Well, let's see-- I have a few new experiments this year. I'm hoping my gingers, passiflora, and gloriosa lilies overwintered. I'm trying out some new plants-- achimenes, little irises (I'll post pics of them in a bit-- they grew from 1cm shoots yesterday to being in full bloom today! Talk about shocked!), begonias, ferns.. several things. I'm really wondering about the achimenes. My rhizomes I ordered came yesterday, but they were super tiny. i'm afraid they won't bloom.

That sounds great!-Loads of threads to start there. -I hope your passifloras have survived, some of them can withstand quite low temperatures. -I·ve sown some myself, but the seeds are two or three years old, so I·m not very hopefull about them, but we will see. -Don·t dispair over the achimenes rhizomes. I·ve seen my mum·s, and they are very small, but always bloom.

well temperature-wise, the passiflora should be OK-- I used incarnata plants. What worries me though is if they got too soggy or something over winter. I am sure it should be fine, but when the whole vine finally died in January, I felt nervous haha!

These achimenes are super teeny, They were about the size of a dried pea, maybe a bit smaller. I hope they do bloom. I planted them on "my" side of the window boxes in the hopes they would grow up and cover the architectural wiring I used to hang them and bloom on my side. I can't see the other side of the boxes, so that's the public side. I planted some nasturtium seed between my herbs and strawberries. i'm hoping to get some blooms out of that, although by June/July they will fry. I have some trailing zinnias I plan to give a whirl. I don't know if they will bloom or do well in the boxes, but I figured it is worth a try. I love zinnias so much and it's sad to have no sun for them. The boxes get a couple hours of sun-- about 3. So far my Mara des Bois strawberries have done very well in them this past year. The back part of the boxes, my side, sees a lot of shade-- almost total shade-- so I thought the achimenes should be safe. If they burn, I'll move them to my handing baskets and trade them for my streptocarpella.

Most things here like a little shade. We have several months with near 100-100+*F temps and nights which do not cool off much, maybe into the 80s.

If my passifloras decides to grow, I think I·ll take them all back inside during the winter. One of them , P. Caerulea blue crown might do ok outside in the Danish winter, but it depends on how cold it gets (winters can be either very mild or very cold here), so I·m not going to risk it. -This winter, I think it would have made it if it was close to the wall, but last year, it would have died without a doubt. The other two, P. Alata and P. Edulis ~golden giant~ will have to come inside for sure. I really want the Alata to succeed... If it doesn·t, I·ll just have to order fresh seeds.
If your achimenes grows, I would think you·ld also get flowers from them, if only a bit later than from bigger rhizomes. -Even if a bit on the small side, did they look fresh enough?

I only recently learned that some plants can be wintered over in containers. I have two mints that I hope return this spring. Their leaves tasted so good in my tea last year.. I also have a coral bell I'm worried about. I've read they dislike a cold, wet crown and we've had a lot of snow in the past few weeks., Had I known earlier, I'd have moved the pot. Still, fingers crossed. Best wishes to us all! And yes, I'd love to see this forum thrive! Thanks for posting!

YUM, yes, mint is lovely, not just for tea, but also in cooking. I love it in pork and lamb dishes and with carrots! Yum-yum-yum!!! -and not half bad in frosting for a chocolate cake either!
Whether or not they will return this spring depends on what kind of mint you have. Some are very cold-hardy. The peppermint (and also the coral bell) is good for USDA zone 3, and as a rule of thumb, you don·t normally need any protection on things that are 2 zones lower than you are in (or you could say, that while you are zone 5 for in-ground plants, you are zone 3 for things in pots). -So if it·s a peppermint, you should be safe. Swiss mint should be safe for zone 4, so that might also have done OK. Moroccan or Spearmint is more susceptible to getting killed by the cold temps (hardy to zone 6). But with some luck, placed against the wall, with something to protect the pot (perhaps other pots or some bubble wrap?) it might actually do all right as well.
However you haven·t lost the battle yet. The snow is actually a good thing. It offers protection. Most often, the real killer isn·t actually the frost or the snow... it·s the warm rays of the sun. A bit of sun makes the plant think, "YAY, spring has arrived! Winter is OVER!!!", and it begins it·s growth. It·s THEN that the frost gets it, because it freezes the water in the stems, that the plant just decided to drink, for making it·s new leaves, and then the cells burst. This happens a lot faster in a pot, than in the ground, because the pot heats up faster than the ground does.
I would say, that the battle isn·t over for you yet. Just move the pots to a protected area, and cover them with a mulch, and even some snow on top of that. -No mater what kind of mint you have, it will probably have died back, but it might still shoot from the ground once spring gets here. -Did you let them flower? -If so, they might also self seed.
-Otherwise, a pot of mint from the supermarket, goes a long way, once you separate the many plants that are in a pot. -And then once they are established and has taken off, you can even run a knife vertically into the soil in between some of the plants (I just make an X ).... the separated roots, will then shoot even more plants (that·s why many in-ground gardeners hate mint -it can become a very invasive weed, as just a tiny piece of root left more or less horizontally in the ground, can produce a whole new plant and a long piece can produce plants all the way from one end to the other)!
Perhaps you could run a post later in the spring, and let us know how they did?
Good luck with your plants!

