HANGING BASKET LINERS
Choosing a liner for your hanging basket is an important consideration.
There are a number good choices available today and we highly recommend
both Angel Moss and Coco-fiber liners.
Angel Moss - Preformed
Preformed Angel Moss liners are from New Zealand. Angel Moss is a unique
form of sphagnum moss found in New Zealand that holds twenty times its
own weight in water. Sphagnum Moss is sustainably farmed under the
guidance of the New Zealand Department of Conservation and fully
regenerates every 3-5 years with no impact of the environment, its bird
or wildlife.
Using a patented process the moss is dried maintaining a certain
moisture level and then formed into the preformed liners – no glue or
other additives are used in this process – just moss and its own
moisture level.
The preformed moss liners are then shrink wrapped for sale – this also
helps to keep the moisture level in – making them flexible / pliable -
amazing technology!
Angel Moss besides having its amazing water holding capacity, also has
the great bonus of being very easy to side-plant.
Side planting allows you to plant your plants directly into the sides of
the baskets – creating a fully looking basket – much faster and allowing
you to use a greater number and/or variety of plants to create more
dramatic and colorful baskets.
More on side-planting.
Once planted (you plant the liners dry) and then watered the moss
expands back to its natural state as you can see in the photo below.
More on Angel
Moss Hanging baskets
Traditional Woodland Moss
For many year Woodland mosses have been used for hanging basket liners –
typically they come as bags of loose moss. Many concerns have been
raised over the sustainability of harvesting moss – the effect of the
habit, bird and wild life populations. Both the Royal Horticultural
Society and American Horticultural Society do not recommend using
woodland moss’s for this reason
Making a Hanging Basket with Loose Moss
Coco-fiber Liners
Coco-fiber is the husk from the coconuts off the coconut Palm. Coconuts
are plentiful and so is coco-fiber. coco-fiber is by nature course and
dry – however it does make a good and sturdy liner for hanging baskets.
Collected and generally processed by hand – coco-fiber is then pressed
into liners. Often natural resins or glues are added to this process –
which can give the liner – a rubbery feel.
The glues help keep the liner together – thus holding the soil in.
Coco-fiber liners can serve to show off the iron work of your hanging
basket if you have chosen a decorative basket as seen in this photo
below.
A difficultly with coco-fiber liner can be side-planting – you may need
a knife or blade to cut through the liner so as to insert plants into
the side.
Due to the difficulty of side-planting most people who choose coco-fiber
to line their baskets opt to just top plant their basket. Some plants
like the begonia above will grow upright – other plants like petunia and
ivy geraniums will over time cascade over the basket and eventually will
cover the basket with flowers.
Another problem can be birds – as coco-fiber is dry – it makes great
nesting material, in fact birds love it. Some times birds will strip an
entire basket of its coco-fiber and use it for their nests.
There are other liners available that can be used to as liners for
hanging baskets – these include wool, paiper mache' even rubber and
plastic.
Wool liners are unique and a natural alternative to moss or coco. Used
more often in the UK – one of their major properties is insulating the
soil to keep it warm – helping promote plants growth in early spring and
late summer in colder locations such as Scotland.
Paper Mache Liners or compressed pulp liners are also popular in the UK
and are used to some extent by growers here in the USA. They are
biodegradable which is a great bonus. |
Other
Hanging Basket Liners