Hanging Flower Baskets – Instant Porch Color
Last May, a woman from Schaumburg pulled into Goebbert’s Farm & Garden Center looking pretty frustrated. She’d just moved into a new house with this gorgeous wraparound porch, but it looked so bare. “I want it to look like those magazine covers,” she told me. “But I don’t have time to fuss with a bunch of plants.” I walked her straight to our hanging flower baskets section, and her whole face changed. Ten minutes later, she left with four overflowing baskets to fill up her bare porch with color!
That’s what hanging flower baskets do best. They transform boring porches, patios, and pergolas into something special – and they do it fast. At Goebbert’s in Barrington, we grow and sell hundreds of hanging baskets every spring. Our customers from all around Chicagoland come back year after year because they know our baskets are full, healthy, and ready to impress from day one.
Why Choose Hanging Flower Baskets?
Here’s the thing about hanging flower baskets – they give you instant gratification. Ground beds take time to fill in. Container gardens need arranging. But a good hanging basket? You hang it up and boom. Color. Volume. Impact. Done.
They’re also perfect for small spaces. Maybe you don’t have much yard in your Schaumburg townhouse. Or your Arlington Heights condo only has a tiny balcony. Hanging baskets let you garden vertically. You’re using space that would otherwise just be empty air. That’s smart gardening right there.
Another big plus? You can move them around. Put them in full sun when your petunias need it. Shift them to shade during that brutal July heat wave. Bring them under the porch roof when storms roll through. Try doing that with a perennial bed!
If you’re planning a butterfly garden with pollinator-friendly plants, hanging baskets filled with lantana or verbena make excellent additions that butterflies can’t resist.
Best Plants for Hanging Flower Baskets
Not every plant works well in a hanging basket. You want things that trail, cascade, or mound – stuff that spills over the edges and creates that full, lush look. After selling hanging flower baskets for years at Goebbert’s, we’ve learned what works best in our Illinois climate.
Sun-Loving Basket Plants
If your porch gets 6+ hours of direct sun, you’ve got options. Petunias are the classic choice – they bloom non-stop from spring till frost. Wave petunias especially make incredible trailing plants that can cascade 2-3 feet down. We’ve got customers in Hoffman Estates who use nothing but purple Wave petunias, and their porch looks amazing all summer.
Top sun-loving plants for hanging baskets:
- Petunias – trailing varieties bloom all season but require some deadheading
- Calibrachoa (Million Bells) – smaller petunia-like flowers, tons of color. Minimal deadheading.
- Verbena – heat tolerant, attracts butterflies
- Lantana – thrives in hot conditions, deer resistant
- Sweet potato vine – amazing trailing foliage in lime green or purple. We typically don’t recommend it on its own, but it’s good to add in to trail with another plant.
Shade-Friendly Basket Options
Got a covered porch or north-facing spot? Don’t worry. Some of the most beautiful hanging flower baskets actually prefer shade. Fuchsias are incredible in shade – those dangling flowers look almost like little ballerinas. Begonias come in amazing colors and bloom reliably with less light.
We sell a ton of shade baskets to folks who have covered porches or trees blocking the sun. Impatiens used to be the go-to shade plant, but since downy mildew became a problem, we’ve seen lots of gardeners switch to New Guinea impatiens. These handle partial shade well and don’t have the same disease issues.
Caring for Your Hanging Flower Baskets
Watering is the biggest challenge with hanging baskets. Honestly, this is where most people mess up. Because baskets are exposed to air on all sides, they dry out way faster than plants in the ground. During July and August heat? You might need to water twice a day.
Here’s my rule of thumb: stick your finger in the soil up to the first knuckle. If its dry, water. If its still moist, wait. Simple as that. Water until you see it draining out the bottom – that means the whole root ball got wet, not just the top inch.
Steps to Keep Your Baskets Thriving
- Check soil moisture daily during hot weather (twice daily in extreme heat)
- Water slowly until it drains from the bottom
- Fertilize every 1-2 weeks with water-soluble plant food
- Deadhead spent blooms to encourage more flowers
- Trim leggy growth to keep baskets looking full
- Move to shade during heat waves over 95°F
Feeding Your Hanging Baskets
Here’s something people forget – those plants are stuck in a limited amount of soil, and they’re blooming their hearts out all season. They need food! We recommend feeding your hanging flower baskets every week or two with a water-soluble fertilizer. Come see us at Goebbert’s for our recommendations.