Hi guys -

I've only been around here for about 2 months, but it was quickly apparent that most "balcony-related" (and thereby container-related) posts were going on at the "Container" forum. :-)

Anyway, I have all kinds of stuff happening on my two balconies. It's my first year at this place and since the end of January, it's been a nonstop "move pots daily" party here with me fussing over every pot and moving it into the light, away from the light, etc. With the sun still changing, I have no idea how much or how little sun most of these spots will get some full-on summer.

Now, while some of you are writing about snow, I'm finding that I'm needing to move the arugula out of the sun and still trying to find the "perfect spot" for the gardenias, as I have now attempted to do (and miserably failed at) since about 1998, lol.

I am blessed to be able to start seeds without any cover or heat these days. Temps are probably 65-68 at best but the sun is BLASTING down these days. I mean, if I water everything on the balcony, I am sweating and burning -- that hot! All the shiso seeds have germinated in the open, full sun locations, and I just planted some habaneros and serranos. For the first time, I'm trying some edible mums; we use that a lot in Korean cooking but I have never grown it at home. I have some bunching green onions going, as well as basil, chives and some mint. Well, one mint plant, and you can barely call it a plant as it's so small right now.

I also am growing what very well may be the SLOWEST growing lavender EVER....

I have a half-barrel with two blueberry plants together - Misty and Southmoon. Both are filling in beautifully, though I'm guessing that Misty came with a bit of powdery mildew. So far, I am just wiping down the leaves every other day (can you say "undiagnosed OCD"? lol) -- but they seem to be happy otherwise.
I have some Arabian Jasmine going -- I love these plants. Full sun, well-draining soil -- and they're just happy, happy, happy.

And then my two gardenias. One is a decent size and quite full of leaves and buds. It's grown a little in size since I bought it -- but it's otherwise frozen in time. Nothing has dropped -- but nothing has bloomed either. It's not dead -- so in my book, that in and of itself is a plus. The other is nicely frozen in time also -- it just sits there in full sun, taking up space. Again - not dead is a plus.

This season, for me, has been about messing around w/ the soil. As all of these plants are new purchases in the last few months, they were repotted upon purchase. Then, reading GW, I started learning about 5-1-1 and gritty mix. Initially, I was shaking my head, "Whatever!" but the more I read, the more it started to make sense.
The more things made sense, the more I could hear my plants screaming, "I'm drowning!"
The more they screamed, the more compelled I was to change the soil.

So I changed it, to my own variation of bark-based soil. With perlite.
But then I read more, and the entire process started again. STILL didn't like the soil.
So I went ahead full-steam with the "repot to gritty mix and 5-1-1" project over the last 2+ weeks. I'm not even going to go into the different types of soils I'm trying seeds in, haha.

See what I mean? "Messing with soil". Or, as my boyfriend likes to call it, "Grace tinkering with the plants."

Vgtar -- in the past, I used to have sempervivums in almost all of my pots of established plants. With some heavy-watering pots, I took some broken pieces of terracotta pots and created a barrier of sorts within the soil to fill it with better-draining mix for the succulents. For aeoniums, I just stick it in any soil (except acidic) and the things just take off. The low-growing ones seem to like being watered often, unlike other succulents. Just a thought.

