VG - you never know what might show up at your balcony! I had to deal with pigeons myself a couple years ago when a female laid 2 eggs on my balcony and the babies grew up and eventually flew off - all over about a 3 month period. Also... you could probably still start some more morning glories if you sow them directly into a pot outside. I have some still sprouting in a few of my pots. They are all volunteers!

Nikki - might as well go for it. If a hummer can find my place up on the 18th floor, then they obviously have no problem going well up above the trees to look for food! I always assumed that they stayed pretty close to the ground and around the trees as that is where their nectaring flowers tend to be. However I guess I have to remember where they migrate to and those conditions might suggest them feeding at much higher altitudes and on nectaring plants that may be growing way up into the tropical trees. I think what helps too is that there are alot of insects around my building all the way to the top, including clouds of gnats that they supposedly like to eat. There are bats that are apparently nesting on the roof of my building somewhere, and I see tons of them circle around my building at dusk getting their insect meals. I suppose a hummer can take advantage of the insect feast too!

Great Shot! I've been trying to snap a picture of a hummer for the longest. I got a couple but they are not very clear. Yours is really clear.

Man... I lucked out on that because she seems to randomly appear out of nowhere, spends maybe 10 - 30 seconds at the feeder (and only rarely perches, prefering to hop around or fly around from plastic flower to plastic flower), and then darts away. I think the fast shutter speed helped plus this is a brand new 5 megapixel camera so it allows for a bit more detail even in a telephoto shot. As it is, it takes a few seconds for the camera to actually start up (it's a Kodak Z740) and then more seconds to get the zoom moving. But I decided to set it on manual with shutter priority. Might play around with other settings and would like to try to get a picture from closer up.

It was funny but she almost had it out with a carpenter bee early this morning. The carpenter bees are territorial and so are hummers, although I've never seen a bee at my feeder yet (I have bee guards for that feeder but opted to remove them for the time being). I have 2 regular carpenter bees who normally pollinate my blueberries and each has sortof staked out half my balcony as their territory. LOL I recently took a picture of one who was lounging on the rail observing the territory. I'll upload at some point.

Here's a pic of one of my regular carpenter bees from last year sitting on my tropical hibiscus (it sat there for quite some time too...lol):

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Wow, that's amazing! Glad you finally got the shot, I remember your first siting of this Hummingbird last summer. She sure is a cutey!

Jenny
Thanks for the hummer!
I always enjoy seeing these great photos!

Happy to indulge since this is exciting for me!

As an aside, here's that bee picture. These guys stake out their territory out on the balcony too:

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Jenny - Have you been able to get any pics of the bats? That'd be cool too.

I got a few blurry ones since they all of a sudden appear, will glide and dart and dive so suddenly and randomly (at least to an observer, although I do know that what appears as "random" is because they are diving for insects in mid-flight), that it's tough to get the bat shots. And mainly because I'd have to lock onto one and follow it, anticipating its moves before I hit the button. But I'll keep trying.

Jenny... great Hummer photo... Isee them on occasion here... guess I should have a feeder up also... then maybe they would come more often...
Your bee on the rail looks to me like a bumble bee... not a carpenter bee... as from what I learned they were all balck... without the yellow saddle [yours ] the bumble bees have.. There was a lovely tiger swallow tailed butterfly in the roof garden the other day.. glad to see the spraying for west nile hasn't killed everything COMPLEATLY off..
Gordon

Thanks Gordon. You might be surprised like I was! I had the feeder up around the end of April or beginning of May I think and she arrived (at least I saw her for the first time), in June.

That bee has a hairless abdomen as opposed to the bumbles that have hairy, usually yellow striped abdomens... I think some of the websites out there are confusing in their descriptions because there are some that are fluffy at the top like this or this, which is why they are often mistaken for bumbles. There's a cool page with pictures of different bumble bees here and they all tend to have the stripes at the bottom.

That's great that you saw a tiger swallowtail. I've seen eastern yellow or black swallowtails around and wouldn't mind a tiger or monarch up here! I am growing some milkweed from seed for the heck of it just to see what I might attract if it survives!

Got some more pics of my little lady this morning when she was nectaring on the bee balm (I also posted on the Hummingbird Forum):

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Wow, that is just stunning, what an amazing bird. Much nicer than my pigeons (which I haven't seen for a couple of days by the way).

