Victoria's container secrets - hanging plant baskets at Victoria, British Columbia

Sunset, Spring-Summer, 1996 by Steven R. Lorton, Kathleen N. Brenzel

The fine art of creating living bouquets in British Columbia's capital city

Every summer day, boatloads of travelers arrive at the Inner Harbour of Victoria, British Columbia. As soon as the visitors hit the street, they invariably glance up, stop cold, and gasp in delight at the spectacular baskets hanging from the lampposts. Then, if they have a few hours to spare, they hop on a tour bus and travel to world-famous Butchart Gardens, where flowerful containers (not to mention garden beds) dazzle them further.

These floral extravaganzas never fail to please resident Victorians, travelers, and visiting British monarchs alike. What's Victoria's secret? We asked, and with typical Canadian generosity, horticulturists for the city and for The Butchart Gardens were quite willing to share the secrets of their container magic.

THE BUTCHART'S BIG BOUQUETS

At The Butchart Gardens, containers are works of art. Big, billowy, and bursting with blooms, they can command as much attention as the sprawling beds that surround them. Hanging baskets (more than 600), window boxes, and containers are everywhere. And as horticultural manager Bob Wellwood says, "We use them for everything: to adorn structures, to break up open spaces, or as portable color to hide a work in progress - also to direct traffic and serve as barriers and focal points."

Most of the annuals are started from seed in greenhouses in early spring, then transplanted from flats into pots when they're 4 to 6 inches tall. As the flowers come into bloom, these containers are moved to high-visibility areas. Massive freestanding pots are planted in place using larger plants (4-inch-pot size).

Pots. Start with one great pot of cast stone or high-fire terra-cotta. Bowl shapes on pedestals allow lacy, small-flowered annuals to cascade. Set tallest plants in the center, lower-growing ones around them, and small trailers around the rim.

Baskets. Start with a wire basket about 16 inches across the top. Plant the basket in three layers. For each layer, evenly space five plants around the edges (each finished basket holds about 15 plants), and offset them slightly from the plants just below.

To make sure that water runs through the basket and not off it, make a bowl-shaped impression in the soil at the pot's top, firming it with your fist. At The Butchart Gardens, baskets are watered by hand every three or four days in summer, and by drip irrigation (two emitters per basket) daily during warm weather.

VICTORIA'S BASKETS

Surprisingly, the hanging baskets are not difficult to make. All the materials are readily available at hardware stores, and the plants (listed at right) or suitable substitutes are sold by many nurseries. Victoria's city horticulturists choose plants for vibrant color and continuous bloom.

MATERIALS

* Sphagnum moss (about 1 cubic foot)

* Sturdy wire basket: 10 inches deep, 16 inches in diameter, 8-gauge (or heavier) galvanized wire

* Potting soil: 4 parts sterile loam, 3 parts peat moss, 2 1/2 parts perlite. Optional: you may want to add 8 ounces of a controlled-release complete fertilizer (14-14-14) per cubic foot of mix

* Strip of metal: 2 inches wide, 4 feet long, to form a collar around the top of the basket

* Metal pan: 3 to 4 inches deep, 13 inches in diameter, to fit under the basket

PLANTS

* 3 variegated nepeta

* 6 marigolds: 3 'Lulu', 3 'Gold Gem'

* 3 ivy geraniums 'Shirley Claret'

* 3 schizanthus 'Angel Wings'

* 6 lobella: 3 'Blue Fountain', 3 'Sapphire Pendula'

* 1 Lychnis coeli-rosa (Rose-of-heaven)

* 3 petunias 'Rose Madness'

Soak the sphagnum moss in a bucket of water overnight. Remove the moss, and squeeze excess water from it. Build the basket in three layers, working from the bottom up, as shown below. A metal pan wired under the basket catches runoff water. Use sturdy wire hangers to suspend the basket, then water it thoroughly. For the first two weeks, keep the basket out of direct afternoon sun. Once plants become established, you can move the basket into full sun.

BOTTOM LAYER

Insert moss 1 inch thick in the bottom and halfway up the sides of the basket. Pack the moss tightly, since it will hold the potting soil. Fill in the bottom layer with soil, then plant three nepeta, spaced equidistantly, by gently pushing them through the side of the basket so that the roots extend into the center atop the soil. Repeat the process with three marigolds, placing each of them between two nepeta.

MIDDLE LAYER

Add the next layer of moss and soil; press the soil firmly into place. Then add three ivy geraniums, placing them from the inside so their multiple runners will spread out between the wires. Add three schizanthus, three lobella, and three marigolds as shown in the drawing above. Add more soil, and continue building up the sides with sphagnum moss until you reach the rim of the basket.

TOP LAYER

Bend the metal strip into a circle and push it down 1 inch between the moss and the soil. Fill the collar with soil, and shape the soil so that it forms a shallow bowl in the center. Plant a single Lychnis coeli-rosa in the center of the basket, and surround it with three petunias and three lobella, staggering the plants so that they aren't directly over those in the layer below.