Anyway, my balcony and house plant album for 2013 is attached below if you want to take a look. :-)

-Grace.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Balcony (and House Plant) Project Album

Vgtar-- yes-- my achimenes did look healthy enough. Small, but firm. Good luck with your seeds! i ordered mine as plants because I wasn't sure I had time enough here to grow them out from seed. I even got a few fruits last year. I forgot to mention I have sempervivums in all kinds of pots. they seem to do well in almost anything, even my full shade. They just don't color up like they should.

Tempusflits-- good luck! I have mint in the window boxes on my railing. Those boxes are prone to serious freezing because they are so shallow and removed from the shelter of the building. My mint survives just fine. I picked up a golden thyme and a pineapple mint in Newport Beach when I was there this past winter and plopped them out the other day. I'm hoping for good things. vgtar is right-- safest bet is to plan for 2 zones below yours in the pots. Now I know that, but I do go all the way to zone and even above my zone in the corners of my balcony. I've had good luck so far, but that's really just because we haven't had very cold winters.

Grace-- I want to know more about your edible chrysanthemums. I've thought about those from time to time, but never jumped into that particular flower. now with all my shade, I really don't have room. I just got a lavender for my boxes, and we'll see how that goes. I'm trying to root some gardenia cuttings purple sent me. I've had them for several weeks now-- no roots, but not dead either. I feel that's probably a positive sign lol. Love your photos.

My super-fast iris:

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Hey Julianna,

C. coronarium is the kind of edible mums I have planted right now. Just planted the seeds so nothing to show as of yet. I have plenty of seeds -- do you want some to try? To my knowledge, these do okay in less sun--perhaps just not as vigorous as full sun. The flowers are not that pretty, but you just shear it all off anyway.

The leaves are fabulous in Asian soups and/or anywhere you might use shiso leaves. Taste is similar to shiso but slightly more pungent with less aroma, if that makes any sense. In Asian markets, they normally just sell the leaves but the flowers are fun to use and extend a similar taste as the leaves.

If you're not going to cook with it or eat it -- I don't know if it, as a plant, is worth the real estate it would take up unless you have a lot of open space to work with (like that open space in front of your balcony, haha). They can get kind of unruly if not trimmed down regularly. Much like shiso (and arugula, now to think of it), the older leaves are bitter compared to the young tenders.

Email me if you want some seeds to try out. Worst case, pull them out and replace, I guess!

-Grace.

Grace, that sounds interesting! I looked it up, as I vaguely remembered edible chrysanthemums. Sites are saying they won't work in shade :( That seems like a drag. Plants and their picky needs :P

Sounds like fun though. You know with your mild winters you could do some smaller things like kwang tung leaf which would be awesome.

That middle section is totally filled with trample-y kids all the time. Also, it becomes a lake on occasion in heavy rains. It looks better when not in focus and in the background! I am right over the playground. I wish I wasn't looking at it. I would prefer the pool. Or so I think. Maybe that would be a potentially worse view lol.

Grace: When you say your mint is small, does that mean it's not high? or that it doesn't spread out? You can bury the plants horizontally in the top soil (with the root intact), then more plants will grow from where the leaves where (remove the leaves that would otherwise be in the ground first to prevent rot). This is best done with plants that are at least 5 inches tall, though -leave the top growth above soil. I've done this once, with a tiny pot of supermarket-mint, while I planted it into a big bucket... then later I used the method of cutting the roots, that I mentioned above, and in no time, I had a whole bucket full of mint. -The following year, I actually had to cut out sections to give to friends!
Your plants look very happy! -and I think your soil looks quite beautiful! How are the black pearls doing now? I had to Google it, and it really is a stunning plant! I love all your succulents... I might go for mostly succulents as house plants in the future. So many to choose from, and most of them are gorgeous! There is someone also from SF in the thread: First time balcony gardener (one of the top threads). -Do you think you could give her/ him some advice? I tried to, but I'm in a whole different climate, so my advice might not be all that good ;-)
Julianna: I've also tried growing a few sempervirums indoors, and the red ones became greenish, but otherwise they seemed happy enough!
I think I've seen the edible Chrysanthemums in Asian food stores, but just thought they where very expensive arugula with a thick stem, lol. I'll have to pick some up next time I do my Asian shopping! I actually think it has a quite interesting flower in that picture. -Perhaps I should grow my own Shiso next year... All those Asian greens are so expensive here. I might also try out some Asian cabbages in the autumn.