VG

VG - I think just about every bird is nicer than a pigeon. LOL Well except maybe a turkey vulture! :-o

;-)

Really? I kinda like turkey vultures. Not that I'd want one on my balcony. Though they might scare the pigeons away!

Seriously though, lovely pics. One of my resident lizards appears to be back in the roof planters. I had one on the balcony too there for a while, but hopefully they'll stick to the roof. I'm always afraid to squash them in the door jambs... and earlier this year the cat chased a baby one into the house. I managed to remove it safely (while Magellan remained fixated on the bookshelf where he last saw it for an hour or so) but I would just hate to have him kill one.

Hi Jenny :-)
In another posting http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/balcony/msg062235429523.html?3
you had mentioned you have a Reel Easy hose. I wanted to ask you...do you have to unwind the whole fifty feet before you can use it? I have a gardenia (50') hose for watering on my deck and it is such a pain, for one thing my deck is only 16' X 24' soooooooo really don't want a hose that big. It is always getting kinked, it's heavy and "bulky". The Reel Easy hose looks great! Probably will have a problem finding it in Canada but if it's as good as you say...I think I would even try and order it from the USA. Could I also ask where you found it and the price?
Wendy

Hi Wendy! No, you don't have to unwind the whole thing to use. Sometimes I just want to do one end so I just pull out some of it. Otherwise, I unroll it as I go along. Inevitably I have to pull it all out since the kitchen is probably about 10ft from the door and then I need the other 40ft to do the whole length. The part with the actual nozzle is on its own separate hose coming out of the storage unit and separate from the main hose and I'm not sure if that is included in the total 50ft or is considered an extra ~3ft worth (it does make a difference to get from one end to the other and gives me just enough to get to all the containers without tugging).

And WP - I bet Magellan is as adorable a cat as he was a kitty!!! :-D

Wendy - Just for added info - I got my hose at a local True Value store. It's been awhile but I think it was ~US $30. I was checking around and they may have something similar at Canadian Tire. I put the link below. In fact the one at the link looks like it rolls up flat and might be even lighter in weight than mine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Roll-a-hose

Jenny, thank you so much for the info! :-)

Jenny - That is a great shot! For some reason, the hummers are absent in my gardens this year - have heard others in Maryland say the same thing. Don't know what is going on. But - a friend sent me a great link - pictures all the way from an egg to leaving the nest. Be sure and click on next picture at the bottom of each page - there are 5 pages in all.

http://community-2.webtv.net/Velpics/HUM/

Faith (new to this forum)

Hi Faith, and welcome! I know we are not on the birdwatchers forum, but I just had to throw in that I shared my disappointment this year too with Jenny regarding HB. For the past 4 years, three HBs were regulars amongst my plantings, and they would be at the feeder as I was hanging it back up many times. I decided to do a hummingbird garden with lots of red flowering plants this year. Although their usual arrival date in Atlanta is around March 15, not one has shown up to date.

Jenny suggested on another thread to consider the hurricanes (occuring in Florida) during the time of their migration. This was something I hadn't thought about, and this may indeed be the cause. I'm glad that she lucked-out! But other backyard birders in my neighbourhood also have not seen any of them either.

Chin up. I'm still keeping the "nectar" feeder in place and changing the sugar water every 3 days.

Hi Faith - I did see that link on the Hummingbird Forum awhile ago. That sequence was pretty cool. :-D

John - I really did luck out! I am still amazed! And interestingly enough, this past weekend she (or perhaps a different one as the behavior was different) came waltzing over to my window and balcony doors and started really checking me out. She spent quite a bit of time (in relative terms, I would say upwards of a minute total) investigating the east end of my balcony and me through my diningroom window (of course I happened to have been wearing red... LOL) and then nectaring from my stephanotis that has a bunch of blooms on it and that is situated about 2ft from my door. Most times she sips from the feeder that hangs above the rail and is there no more than about 10 seconds before dive-bombing back down to the ground.

