Wanting to get a really full, gorgeous display out of your begonias this year but not sure how many plants you will need per hanging basket? Let me help you out as we look at how many begonias you need in a hanging basket.
There are two factors we have to consider regarding the number of plants we will need. One is the size of the hanging basket and the second is the type of begonia you will be planting.
Size Of The Hanging Basket
Obviously, the bigger the hanging basket the more plants you will need to truly fill it out. But how many begonias do you need for the more common sizes?
All of these estimations will be based on begonias grown from new tubers. As you tubers get older they will produce bigger plants and fewer tubers will be needed per hanging basket.
10″ Basket 25cm
2 or 3 new tubers should comfortably fill a smaller basket like this.
12″ Basket 30cm
At 12″ you should be thinking about using 3 plants, possibly 4 depending on the size but 3 will normally be enough.
14″ Basket 35cm
With this size of hanging basket, you should use either 4 or 5 tubers. I would often go with 5 when the tubers are brand new and then use less and less as they get established over the years.
16″ Basket 40cm
Now we are getting onto really large hanging baskets, 6, 7, or possibly even 8 new tubers could be planted in one of these larger hanging baskets.
Type Of Begonia
This will also affect how many plants you want per hanging basket, there are lots of different types of begonia and they all grow to different sizes.
As a reference plant, I would use Begonia Apricot Shades, this hanging begonia is incredibly popular in hanging baskets.
With a lot of people, this will be what immediately comes to mind when you think of a hanging basket packed to the brim with gorgeous begonias.
Watering
The number of plants you have in a basket will, in turn, affect the amount of watering you need to do to keep them at their best.
You have more plants fighting over the same amount of water and therefore that water will get used up quickly.
If you pack your hanging baskets full of plants for the best display then you will be watering every day in the height of summer.
This isn’t a problem, it is just something to be aware of before you go packing your hanging baskets with plants.
Feeding
As it is with watering, the same applies to feeding, the more plants per hanging basket the more often you will need to feed them.
Just as having more plants competing for the same amount of water means you need to water more often having more plants competing for the same amount of nutrients means you need to feed more often.
Any multi-purpose plant feed will work really well for begonias. I like to use the miracle grow pour and feed plant food.
It is cheap, easy to use and you get good results, what’s not to like?
