Hanging baskets are a cheat's way to get early flowers. Baskets heat up faster than soil in the ground and you can hang them over nice hot paving, beside brick walls or on warm patios too. In fact you can REALLY cheat and buy your flowers already blooming - just bung them in the basket and enjoy them all summer.

Four rules for great baskets

1. Keep moist. If baskets dry out too often the potting mix becomes water repellent - it'll run down the sides instead of soaking in.
2. Mulch, with pebbles or coconut fibre to help keep moisture in.
3. Use a slow release fertiliser or feed with half-strength plant tucker every two to three weeks. There isn't much soil in a hanging basket, so you need to feed little and often.
4. Soak the basket with a dribble from the hose or in a bucket of water at least once a month.

Which plants NOT to choose
Avoid annuals that are nearing their use-by date, like primulas in spring or petunias in autumn. When in doubt ask how long the plant will continue blooming.

Which plants will look stunning
If you've never grown a basket of blooms before, stick to the standard ones to begin with: petunias in all their many forms, geraniums (pelargoniums) and any succulent, though fat-fleshed, tough-looking plants that are boring by themselves look great once they've multiplied and start spilling out of the basket. To keep them flowering try to prevent them actually setting seed (which uses a lot of energy) by trimming off the spent flowers at least once a week.

All of these will wilt if they're too dry, but mostly recover when you give the poor things a drink. Other good ones to try include lobelias, verbena, nasturtiums, brachycome daisies, violas and non-climbing sweet peas. All of these will flower for long periods of time and will tumble attractively over the edge of the baskets.

To trick them into flowering for even longer you can hang the basket in full sun in late winter to early spring and then, as the weather heats up, move them to a slightly cooler position so that they continue to bloom rather than being burnt off.

Although not a flowering plant there is a wonderful, silver-leafed dichondra (yes, the old, hard to deter kidney weed in very glamorous mode) on the market that will cascade in silver curtains down the side of a hanging basket. It requires full sun to maintain its silver sheen (shade makes it greener and less dramatic). This is another real toughie once established and only requires the occasional hair cut to promote fresh new growth.