HANG TIME BRING YOUR BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS UP TO EYE LEVEL.

Byline: Pam Waterman Correspondent

Hanging baskets are a great way to enjoy your favorite plants. And it's not a question of which plants grow in hanging baskets, it's which ones won't.

If you're faithful about watering, almost any plant will grow in a hanging basket. Call it gardening at eye level. Suspending baskets from roof eaves or attaching them to walls and fences are wonderful ways to enjoy many flowers, especially those with intricate blossom structure and delicate scent.

About the only plants that don't make sense in baskets would be upright bloomers like snapdragons, penstemon and zinnias. Their height would make them look awkward suspended in the air. But almost any plant with horizontal and trailing growth structure will adapt to life in a basket.

One of the primary benefits of this subcategory of gardening is that you bring plants close to your eye or nose. For a month every spring I delight in the sight of a basket of freesias suspended just outside the family room. Each time I open the door to my garden, the glorious perfume reminds me how ideal a bulb freesia is for southern California. Not only does freesia look lovely, it also has a divine fragrance. And as this slender- leafed South African native often flops over when growing in the ground, a basket that lets them hang over the edge is really the best way to enjoy the blossoms.

After freesias lose their flowers and leaves, they become dormant. In late fall, I refresh the soil, add in a few new bulbs if I can find room, and the wonderful process begins again.

For colorful hanging baskets, you have a wide choice of plants. Try petunias, begonias, ivy geraniums, lobelia, alyssum, bacopa and fuchsias. And if your basket is large enough, you can mix several flowers together.

The one drawback to these colorful bloomers is that you almost have to commit to a regular watering schedule. And if you don't attend to them quickly, you'll have a basket that needs to be repotted.

Warm-weather flowering plants that often look better in baskets than in the ground are fuchsias, begonias and ivy geranium. You can grow fuchsias here, but they won't bloom quite as generously as they do nearer the coast. One fuchsia variety named ``Diana'' loves our climate and puts out pink and white blooms for months on end. After it takes a rest, it goes back to blooming.

Every year, I nurse along a tuberous begonia that grows in a hand-thrown pot made by Santa Fe potter Frank Willitt. Most years, I can count on getting one handsome orange flower after several months of growth. When summer is a little cooler than normal, my begonia rewards me with two or three flowers. Of course, this may seem like a small reward for the effort, but I don't think I could bear to toss that begonia tuber into the compost pile.

Ivy geraniums were made for our climate and busy lives. They aren't as demanding about water as other basket favorites. The biggest problem with this plant is that it requires regular discipline from the gardener. The geranium grows quickly and soon the flowers bloom only at the end of long trailing stems. One of the hardest lessons I've learned is that hanging geraniums have to be ruthlessly pruned on a constant basis so they won't look rangy. While it's hard to cut off blooms, it's the only way to keep this vigorous plant under control and looking good.

If you want to hang baskets that require little maintenance, you'll have to give up the idea of flowers. But there are many lovely green plants that require little care. Buy and plant a small asparagus fern (Asparagus sprengeri) and ignore it (except for occasional watering.) The next thing you know, you'll have good-looking ferny green foliage cascading down the sides of the basket. Just don't make the mistake of using your favorite container. Asparagus fern grows from fleshy tubers that expand over time and will destroy the container; the alternative is to remove the plant from the container every once in awhile and whack it in the middle with a shovel. I once lost a treasured concrete pot from an over-exuberant asparagus fern. Now I grow them in black plastic pots and it hardly takes any time before the pot is completely hidden by the fronds and I can't even see the unattractive containers I used.

Ivy is another basket plant that gives more in beauty than it requires in attention. The efforts of hybridizers to introduce dozens of new leaf shapes and colors mean that you can begin a collection of ivy varieties and never run out of new plants to buy. Small pots of lovely and unusual ivy sell at the gift shops of the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia and Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge for less than $4. One beautiful ivy I've recently added to my own collection is ``Tussie Mussie.'' It's a small-leafed, compact cultivar with rounded, divided leaves colored green and sprinkled with white spots. It takes about two seasons of growth before these ivy plants will fill a basket and begin sending down hanging shoots.

When it's time to prune ivy, take the cuttings and stick them directly in the soil of other potted plants. Soon you'll have enough ivy to decorate your containers and give to your friends.

From the simplicity of the asparagus fern to the complexity of hybrid fuchsias, many plants are adapted to basket culture. Bringing plants to eye level gives them more prominence and allows us to more fully enjoy the color, fragrance and beauty of many of our best-loved flowers.

A NEW TWIST

The cymbidium is rarely displayed as a hanging plant. Generally we enjoy cymbidiums at ground level, but I have a lovely deep red cymbidium that hangs in my patio outside the dining room window. The blossoms delight me every time I eat at the table. And cymbidiums are not bad looking, even when out of bloom. When the blooming spikes fade, I cut them off and leave the basket in the same place so that I can admire its green foliage.

BASKETS BY THE BOOK

Still looking for guidance and inspiration? The American Horticultural Society publishes many easy-to-follow gardening guides, including one on hanging baskets. This guidebook covers everything from choosing a container (or how to make one) to lining it and arranging flowers and plants in it. Especially helpful are detailed diagrams and instructions on creating a wide range of basket arrangements. The book also includes tips for gardens in wall-mounted pots or baskets, metal troughs and hanging slatted wooden boxes. The book is $8.95. For more information about AHS, visit www.ahs.org online or call [phone], Ext. 10.

CAPTION(S):

10 photos, 2 boxes

Photo: (1 -- 4 -- cover -- color) GETTING THE HANG OF BASKETS

(5 -- color) RATTAIL CACTUS

(6 -- color) PANSIES

(7 -- color) WHITE FREESIA

(8 -- color) BEGONIA, LOBELIA AND BACOPA

(9 -- color) no caption (Book cover -- American Horticultural Society HANGING BASKETS)

(10 -- color) no caption (Cymbidium)

Box: (1) A NEW TWIST (See text)

(2) BASKETS BY THE BOOK (See text)