Some gardeners prefer slow-release fertilizer granules mixed into the soil. That’s a good option if you tend to forget regular feeding. Either method works – the important thing is giving those plants the nutrients they need. Our guide to fertilizing your garden covers the basics if you want to learn more.
Choosing the Right Basket Size and Style
Size matters with hanging flower baskets. Bigger baskets hold more soil, which means more water retention and less frequent watering. A 10-inch basket might need water every day, while a 14-inch basket could go a day and a half in the same conditions.
Think about where you’re hanging it too. A massive basket on a skinny shepherd’s hook looks weird – and might blow over in wind. Match your basket size to your hook or bracket. We’ve got customers who’ve mounted heavy-duty brackets on their porch posts specifically so they can hang those big, dramatic baskets. Worth the effort if you ask me.
As for basket materials – plastic is lightest and holds moisture best. Wire baskets lined with coco fiber look more natural but dry out faster. Ceramic and terracotta are gorgeous but heavy and can crack.
For most people hanging baskets on a typical porch, plastic or resin works great. If you’re dealing with unpredictable spring weather (and lets be honest, this is Illinois – when isn’t the weather unpredictable?), lighter baskets are easier to bring inside when frost threatens.
Common Hanging Basket Problems (and How to Fix Them)
We hear the same questions every summer from customers.
“Why does my basket look crispy?”
Too much sun, not enough water – or both.
“Why are the flowers slowing down?”
Probably needs fertilizer, or it’s time to deadhead.
“Why is everything turning yellow?”
Could be overwatering, or the roots are getting too hot.
The biggest mistake we see? People buy a beautiful basket, hang it in full afternoon sun, forget to water for three days during a heatwave, and wonder why it looks dead. These plants are working hard for you – they need daily attention during hot weather. If your schedule won’t allow for daily watering, consider self-watering baskets or add water-absorbing crystals to the soil.
Another issue we see: hanging baskets in windy spots. Wind dries out soil fast and can damage delicate flowers and stems. If your location gets a lot of wind, stick with tougher plants like verbena or lantana. Or move your baskets to a more protected spot when storms are coming.
Making Your Own Hanging Flower Baskets
Some folks prefer to buy pre-made baskets (totally valid – thats what we sell at Goebbert’s!). But if you want to create your own custom hanging flower baskets, it’s not that hard. Start with a good quality potting mix – not garden soil, which is too heavy. Use a mix designed for containers.
The classic approach is “thriller, filler, spiller.”
Put something tall and eye-catching in the center (the thriller), surround it with mounding plants (fillers), and add trailing plants around the edges (spillers). For example: an upright geranium in the middle, some dusty miller and lobelia for filling, and sweet potato vine trailing over the edges.
Don’t cram too many plants in though. They need room to grow. A 12-inch basket can handle maybe 4-5 plants total. More than that and they’ll compete for water and nutrients. If you’re just getting started with container gardening, our beginner’s guide to companion planting covers which plants play nice together – the same principles apply to baskets.
Shop Hanging Baskets at Goebbert’s
We grow and sell a huge selection of hanging flower baskets every spring at Goebbert’s Farm & Garden Center in Barrington. Our peak selection runs from late April through early June – that’s when you’ll find the most variety in colors, plants, and sizes. By mid-summer, the popular ones go fast, so shop early if you’ve got specific colors in mind.
Our staff knows these plants inside and out. Tell us about your porch – how much sun it gets, which direction it faces, how often you can water – and we’ll point you toward baskets that’ll actually thrive in your space. Whether you’re coming from Barrington, South Barrington, Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Hoffman Estates, Algonquin, or anywhere in the Chicagoland area stop by and let us help you find the perfect hanging baskets to make your porch the envy of the neighborhood.
And hey, don’t be afraid to ask questions. We’d rather help you pick the right basket the first time than see you back in two weeks with a dead plant. That’s just how we do things at Goebbert’s.