Julianna, bummer re: shade. Are you facing north? Really didn't look that shady....just cold, haha. Pictures can be so deceiving!

VG-

I mean small as in it germinated and produced its first set of leaves....and then has sat there in that state for an eternity, lol. It's growing, technically, in that the four leaves, two of them cotyledon, are getting bigger but for the love of God....I'll be eating mint in 2016 at this rate. This is definitely one I should just give up on and go get the transplant at the store; I dunno why I do this to myself! Given that it is perfect arugula weather these days, perhaps it's too cold for mint right now.

Thanks for the horizontal planting tip!

I'm happy to send you some shiso and chrysanthemum seeds if you want to give it a shot. You're right -- these two are pricey at the store and given you never find them started in garden stores on the mainland, well worth the growing effort. Let me know. I am relatively certain I won't be eating 750 chrysanthemum plants this year, haha.

Grace-- Yes! I am facing north. I get about 45 minutes of sun in each direction for sunrise and sunset, and only in the far corners. The railing stuff gets about 3 hours.

Vgtar-- Yeah, I had also considered it for a second before I thought about the sun. We don't even have a single Asian market here-- so you either grow what you want or order it online if possible. It definitely makes things trickier! I've never lived in a place before like this.

Grace: You have only sown one mint seed? -Or was it just that one plant that made it? I feel for you, but with some luck, you might be able to eat mint next year. What kind of mint is it? -Moroccan mint is probably well suited for your climate. It's great for mint tea and Mojitos. Less menthol in the taste than peppermint (which can be kind of tooth-pasty), but very nuanced.
I would love some seeds, but would have to look into import/export rules for seeds. I'm on a whole different continent, you know ;o) -I don't really have anything interesting to swap at the moment, as most have gone into the seed pots, but I noticed today, my apple mint 'Mentha suaveolens', that I bought at the botanical garden and thought had died on me, has self sown in plenty (at least I think it's the apple mint). I could probably send you some seeds of that this autumn ;o) It tastes and smells very much of apples, and just a little bit of mint (not much menthol in it). But great for tea and ice tea. I'm not sure how it would feel about your hot balcony... you might have to bring it inside during the summer. I could probably also take seeds from some of the basils (Thai, lemon, small leafed and cinnamon), but I bet they are fairly common over there as well?
Julianna: I think the shops gets worse and worse here, when it comes to vegetables. They've got about 4 or 5 kinds of tomatoes... different sizes but the same bland taste, and one of them slightly more red than the others. I haven't seen a yellow squash since I was a kid, and apparently they have finally gotten rid of the dreaded yellow, orange and purple bell peppers! Who would want to cook with something as colourful as that? To get anything slightly interesting, you have to go to the foreign shops (which I don't mind doing once a month or so), but there you have to pay an arm and a leg, for something, that was harvested a week ago, and then shipped for days, only to end up limp or wrinkled in the shopping basket. Getting something that's GOOD and fresh (like the Shiso I got a month ago) is pure luck. -That's why I'm growing some of my own this year, and also why I'm on waiting list for an allotment - VARIETY and TASTE!
Perhaps you might be able to succeed with some of the Asian cabbages. Many cabbages do well in semi-shade, so might not be all impossible in full shade?

I have some seeds for kwang tung leaf and actually considered it for the spring between my strawberries. I don't think it would work over the whole summer though, as we get so hot.

Sorry your selection has tanked. Here I think it is getting a bit better-- it's just a small, rural area and so the selection is limited by tradition and culture.

It occurred to me, that maybe Shiso would also do OK in shade. I've seen the wild (and tasteless) variety grow in deep shade as a weed in a friend's garden.

