated through cuttings or seed sown in the spring in the warm house. Pot up into 2-inch pots as soon as the cuttings or seedlings can be easily handled.
Wishbone Plant (Torenia)
Small gloxinia-like flowers in white and yellow, plain yellow, or blue and white, and tiny green leaves, plus a trailing habit when grown in partial shade, make the wishbone plant unusual material for the window box, planter, or hanging basket.
In warmer areas of the country, this one is handled as many northern gardeners handle pansies.
Sow the seeds in March in loose soil and grow in the warm house. Do not let seedlings dry out?they may not revive. As soon as you can handle them, perhaps mid-April, plant them in 3-inch pots of porous soil.
The popularity of hanging baskets, outdoor planter boxes, and window boxes makes it necessary that you should know a little about the type of plants your customers will want to purchase for use in these garden "areas." Almost any of the small vines, or trailers?Vinca maor, hoya, wandering Jew, trailing petunias, begonias, and ivy geranium?will do beautifully. The upright geraniums often are depended upon to furnish the bulk of bloom for both types of planters. Most of the small bedding plants also are good.
Plants In Hanging Baskets
Plants that are required to grow in hanging baskets really are being asked to perform in unique situations as the environment within a hanging basket isn't quite like anywhere else you might put your plants. For example, the area allowed for root growth is a lot smaller than anywhere else, even pots, as pots tend to only have one or two plants of the same type in them, whereas baskets tend to have a lot of different types of plant all thrown together in a small space. After watering the soil they are in and therefore the roots dry out a lot quicker than anywhere else too as the whole area is exposed to the air.
Because of these unique situations it is very important that you start out with good quality plants. If you haven't reared them yourself in the greenhouse then this means ensuring you buy healthy plants from the garden centre. If you have the smallest suspicion that the plant is diseased then don't buy it.
You also need to ensure you are using a good quality growing medium too. There are special mixes you can buy that are especially formulated to get your hanging basket plants to perform at their best. They tend to be soil-less compounds and are much lighter than the soil in your garden. It isn't wise to consider using garden soil for your hanging baskets as this soil contains weeds and disease that will cause problems for your plants. Some of the hanging basket mixes also contain special polymers that absorb water. The idea of these polymers is that when the soil dries out following watering they steadily release water they have stored up. This means your plants will remain watered for longer meaning less distress for your plants from the continuous cycle of complete wetness from watering followed by long periods of being dry.
As mentioned above, one of the unique elements associated with hanging baskets is the fact that you will cram in lots of different types of plant to a relatively small space in order to create the greatest impact. One tip here is to keep the larger of your plants to the middle and put your smaller ones to the outside so they don't get buried. Keep any trailing varieties to the outside too. For the best results go for the biggest hanging basket you can for the hanging space you have available as this will make more room available to your plants for growth.
Watering is probably the most essential part to maintaining a great looking hanging basket. You should vary the number of times you water your hanging baskets depending on the weather. On hot dry days you will need to water them more because the light soil dries out much more quickly than your normal garden soil. Don't be afraid to fill the basket with water as it will drain away quite freely. It is probably best to invest in a watering wand to water your baskets as it will make the process easier. It also allows you to put the water directly on the soil rather than over the top of the flowers. You can damage flowers by watering over the top of them in two ways. The first is that they will get damaged by the impact of the water on the petals themselves and the second is through the sun. While water droplets remain on the surface of leaves and petals they act as lenses and in sunlight can actually cause burning.
As well as the water itself, you would be best advised to occasionally add some plant food as the light soil in the basket will lose its nutrients quickly and they need to be replenished.
If you make the time and expend the effort on taking all these steps then you will be rewarded with stunning looking hanging baskets that will last throughout the Summer and if you're lucky even longer.
Both Gerald Mason & Wayne Armstrong are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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