Following some key steps can help your hanging baskets look great in the summer

Ever wonder how to keep your hanging baskets looking great throughout the heat of summer?

For expert advice, I turned to Tom Verhoeven, owner of Peoria Gardens, Inc. and Mark Bunsen of Rainsweet Landscaping.

Verhoeven maintains the flowers and baskets donated to the Corvallis Flower Basket Program throughout the summer.

"Downtown Corvallis is a tough environment for annuals with the sun, reflective asphalt and wind drying them out," Verhoeven says.

The key to making hanging baskets work is the selection of plants, hanging them in the right place, having a sufficient volume of soil, and the right amount of water and fertilizer.

Why use them

There are several reasons to grow hanging baskets:

* Flowering hanging baskets provide instant color in containers for summer decks and patios.

* They fill the need for vertical gardening in small homes and yards without much landscape space.

* They allow gardeners to take advantage of areas under eaves or overhangs, porches, over sidewalks and along pathways.

* They optimize vertical space inside greenhouses.

Soil selection

Most plants will do well in full sun unless there isn't sufficient soil - you never want the roots to dry out completely.

Recipe for a soilless mix (like that used at Peoria Gardens) is comprised of approximately 1/3 of each of the following:

* Composted bark dust

* Peat moss

* Pumice

"For a fertilizer, I would recommend a water soluble 20-10-20 type fertilizer with added micronutrients if you have a soilless media like ours," says Verhoeven. Also there must be some limestone and gypsum in the soil blend for PH control and Calcium, he adds.

How much is enough?

"Water and fertilizer needs of plants vary with the weather," Brunsen says. He recommends:

* When it is cooler in June he "pushes" the baskets (with fertilizer) - to make them come on a little faster and cuts back when the temperatures heat up (in July and August). The high salt content in fertilizer can burn plants roots during those spurts of hot weather.

* Let the pots go almost dry before watering again throughout June. (He waters the downtown Corvallis baskets about 7 to 12 times for the whole month of June.)

* Attach trays to each pot to provide a reservoir of water for the plant to suck up moisture. This will stretch out the time between waterings.

* Homeowners with smaller pots may need to water theirs twice a day in the heat.

* Once a plant has been stressed by drought, it takes weeks to recover.

* The take home message is this, if you've got hanging baskets and you're planning to be gone for the weekend, you'd better have a neighbor come over and water for you," says Brunsen.

The flower baskets go up in downtown Corvallis June 1st through Fall Festival where they are sold.

Plant selection

Plant selection is the key to a happy hanging basket. It also depends on the size of your pot and its location where it will be hung.

Choose 5 to 10 plants for your typical container or one accent plant will work as well. (The downtown Corvallis planters are 16 inches wide and tall. They can hold up to 20 plants per basket.)

Plants that do best in sun, east or west side of the house, include:

Blizzard Ivy Geraniums - prefer full sun but will tolerate partial shade.

Calibrachoa (Million Bells) - prefer sun to partial shade.

Wave Petunias - full sun; the backbone of any hanging basket. The pot can be allowed to go slightly dry between waterings since petunias do not like to be over watered.

Verbena, Lanai Series - full sun. Cut back these plants to half their size in mid summer, keeps them from getting leggy.

Bacopa - (Large flowered white varieties are new) - do equally well in full sun or partial shade - however - do not let these plants dry out! The leaves will die and not recover.

Bidens, Peters Gold - full sun, easy care, self-cleaning, no deadheading necessary.

Brachycome, Amethyst (Swan River Daisy) - full or partial sun. Fairly drought tolerant.

Ipomoea, (Sweet Potato Vine) - Full sun to mostly shade. Leaves droop when the vine needs water.

Scaevola (Fan Flower) - full sun to partial shade.

Lobelia - full sun or partial shade.

Plants that do best in shade - hung under a porch, shaded arbor or north side of the house include:

Fuchsias - grow in partial or light shade.

Bacopa - do equally well in full sun or partial shade.

Impatiens - do best in partial shade but tolerate full shade, or if kept moist, sun as well. (New Guinea and balsam impatiens are best adapted to sunny locations.)

Lobelia - like full sun or partial shade.

Begonias - An outstanding performer in planters, hanging baskets or flower beds is the begonia boliviensis (Bonfire) - a cascading, single scarlet-orange flower that blooms all season. This plant likes moist soil in sun to shade.