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Balcony Gardening

A tree fell on our roof, but it's not all bad!

20 years ago

A neighbor's huge tulip poplar tree came down in a hurricane last September, trashing our roof but leaving our terrace with morning sun for the first time ever. Attached to the iron terrace railing are four planter boxes (each 4 ft. by 10 inches in area) in which I always planted impatiens and vinca vine. Now I'm hoping I can branch out (no pun intended) to plants that would thrive in part-sun. I'd love to have suggestions for combinations of plants for these boxes. I've been reading about wave petunias. Would they work? Do they look best planted alone?

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Comments (3)

PVick
20 years ago
Will the area be totally shaded in the afternoon, or still get some sun (light)?

Although they work best in full sun, wave petunias would work very well - any type of petunia would work. They would look fine alone - put in a lot of plants, maybe mix the colors - and they will spread all over and give you a good show.

But they also look great with just about any other plant. I love petunias, so I'll put them in pots by themselves, as well as use them in the windowboxes. But I tend to treat my windowboxes as a sort of "cottage garden", so I'll mix in all sorts of plants with the petunias - salvia, persian shield, daisies, spikes, ornie grasses, sweet potato vine, etc., etc. Works for me.

Whatever you decide, petunias of any sort will give you a great display of color for months on end!

Good luck with your "new" morning sun!

PV
dcgrrl
Original Author
20 years ago
Thanks for you suggestions, PV. My terrace does get some sunlight in the afternoon -- it's not in totally dense shade. I love your cottage garden idea! I've used sweet potato vine in mixed pots with success even before the tree came down. How about the daisies -- will they do well with mainly morning sunlight?
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dcgirl - go on and try it (my motto). I get mostly morning-sun only and have alot of flowering stuff up here that does okay right along the rail like daylilies, etc. (I face NE).

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