Hanging baskets can be as simple as choosing a single type of plant, or you can mix and match a variety of flowers for maximum impact. Use these easy plant-by-numbers recipes for unusual hanging basket ideas to get the most beautiful porch in your neighborhood.

Select Fragrant Favorites

Create a container that’s as pleasing to your nose as it is your eyes by using fragrant plants. This combo mixes the spicy scent of dianthus with the subtle sweetness of viola for a basket you’ll want next to a window or on your deck or patio. This basket is best in full sun.

Think Small But Mighty

Small baskets can create as big an impact as larger ones—just pick the right plants. The secret to success is to go for smaller plants with colorful leaves like coleus and variegated varieties of favorites like vinca. Add in an impatiens, and you’ll have a colorful basket to brighten a shady spot all summer.

Let Your Houseplants Spend a Summer Outdoors

Here’s a tip for saving money when creating hanging baskets: Use what you have. Many houseplants grow well outdoors in a shaded spot. Rex begonias, for example, play off each other to great effect. In fall, bring them back indoors to enjoy them for the winter season.

Use Full, Double Flowers

You can’t go wrong decorating a shady nook with the rose-like flowers of tuberous begonia and double impatiens. They’ll add that little something extra to your hanging basket and keep on blooming all summer long. Look for double impatiens in a wide range of colors, from white to pink to red, and even bi-colors.

Create Elegance

With their gorgeous shape and graceful hanging blooms, it’s no wonder fuchsias are favorites for cool, shady spots. They’re unmatched for their elegance. Fuchsias offer a great bonus, too: Hummingbirds love them.

Change Through the Seasons

Your baskets don’t have to be the same from spring to fall. Keep your display looking great by choosing cool-season plants for spring, such as these violas, then heat-lovers for summer. Then, when temperatures drop in fall, replace your spent summer plants with more cool-season beauties.

Pick Your Favorite Color

Let your hanging baskets reflect your personality by filling them with your favorite color. Here’s an unusual hanging basket idea for fans of all things pink: begonias, impatiens, and sweet alyssum in various shades, set off with a few white impatiens. Hang these beauties in a shady spot, then stand back and watch the show.

Have Fun with Neat Plants

A lavender-blue streptocarpella (an African violet relative, actually) is intriguing enough that your guests won’t be able to resist taking a closer look. This nonstop bloomer is a perfect companion for anything orange or yellow—such as the glowing orange osteospermum here. This basket will do best in a part shade location.