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Summer Setpiece
 The classic hanging basket is a summer setpiece and the key to its success is brimming vitality controlled by a harmonious colour sense. There is no shortage of plants to choose from among hardy and half-hardy annuals or hardy and tender perennials.
A few bushy plants are useful to give a slightly domed effect. Calceolarias, busy lizzies (Impatiens), zonal pelargoniums, pansies and the similar but smaller-flowered violas as well as short-growing fuchsias, such as the red and purple Tom Thumb', are all suitable, tending to sprawl rather than make leggy growth. Some spectacular foliage plants that are often grown under glass also make excellent centrepieces. The colour range in Coleus blumei, often combined in a single frilled or attractively lobed leaf, extends from pale yellow, through pinks and reds, to maroon and deepest purple. To shape the plant pinch out the growing tips. Another plant with striking foliage is Begonia rex. The large asymmetrical leaves are in metallic silver, pinks, reds and purples, often combined in arresting patterns.
 What counts for more than the bushy plants when it comes to creating a miniature garden in the sky are the trailers. Many good flowering plants trail naturally or have trailing or pendulous forms. These include fibrous-rooted and tuberous begonias, black-eyed susan (Thunbergia alata), Campanula isophylla, creeping jenny (Lysimachia nummularia), fuchsias, lobelias, nasturtiums, ivy-leaved pelargoniums, petunias and verbenas.
Some of these, such as nasturtiurns and ivy-leaved pelargoniums, have attractive foliage that sets flowers off well. In many combinations, however, you will need trailing foliage plants. Ivies, variegated or in shades of green, are invaluable, as are the various forms of Helichrysum petiolore. Many good trailers are variegated, including the dead nettle Lamium maculatum. 'White Nancy' is a particularly lovely cultivar and a longer trailer is the variegated ground ivy (Nepeta hederacea 'Variegata'), the variegation showing up the pretty edge of the leaves.
There are also several trailers to borrow from among houseplants. Tradescantia fluminensis 'Quicksilver' has an almost pure-white striped variegation while the striping in Tradescantia pendula is of silver against purple and green. In bright green one of the best house plants is an ornamental asparagus, Asparagus sprengen.
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