Please help - Anyone's flowers / hanging baskets dying ?

[Oblomov]

Am not very green fingered.
Have never posted on a gardening thread before.
But was wondering if anyone could help.
Normally have good success with our hanging baskets.

This year.
Most are dead.
Took them down and took out lobelia( ??) - all dead.
Noticed that soil was sodden.
Even though we have just had lots of sunny days.
Assumed it was from all the rain we'd had in the weeks before that.

Planted new plants to replace lobelia.
Bought myself moisture tester thing.

Moisture tester still says soil sodden.

But plants are now drying up.and shriveling.

Don't know whether to just give them a tiny sprinkle of water, or leave them alone.

What shall I do?

Advice greatly appreciated.

Do the baskets have good drainage? what kind of compost have you used?

(I buy ready-planted baskets these days - saves a lot of aggro!)

Janh - they are nice whicker ones.
With a polythene liner at the bottom.
Which has a few holes for drainage.

I just used a multi purpose compost.

What am I doing wrong - never had any problems for the last two years - ( only been doing it for three#) - and generally kill everything I touch !!!

Maybe it needs more drainage holes - they could have got clogged or something?

Mine is also made of cane with a plastic liner but it doesn't seem to have any drainage holes - when I water it it seems to overflow at the top rather than oozing out down below - mind you I have a tendency to underwater and only realise it's dried out when all the flowers fall over.

You want somebody to actually look at them really - could you take them to a garden centre for advice?