A fall hanging basket packed with bright flowers and colorful foliage is a showstopper addition to any garden, not least because most folk consign these suspended displays to the summer months. Hang a fall basket from your porch and it’s sure to get noticed, especially if you choose container plants that thrive in cooler weather so the vibrant show carries on into winter.

The secret to a flourishing fall basket is to plant it early. Get your basket planted in September and the weather is still warm enough for strong growth so your plants will quickly make themselves at home. That way, by the time temperatures plummet, the plants will be strong enough to withstand the harsh conditions that hanging in an exposed spot brings.

There are plenty of fall bloomers to choose from but add cool-hardy plants to your autumn hanging basket too, and you'll create a container display that performs well for many months to come. Bother to move the planter to a more sheltered spot in prolonged cold snaps and your basket will still be looking good for the holidays, and even last long enough to get spring off to an early start.

How to Plant a Fall Hanging Basket

1. Use a Big Hanging Basket

While summer bedding plants bred to flower abundantly in hanging baskets have relatively small root systems, many plants used in fall displays are perennial plants with bigger roots. So, unless you’re sticking with small plants such as pansies, it’s best to go up a size. Hanging baskets are exposed to the air on all sides so the soil will freeze far more quickly than in the ground, so a bigger volume gives roots more protection, too.

While summer hanging planters are often 12 to 14 inches in diameter, look for a basket that’s 16 to 20 inches for a fall display.

2. Get the Lining Right

Your hanging basket will typically come with a coco coir liner and while this does a great job of holding the potting soil and providing a little insulation, this organic material is extremely porous. Because fall winds quickly dry out the soil in hanging baskets, it’s a smart move to add a second liner inside. Use some sturdy waterproof plastic – an old compost bag is perfect – and cut a size that sits just below the rim of the coco coir so it's not visible once the basket is planted. The easiest way to get the plastic to sit flush is to cut a large circle, snip a straight line from the edge to the center point, then place this in the basket and trim to size.

Next, use a knife or scissor tips to carefully poke plenty of drainage holes through the plastic. You see, you don’t want to create a watertight layer or compromise drainage, especially with heavy fall rainfall due, but simply provide a barrier between the soil and the coco liner so wind doesn’t continually pull moisture from the basket.

3. Half-Fill with Potting Mix

To fuel a generous display, use an enriched potting soil designed for containers such as Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, available from Amazon, which already has slow-release fertilizer mixed in. If you’re using a regular potting mix, add a broad-range slow-release granular plant food such as Osmocote Smart-Release Plant Food, available from Walmart, to the soil at the recommended dose.

Half-fill the double-lined container with the fortified potting mix. Unclipping the hanging chains and standing your basket in a big plant pot first makes this much easier to do.

4. Add Long-Lasting Plants

There are plenty of options when it comes to choosing cool-season plants for containers that last not just through fall but well into winter, too. You’ll need to take a very different approach to planting summer baskets, though, and look to fabulous foliage as well as fall flowers to provide color.

Plan your planting based on three elements: thrillers, fillers and spillers.

Thrillers

When you're container gardening, every planter needs a thriller or three. These are the standout plants that will sit in the center of your hanging basket, around which all the other blooms and leaves spill. You’ll probably only need one thriller plant in a basket as by its look-at-me nature, it’s likely to be fairly big.

Look for cold-hardy plants that bring texture as well as color such as compact varieties of Scotch heather (Calluna vulgaris) such as Scarlet Scotch heather, available from Plant Addicts, and ornamental kale such as ‘Red Kamone’ available from Trees. Another standout option that hits both tone and texture is a small heuchera variety such as Caramel coral bells, available from Plant Addicts.

Fillers

The next element in your hanging basket will be fillers: flowers or foliage that work hard to bring abundant color or texture to your display. Plant these around your thriller plant. Cool Wave pansies, available from Trees (previously Fast Growing Trees), if planted in September, will start flowering in October and won’t stop till May. Carex are evergreen grass-like perennials that also work brilliantly in a hanging basket, with highly ornamental arching foliage. Evergold carex, available from Plant Addicts, is a particularly good choice for a fall basket as leaves have an appealing golden stripe.

Spillers

The final element in a hanging basket are the spillers, adding trailing plant stems that cascade downwards. Again, choose evergreen plants that will look good all through fall and winter into spring. Corralling English ivy, available from Garden Goods Direct, in a hanging basket focuses its enthusiasm on throwing out a waterfall of long leafy stems. Hedera helix Glacier, also available from Garden Goods Direct, is a more ornamental English ivy with pretty variegated leaves.

Another good choice for trailing fall foliage is Ajuga reptans, such as ‘Chocolate Chip’, also available from Garden Goods Direct. Ordinarily a groundcover plant, bugleweed’s spreading habit means its stems will creep over the rim of a hanging basket and trail artfully down.

4. Top Up with Compost and Water

With your plants arranged in the basket, top up the container with more potting mix, firming it down well and leaving a half-inch gap below the rim to make watering easy.

Now all that’s left to do is hang up your basket, water it well, and enjoy! Don’t forget to add a few decorations to suit the season, too. Tucking in a few mini gourds adds a lovely fall touch, especially while plants mature to fill the gaps. Swap them out for pinecones in winter, and use fairylights or baubles to bring a festive sparkle.

Keep your hanging basket watered when it doesn’t rain and snip off faded pansy blooms and your container will flourish all through fall. As temperatures drop, if you move the container to a more sheltered spot during long spells of cold weather, plants will carry on looking good all through winter and into spring. While snow falls and sudden temperature drops may temporarily stop growth, all these plants will quickly bounce back, so you can enjoy the colorful display for many months to come.