Step One – Put on your garden gloves because this is going to be a dirty and prickly job. Dig a hole that is a few inches larger than the size of rootball on all sides. This will allow you to fill hole with loose dirt and a dirt mix rich in nutrients.

Step Two – Carefully remove the plant from the temporary container and gently loosen up the rootball by massaging it in your hand. Once the rootball has been loosened, gently place it on top of good drainage soil. The top of the rootball should be level with the ground and the bud union should be above ground.

Step Three – Fill in the surrounding hole with a good dirt mix that is rich in nutrients. A good dirt mix should consist of 2/3 existing soil, and 1/3 peat moss, pine bark compost or other type of humus soil conditioner. Lightly pat down the dirt mix around the root ball to remove any air pockets.

Step Four – Create a soil basin in a circle around the planting to help keep the moisture in around the top. Fill in the basin with mulch to help retain water. Thoroughly soak the basin with water to help keep the mulch moist. This will need to be done once a week after planting the rose bush.

Step Five – Make sure that the soil is well mulched and fertilize the rose bush once a month with Rose-Tone 4-3-2 Organic Fertilizer for extra nutrients that roses need. Remove dead flowers and leaves as needed to keep your rose bush healthy.

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I followed the great advice and kept it out of the afternoon sun. I’ve watered it. I’ve talked to it, telling it how pretty it is. I even hung it on a nice little hooky thing (Shepard’s hook for garden aficionados) specifically away from the afternoon sun. There is no rhyme nor reason why my basket now looks like a piece of hanging ivy. Except for the fact that the sun is not in the same place it was 3 weeks ago. Oops… mistake number one.

So, being the avid researcher that I am, I decide to type in Google “dead lobelia basket”. Up pops 10,000,000 websites on hanging baskets and how to “deadhead” the flowers. Now here was something new to me. Deadheading? I thought that was what they called the people who followed the Grateful Dead band. Now I learn that it is a process by which you can and should “pinch off” dead flowers from plants, especially hanging baskets, so they can develop new growth and bloom even bigger and better than before.

In fact, I think I read somewhere that when you plant new flowers (annuals I think?), you should pluck all the pretty petals off immediately. That is supposed to help them grow nicer and fuller. I suppose this is a form of deadheading also. Seems very silly and costly to me, but I did not get that far into my research. I just went out and started to deadhead my almost dead lobelia basket.

Deadheading sounded pretty easy when I read about it. How bad could it be to trim off a few flowers from the sagging vines? That’s when I found out that lobelia baskets have about 20 zillion flowers on the vines. And to deadhead was not to dice up the whole plant, it was to individually pluck off every tiny dead flower that had dried and shriveled up on the vine.

I went at it like I was on a mission. It turned out to be mission impossible for me. I am not patient, I am not practical and I am a perfectionist. These are not great attributes for someone who has to deadhead a hanging basket. As I sliced and diced my way through this thing, I began to talk to myself. However, my 4 1/2 year old daughter was “helping” me in the yard, and was listening to everything I said.

I was basically complaining about the amount of time it took to pick dead flowers off a plant. Then I found out that some of the vines I was whacking out had new buds on them. So what I really was doing was deadheading live flowers. This was not good. That was when I must have said something out loud about “This is ridiculous. I’m doing more harm than good- I keep killing the good flowers.”

My daughter, who was watching me frantically shaking and killing my plant said “Momma, you need to take a break.” Of course I immediately stopped abusing my plant and said “What did you say?” I was amazed. Where does she get this stuff?

She says “yes, take a break. Stop and smell the flowers.” — Imagine my surprise at her wisdom. Kids say the funniest, and sometimes most wise things. So, I stopped mangling my plant, went inside, grabbed a cup of coffee and took a rest. I realized that there is an art to deadheading plants. I just have not mastered it.

I felt like the “grasshopper” in the Kung Fu movies. A sense of peace enveloped me and I was ready to face the plant once again. This time, more calm, with a sense of purpose. I was going to send the plant love and hopefully it would love me back.

That didn’t happen. I went outside, took one look at the thing and said “Oh, forget it for now.” I had deadheaded most of the dead and live flowers that were once hanging. I sheared off a few of the dried hanging branches. The top is still lovely, and hopefully new flowers will bloom from the hanging basket. But I wasn’t able to stand still long enough to practice any kind of Zen or have the patience required for art of deadheading.

So I did what any other practical deadhead would do, I looked for a prettier basket to put my flower in. And I found one… The CobraCro Elizabethan Bronze Hanging Basket. It is 14″ in diameter and is perfect for planting your flowers, herbs, or trailing vines. The beautiful, dark bronze frame will perfectly contrast your plants and blooms, and the included 15.375 inch long hanging chain allows the item to be placed virtually anywhere.

The CobraCro Elizabethan Hanging Basket has a coconut liner which allows this basket to be used immediately. Hang this basket from a hook or wall bracket indoors or out, and place several baskets at different heights for a truly dramatic garden. The powder coated finish will certainly last for several seasons, and provides rust resistance.

Now it won’t matter what the flower looks like. It’s all about the basket! Hopefully the lobelia will make a comeback. I still have the opportunity to use some Zen and practice the art of deadheading. In the meantime, I’ll have a beautiful container to show hanging from a nice Shepherd’s hook. If that’s as good as it gets, that’s good enough for me.