I think the reason our grocery selection is getting smaller, has to do with the prices on food here. Denmark is the most expensive country in Europe. Everything you buy here is heavily taxed. So people tend to go for whatever is the cheapest, when grocery shopping. Therefore the tomato or pepper that is first to fruit, will sell better than the one that needs another two weeks of care before the producer can begin picking them, and what supermarket would want a truckload of delicious expensive veggies, that was just rotting away? -I think it would help if the politicians removed all the taxes on healthy foods, instead of just adding more taxes on the unhealthy ones... How does a fat tax sound to you? I know several people, who say they just can't afford vegetables, and tend to eat more pasta and potatoes instead (personally I just eat less meat).

Hi, everyone, I'm so happy to see you here "breathing life" back into the forum. I had lovely back yard gardens in several states before moving back to NYC, where eight years passed before I achieved my bliss and got an apartment with a balcony. I'd done a bit of container gardening before, and dived in my first year by researching SIP (sub-irrigated planter) gardening, then creating my own. I'd be happy to post about that, as well as my goal this year of planting perennials that can survive the winter on a north-facing very windy New York City balcony. Looking forward to conversations on this renewed forum - thanks for posting!

I'm excited to see another north facing balcony person-- or shade person at least! Welcome!

balkong, i'll tell you what i tried to keep on the balcony in winter.
japanese yew - smallish, about 12" pot. overwintered twice/bloomed, then died 3rd year.
hinoki false cypress - overwintered once.
reg english ivy - died sev years when it was dropping into low teens; survived well last winter. this winter should be ok too - so hardy to 17F, sort of? it's in the biggest 18" pot.
hydrangeas - overwintered once, but then bloomed very weakly. so not much point.
montauk daisy overwinters well in 12" pot, burried in soil in 16" pot . so for me it's good. it even blooms 2nd year farely well. but then i chuck it, since it's weak.
overwintered oriental lilies: stargazers once: wrapped the pot in big bubble and then covered with cardboard box overturned and lined in plastic. but easier to just dig in new ones in spring.
oh, mums of course survive - but with NE sun won't really bloom. may be with your west sun corner they will fare better.
that's about it for me.
i had clematis on a diff balcony facing east/south-east. it did not survive winter though.
also juniper survives, but it needs sun. may be SW corner will do.

This post was edited by petrushka on Sat, Apr 13, 13 at 14:09

Thank you for those suggestions, Petrushka! Love hearing what works for others in similar conditions, and the pictures you posted on one of the other questions are really inspiring me!

I succumbed to the lure of a japanese climbing hydrangea, just ordered schizophragnum moonlight from lazyssfarm. I looked for vines with pretty leaves for the shady area so I wouldn't mind if they never bloom, though I sure hope it get them to that point. Sounds like a pretty slow grower, but otherwise sounds right for my conditions, so we'll see.

But perhaps I should keep mum about what I've ordered till I see how it goes! I'm trying out several new vines and ferns, with which I have zero experience, hoping some of them take & thrive...

Thank you for those suggestions, Petrushka! Love hearing what works for others in similar conditions, and the pictures you posted on one of the other questions are really inspiring me!

I succumbed to the lure of a japanese climbing hydrangea, just ordered schizophragnum moonlight from lazyssfarm. I looked for vines with pretty leaves for the shady area so I wouldn't mind if they never bloom, though I sure hope it get them to that point. Sounds like a pretty slow grower, but otherwise sounds right for my conditions, so we'll see.

But perhaps I should keep mum about what I've ordered till I see how it goes! I'm trying out several new vines and ferns, with which I have zero experience, hoping some of them take & thrive...

I'd be interested to hear how your stuff goes and what you ordered! When I gt done with these final papers, I'll be on more and able to give better updates!

About mint: I said above, that they will produce new plants from roots... what I meant was, that they will produce new plants from RUNNERS! -Sorry about that.

Anyway, I've made a post with pictures, on how to propagate them by layering, which is what I tried to explain earlier.

Click here to go to that post.

VG

I've learned this year that my covered patio can grow a small tomato plant thanks to morning sunshine. And the afternoon shade gives me hope for keeping leaf lettuce growing all summer long. So far, so good for the lettuce.

I've learned this year that my covered patio can grow a small tomato plant thanks to morning sunshine. And the afternoon shade gives me hope for keeping leaf lettuce growing all summer long. So far, so good for the lettuce.

...I'm just worried about the apparent vortex here... people asking questions and disappearing. I just hope they are OK, wherever they are...!

...so how did this stuff go?