Growing a hanging garden is a worthwhile project—not only are hanging baskets beautiful, but they make great use of your space. Instead of cluttering your porch with pots and planters in every corner, you can suspend them from the roof and enjoy the lovely canopy of foliage trailing down. A colorful collection of vines, flowers, and even edible plants can completely transform the atmosphere of your space, creating a serene mini-jungle right at home. Here are some of our favorite plants that you can grow in hanging planters, both outdoors and indoors, here in Fort Lauderdale.
The Best Hanging Plants For Shaded Porch Gardens
If you’re hanging baskets from the roof of your porch, depending on the direction your patio is facing, sunshine might not be in high supply. Luckily, there are plenty of gorgeous plants that thrive in the shade, so you still have lots of options for your hanging garden. Here are some of our favorite shade-friendly plants for hanging baskets.
- Begonias: These classic hanging basket plants remain to be a top favorite, as their dramatic blossoms will brighten up the shadier spots of your yard with their irresistible color and vibrancy.
- Staghorn Ferns: While many ferns are suitable as hanging plants for shade, we love the distinctive look of the staghorn fern. It gets its name from its peculiar, large fronds shaped just like deer antlers. They’re perfect for our humid, tropical climate, and they appreciate the occasional mist with a spray bottle.
- Crossandra: This flowering shade plant is a bit taller and doesn’t quite have a trailing habit, so it looks best in the center of a hanging container with vines all around the edges, spilling out like a waterfall.
- Algerian Ivy: A perfect trailing vine to surround your crossandra! This lush ivy plant isn’t as aggressive of a grower as its cousin, the English ivy, so it makes a great addition to mixed arrangements without completely taking over the container.
- Coleus: These brightly-colored foliage plants have some serious wow-factor, with incredible color combos like burgundy and lime, or watermelon-inspired magenta and green.
Outdoor Hanging Plants For Full Sun
These hanging basket plants love to soak up the warm Florida sun, so if your yard or patio gets a lot of direct light, these flowering plants will be able to handle it like champs.
- Bougainvillea: If you’ve ever stopped by Living Color Garden Center, you’re probably well aware of our love for these vivacious blossoms in ultra-bright shades of pink, red, and purple. They’re very vigorous growers (you’ve probably seen some monster-sized bougainvillea around town), so you may need to prune them once in a while to keep them from getting too unruly. Make sure your basket has drainage holes because these otherwise tough plants don’t like soggy roots and aren’t likely to recover from a bad case of root rot.
- Portulaca: Also knows as the moss rose, these lovely blossoms will instantly put a smile on your face with their cartoonishly cute, round shape, and the bright rainbow of colors they come in. Make sure you pinch off any spent flowers to encourage the plant to produce new blooms.
- Lantana: While most varieties of lantana look great in hanging baskets, we particularly love the trailing and weeping varieties because they pour down the sides of the container so elegantly.
- Nemesia: You’ll love how voluminous these sweet little flowers are, especially in hanging baskets—you’ll swear they look just like fluffy clouds! Frequent watering is an absolute must, but they don’t like soggy soil. Make sure the soil has good drainage, and the basket lets water escape.
Hanging Vegetable Plants And Other Edibles
You’ve got to love an edible garden! Perfect blends of form and function, these hanging basket plants will beautify your yard while bearing healthy treats.
- Tomatoes: Hanging tomato plants are downright adorable! The little green and red fruits look like dangling Christmas lights. Plus, you don’t have to worry about staking them to keep them upright. The best hanging tomato plants are indeterminate varieties with smaller fruits, like the Tumbling Tom. Or, try the Florida Basket tomato, which was bred specifically for hanging gardens in Florida!
- Strawberries: We love strawberry plants in hanging baskets—they’re just as delicious as they are beautiful! Ever-bearing varieties are the best because they produce a few harvests per year, instead of one single harvest in spring. Make sure your strawberries get lots of sunshine and water. Don’t forget to add in some fertilizer made especially for edible plants, because there are limited amounts of soil nutrients available in smaller hanging planters.
- Nasturtium: You might not have guessed that every part of these vibrant orange and gold blossoms are edible! You can enjoy them in your hanging baskets, and in your salads too. Harvest them earlier in the morning when they’re plump with moisture and haven’t dried out from the sun.
Best Plants For Indoor Hanging Planters
- Burro’s Tail: Arguably one of the most peculiar-looking succulents (but in a good way!) the burro’s tail is a definite conversation starter. Its long tails are comprised of plump little green leaves all clustered together on a rope-like stem. Hang them in a sunny spot by the window, and if it starts to get too crowded in its pot, you can always divide it up and propagate the leaves into smaller pots.
- Spider Plant: Perhaps one of the most popular houseplants of all time, the stringy, stripey leaves of the spider plant will add a fresh pop of color into your home. These low-maintenance plants liven up any space while filtering toxins from the air. You’ll get a kick out of the little “babies” it produces—tiny new spider plants that can easily be plucked right off and planted in new pots.
- Philodendron: These ultra-popular plants are often grown outdoors in Fort Lauderdale, but they’re still totally viable as an indoor plant. They’re super low-maintenance and easy to keep happy, and they’re also great for purifying the air in your home and filtering out toxins. Opt for a vining variety to get that gorgeous trailing effect.
If you need some help designing and putting together your new hanging basket garden, feel free to visit us at our garden center in Fort Lauderdale. We love helping our customers mix and match different colorful varieties to achieve a look tailored for your unique style.