Hanging Plants for Hanging Baskets: The Full Guide

Build a basket from three plant roles: one upright centrepiece, bushy fillers around it and trailing plants at the rim. Use 5 to 6 plants in a 25-30cm basket, 7 to 9 in a 35cm and 10 to 12 in a 40cm, then water daily through summer.

Kettle on. We'll do this properly. Choosing hanging plants for hanging baskets is the part that trips up most first-timers, and it truly needn't. After thirty-odd years running a bedding nursery and a good few Julys judging the basket classes at our local show, I promise you there is a simple order to the whole business. Learn it once and you will never look at an empty basket the same way again.

I'm Marjorie. I've filled more baskets than I've had hot dinners, nursed one fuchsia through three house moves, and I still get a small thrill when the first trailing shoot tips over the edge. This guide is the whole picture: what to plant, where it goes, and how many you actually need.

A word before we start. We sell the baskets, brackets, liners and some beautiful artificial displays here, not living plants. So the planting advice below is general guidance for anyone growing their own. Where I point you at something to buy, it will be hardware or a faux display that gives you the same look without the watering can.

The three jobs every plant does

A good basket is not a random handful of colour thrown at a frame. Every plant is doing one of three jobs, and you want all three represented.

Thrillers - the upright centrepiece that gives height and a focal point.
Fillers - the mounding plants that pack out the middle and hide bare compost.
Spillers - the trailers that tumble over the edge and soften the whole thing.

Get one from each group and even a beginner's basket looks like it was made up by hand at a garden centre. The Royal Horticultural Society works to the same thriller-filler-spiller idea, so you are in respectable company.

Best trailing plants (the spillers)

Trailers are where the magic happens. A basket is a vertical thing at heart, and it is the cascade you are really after. My reliable favourites, and I have my favourites:

Trailing lobelia - a haze of blue or white, brilliant for softening a hard edge.
Ivy-leaved pelargonium - the classic trailing geranium, sun-loving and forgiving of a forgetful gardener.
Bacopa and calibrachoa - non-stop tiny flowers, right through the summer.
Trailing fuchsia - my weakness, those little dancing bells.

If you love the tumbling look but cannot keep pace with the watering, faux trailers do the job beautifully. Our artificial white trailing hanging plants and artificial purple trailing hanging plants give you that spill with zero fuss, and they never scorch in a July heatwave the way the living ones can.

Fillers and a bit of height

For the middle, think petunias, busy lizzies, verbena and small violas. They mound up and knit the basket together into one generous whole. For height in a larger basket, an upright geranium or a small fuchsia does the trick nicely. Gardeners' World keeps a lovely long list if you want to browse the living options.

Prefer the look without the upkeep? An artificial geranium bush for baskets gives you that filled, generous middle from the moment you push it in.

How to line and plant, step by step

Here is the order I teach every newcomer, and it has never let one of them down.

Line the basket. A wire frame needs a liner to hold the compost and the water. Coco or moss looks natural. Our round coco hanging basket liners are the ones I reach for first.
Add a water-holding base. Multipurpose compost with a scattering of water-retaining granules keeps the thing from drying out by teatime.
Plant the sides first. In a wire basket, poke trailers through the sides low down so they clothe the whole ball, not just the crown.
Fill the middle. Thriller in the centre, fillers ringed around it, spillers at the rim.
Water well and let it settle. Give it a proper soak, then top up the compost if it sinks.

If lining feels fiddly, our full lining and liners section walks through coco, foam and moss, and the brackets and hooks guide covers hanging it safely once it is planted.

How many plants per basket

A question I get every spring without fail. As a rough rule for living bedding:

25-30cm basket - 5 to 6 plants.
35cm basket - 7 to 9 plants.
40cm and up - 10 to 12 plants.

Pack them a little tighter than instinct tells you, because a basket is meant to look full to bursting. Just stop short of cramming, or there is no root room and the whole lot sulks.

As a quick reference when you are planning the planting:

Basket size	Upright centre	Fillers	Trailers at the rim	Total plants
25-30cm	1	2-3	2-3	5-6
35cm	1	3-4	3-4	7-9
40cm and up	1-2	4-5	5	10-12

Fruit and edibles

You can absolutely grow a bit of food up high, and it feels a touch smug when you do. Trailing tomatoes and strawberries both do well in baskets, and strawberries especially keep their fruit up out of reach of the slugs. A dedicated planter helps here, such as our vertical hanging strawberry planter bags, which keep the roots contained and the berries dangling nicely.

Common mistakes to avoid

Under-watering. Baskets dry out faster than anything else in the garden. In high summer that can mean twice a day.
Skipping the feed. A weekly liquid feed keeps the flowers coming instead of fizzling out by August.
Planting too sparse. A thin basket never fills out later. Be generous at the start.
Ignoring the aspect. Sun-lovers sulk in shade, shade-lovers frazzle in sun. Match the plant to the spot.

If all of that sounds like a great deal of babysitting, you are not wrong, and it is exactly why so many of my customers now mix in a few artificial pieces. For the low-effort route from top to bottom, have a read of our artificial hanging baskets guide, and for keeping living baskets thriving, the care and watering guide is your friend.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best trailing plants for hanging baskets? Trailing lobelia, ivy-leaved pelargonium, bacopa, calibrachoa and trailing fuchsia are all reliable spillers that tumble beautifully over the edge. If you would rather skip the watering, good-quality artificial trailing plants give the same cascading look and hold their colour all year.

How many plants go in a hanging basket? As a rough guide, use 5 to 6 plants in a 25-30cm basket, 7 to 9 in a 35cm basket, and 10 to 12 in a 40cm basket. Plant a little more generously than feels natural, since a full basket always looks better than a sparse one.

Do I need to line a hanging basket before planting? Yes, if it is an open wire frame. A liner holds the compost in and helps retain water. Coco and moss liners look the most natural, while solid plastic baskets have a built-in bowl and need no separate liner.

How do I make up a hanging basket for the first time? Line the frame, half-fill with peat-free compost, set one upright plant in the centre, ring it with fillers and finish with trailers at the rim. Firm the compost gently, water thoroughly and let it drain before hanging. The whole job takes well under an hour.

What is the secret to growing a full hanging basket? Consistency. Water daily in summer, feed weekly, deadhead little and often, and plant more generously than feels natural. Most sparse or straggly baskets come down to missed watering rather than the wrong plant choices.

How do I prepare a hanging basket before planting? Soak the liner so it flexes, seat it flush in the frame, and mix water-retaining gel and slow-release feed into the compost. If you want trailers poking through the sides, cut small slits in the liner as you fill. Ten minutes of preparation saves weeks of fuss.

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.