How to Save Money on Planters and Hanging Baskets

Hanging baskets are a beautiful part of the summer. Whether they’re hanging in some city’s downtown, or on a houses porch, they always deliver a punch of colour.

They’re also quite expensive to buy in-season, whether they be from a grocery store, or somewhere that does the actual growing and arrangements. These days, seeing prices of up to $75+ per planter is almost typical. Reasonably so, since some of the plants used in them can be quite expensive, and the planters also require both a lot of growth time and greenhouse space.

Acclimation Issues

Since planters/hanging baskets grown in a greenhouse are, well… Grown in a greenhouse, they’re not acclimated completely to your property’s climate. They often contain fully matured plants that are occupying most of the container’s medium with significant root mass. They have significant water requirements right from the start! These filled out planters are beautiful until you get a sunny, hot day and you forget to water them one morning. Goodbye $75 planter!

Growing Your Own Can be Better

Instead of spending a ton, take advantage of the sun by growing your own. Tee’s has several EASY planter ideas that you can DIY for quite cheap, and we offer all of these! The best part? You can choose the colors you want to include, instead of picking what someone else chose for you! Check out the combos below and see how easy it is to assemble a planter. All of these plants are available at Tee’s in the spring, but you can get them at many nurseries.

Petunias $6-$18

Several colors and types of wave petunias are available. They’re probably the classic hanging basket flower in my opinion. They like full sun, so they do best there. The plants can be on the pricier side at a lot of nurseries, but that’s because the breeder charges a lot for the seeds.

Easy Wave has a bushier, ball appearance.
Tidal Wave has a greater capacity to spread and fall.
Wave is the original wave Petunia, quite typical.
Shock Wave has smaller flowers than Wave.

10″ pot or bigger optimally
2x-3x Wave, or Shock Wave Petunias
OR 1x-2x Tidal Wave Petunias, or Easy Wave Petunias

Fuseables® Healing Waters $8-$16

Featuring 2 kinds of popular petunias, and a unique bacopa. Best planted in full sun.

10″ pot or bigger
1x-2x Fuseables® Healing Waters Combos
Each Fuseable contains 3 plants: Petunia Easy Wave Violet, Petunia Shock Wave Denim, and Bacopa Large-flowered Blue.

Impatiens $6-$9

Lots of colors to pick from, they’re a very popular ornamental flowers chosen for their ability to deliver high quality color in the shade, like a north facing balcony or porch. Can tolerate up to partial shade.

10″ pot or bigger optimally
2x-3x Impatiens ($9 for 3x *large* plugs at Tee’s, these larger root systems will grow into the planter faster than other small impatiens plugs commonly available) And you get to choose from a bunch of colors!

Bluetopia Bacopa $6

Cute blue/purplish creeping flowers that don’t have much scent at all. Grows best in full sun. It can do alright with a bit of shade.

10″ pot or bigger optimally
1x Bluetopia Bacopa. There are a couple plants in each transplant, so you are probably set with just 1x per planter.

Alyssum $3-$12

Small trailing flowers, great for pollinators. Comes in purple or white. Or purple AND white! Does well in full or partial sun.

10″ pot or bigger optimally
1x-3x Alyssum

How to Make the Planter

You’re going to need a few things to keep your planter healthy and popping with colour.

Potting mix – Many Promix, and Miracle Gro soils work well for this. I use both Promix HP and Promix All-Purpose that comes in the large compressed bales, since they’re the most economical choice. Make sure you don’t use top soil, or other regular garden soil. It’s too heavy and won’t hold water for your planters efficiently.
Container – 10″ containers are a good place to start, but you can go larger. Consider more plants if you’re using a larger planter.
Fertilizers – I recommend you use both, but you can get by with either one.
- Slow Release Bloom – Something like Miracle-Gro Shake n’ Feed Ultra Bloom. You can consider skipping this if your soil comes loaded with fertilizer already, but I still use some according to the top dressing instructions on the container.
- Liquid Concentrate – Something like Miracle-Gro’s 15-30-15 or 20-20-20. You should probably have this on hand for your garden regardless, or maybe you have an organic supplement. That will work too, but check on the application requirements. Note that I don’t particularly recommend Miracle-Gro products over others, it’s just easy for everyone to find. My organic fertilizer of choice is Gaia Green’s 4-4-4, but it’s quite expensive comparatively and doesn’t really have an instant effect on plants.

Building the Planter for the Summer

Take your container, and fill it about 2/3 of the way with your quality potting mix.
Add your slow release fertilizer granules according to the broadcast instructions. Don’t use too much. Mix it into the top inch or so of soil a bit.
Determine how deep you need to dig to accommodate for your transplants. Aim for the soil level of your planter to be around 1″ below the planter rim. Gently dig the shallow holes and place your transplants into them.
Add soil, until filled to around 1″ below the planter rim, gently pressing making sure there are no air pockets around the transplants.
Water gently, avoid wetting the plants if possible.
Fertilize with Water Soluble fertilizer at 1/2 to 2/3 of the recommended strength every 2 weeks the entire summer. Set a calendar reminder or pick a day of the week to remember, like every other Tuesday.
Add slow release fertilizer again in August, this will nourish your plants with essential elements for their final stretch Frost. You can start to decrease the water soluble fertilizer applications if you’d like in October.

All in, you’re probably looking at less than half of the cost of a prepared planter. And you get to say you made it! There are lots of other easy planters you can do. Marigolds planters are a popular economical classic, too.