The Best Flowers for Hanging Baskets

Ask ten gardeners for the best flowers for hanging baskets and you will get eleven answers, most of them right. After a lifetime of filling baskets and judging them at the local show, I have learned there is no single champion, only the right flower for your spot, your patience and your palette. So let us walk through the reliable ones, and be honest about where a faux version does the job just as well.

I'm Marjorie. I ran a bedding nursery for over thirty years, I have kept one stubborn fuchsia alive through three house moves, and I still think a well-flowered basket is one of the cheapest bits of joy a house can own. This is my honest rundown of what flowers best, in sun and in shade.

A quick note before the petals. We sell the baskets, brackets, liners and some genuinely lovely artificial flowers here, not living plants. So take the growing advice as general guidance. When I point you at something to buy, it will be hardware or a faux display that gives you the colour without the daily walk to the tap.

The all-rounders that never let you down

If you want a basket that flowers its socks off from June to the first frost, start with these.

• Petunias - the backbone of the British summer basket. Sun-lovers, endless colour, brilliant in a mixed display.
• Geraniums (pelargoniums) - tough, drought-forgiving and generous, especially the trailing ivy-leaved kinds.
• Fuchsias - those dancing bells, happy in a spot of shade where fussier things sulk.
• Begonias - reliable colour in sun or part-shade, with a lush, full look.
• Lobelia and bacopa - the frothy fillers that tie the whole basket together.

The Royal Horticultural Society and Gardeners' World both rate these highly for containers, and I would not argue with either.

Flowers for sun

A basket in full sun wants tough, heat-tolerant flowers with a bit of grit to them. Petunias, calibrachoa, ivy-leaved geraniums, verbena and gazania all thrive where the light is strong and the compost dries in a blink. Just be ready with the watering can, because a sunny basket drinks like nothing else on the wall.

Flowers for shade

Do not write off a shady spot as a lost cause. Fuchsias, busy lizzies (impatiens), begonias and trailing lobelia all flower happily out of direct sun. A north-facing porch can look every bit as full as a sun-trap, given the right choices.

Scented and pollinator-friendly picks

For scent, sweet alyssum and trailing verbena carry a lovely honeyed note that drifts on a warm evening. For the bees and butterflies, single-flowered varieties are far more useful than the big blowsy doubles, because the insects can actually reach the nectar. The RSPB has good, plain guidance on planting for pollinators if you want your basket to earn its keep for wildlife too.

When faux flowers make more sense

Here is where I will be straight with you, gardener to gardener. Living flowers are wonderful, but they are a commitment: daily watering in summer, weekly feeding, deadheading, and buying fresh every spring. For a great many people, that is a chore too far, and there is no shame in saying so.

A good artificial flowering basket gives you the same generous colour with none of it. Our artificial flowering baskets and fake flower hanging baskets hold their colour all year, and individual faux flowers let you build exactly the look you want. An artificial petunia trailing pair in pink and purple gives you that classic summer spill, and an artificial begonia trailing vine brings the lush look to a shady corner that would defeat the living version by August.

Building a balanced flowering basket

Whatever you choose, living or faux, the recipe is the same.

1. One or two focal colours, not six. A basket with a clear palette always looks more expensive than it was.
2. A mix of shapes - round petunia faces, frothy lobelia, tumbling trailers.
3. Something over the edge. The cascade is what turns a pot into a proper hanging basket.
4. Fullness. A sparse basket never quite looks right, so be generous with your planting or your faux stems.

For the planting method itself, our hanging plants guide walks through lining and layering, and if you want colour that changes with the calendar, the seasonal displays guide plans a whole year of it.

Here is how the favourites compare at a glance:

Frequently asked questions

What are the best flowers for hanging baskets in the UK? Petunias, geraniums, fuchsias, begonias, lobelia and bacopa are the most reliable performers, flowering generously through the British summer. Petunias and geraniums suit sunny spots, while fuchsias and begonias are happy in a bit of shade, so match the flower to your aspect.

What flowers grow best in a shady hanging basket? Fuchsias, busy lizzies, begonias and trailing lobelia all flower well out of direct sun, so a north-facing porch can look just as full as a sunny one. If watering a shady basket is a struggle, good-quality artificial begonias and trailing plants give the same lush look with no upkeep.

Are artificial flowers a good alternative for hanging baskets? For anyone short on time, yes. Faux flowering baskets deliver the same full, colourful look but hold their colour all year and need no watering, feeding or deadheading. The trade-off is a higher one-off cost, which usually pays off against buying fresh bedding every spring.

About the author Marjorie Ellwood — Fifty years, same trowel, still smiling Marjorie ran a bedding-plant nursery outside Harrogate for over thirty years before handing it to her daughter. She has judged hanging-basket classes at the local horticultural show since 1998 and once kept a fuchsia alive through three house moves. These days she writes from a greenhouse that smells permanently of tomato leaves. Writing for The Hanging Basket Co.