I managed to get a somewhat fuzzy pic of her at the stephanotis (the autofocus was having troubles focussing through the steamy glass doors when zoomed...lol). She is in front of one of my passifloras which sits next to the stephanotis:

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I think the best part of all this is that almost like a clock, she is still coming about every 20 - 30 minutes all day long. There are some missed times in there of course, but she has been pretty consistent. The main thing I have to watch for are the carpenter bees that occassionally bother her as they'll sit there on the rail and guard their little territory that happens to overlap with her feeder. And now that the yellow jackets are out in full force, I saw a few try to chase her away (but she came right back). She's not much bigger than them but she stands her ground pretty good! LOL

Jenny, I'm so glad you experienced the joy I have had with these babies! I absolutely must get some pics posted on these forums too. You do such a beautiful job!

I too have carpenter bees (oh me, oh my), and they leave piles of sawdust on the foliage of my plants. For years I have tried to repel them using various things, but without success. Bar the holes they drill and they'll find another spot. (I am not one to spray and kill them, however - I'd never sleep at night). Every year the drill new holes, and reportedly they can be up to one foot deep, so I think one day my porch will simply fall apart.

The HBs seem to also like Right Guard Sport deodorant, because one day when I was shirt-off and pruning limbs with a pole pruner, ummm.... My cats like it too, except I'm ticklish.

LOL John! I bet the hummer got a suprise. :-p

The one thing about the carpenter bees is that in spring when my blueberries are blooming, they're about the only things around up at my spot to pollinate the flowers. Otherwise I'd be outta luck getting any blueberries. It's a shame that the spring weather this year was so below normal that many days during the time when my blueberries were blooming, the day temperatures were often in the 50s and the bees aren't very active if at all at those temps so I didn't get as many berries this year as in previous years.

Well Jennie, just as I was thinking about painting the porch fire-engine red and burning jasmine incense outdoors, a male Ruby Throated HB was at the feeder just as I came home from work today. I was so thrilled I overlooked the fact that he was 4 months late. I'm glad it's the weekend too so I can be out there gardening and keeping an eye out for the others. I just adore them.

I'm curious about what blueberry bush you have. One of my horticulture manuals gives descriptions and illustrations of 5 Vaccinium species and 31 cultivated varieties. I had no idea that they ranged from 6 inches high (sprawling types) to 12 feet high and wide - and everything else in between. There are also 130 species of Vaccinium if we include cranberries, cowberries,etc. Interesting! They do like a pH on the acid side I see, 4.5 to 5.5.

I think you did the smart thing by letting the carpenter bees do their thing! I would have done the same, and actually I'm still needing to hose-off another ton of saw dust off the foliage again. Oh well, at least they've never stung me over the years, and I actually like them otherwise.

Jenny, sorry for spelling your name wrong! I'm a creature of habit since I had a sister Jennie in SE Pa. (Bethlehem), and still have family in the ABE area.

John - no problem with the name. :-p Your sister would be upstate from here (Allentown/Bethlehem area). I haven't been up that way in a long long time but I do get a local station from there on my cable! LOL

Glad to hear that you got a hummer visit. My little one had gone missing (at least I hadn't seen her when I looked) for the past couple days but she reappeared this morning. I'm thinking that maybe she finally settled down and had some babies. :-p However I do also know that the yellow jackets have been making their presence known the past week or so and they discovered the feeder. I saw a few lounging in the plastic flowers which prompted me to put the bee guards on last night. They seem to help to keep the wasps out of the nectar but I had to watch to make sure that my little lady could still use the feeder with the extra stuff on it. I know hummers have long tongues and she seemed to be somewhat hindered but finally sat for a bit, got her beak in and was able to nectar. I'll have to really see how well she handles it so she is not deterred and I may have take the things off to give her easier access. Fortunately I do have a blooming Black and Blue salvia so she does have an alternative supposed "favorite" if need be.

I have 4 different types of blueberries here - 2 were called "Patio", and I have 1 each of "Bluecrop", "Elliott", and "Nelson". They have different bloom, fruiting, and ripening times so I have more of an extended season during the summer. The "Patio" have the smallest and relatively earliest berries, the "Bluecrop" has the most clusters of berries, the "Nelson" has the largest berries, and the "Elliott" the latest.

Regarding the carpenter bees - they are here the earliest when the bushes are flowering. I only rarely see a honeybee, although I did actually see a few in later spring this year. I never got bumbles up here, let alone early when the blueberries are blooming. However amazingly enough, early this summer when my beautyberry finally started leafing out and then blooming, I got a big pile bumble visitors! The beautyberry made it through its first winter and I stuck it over by the sunny western corner of the balcony. The beautyberries flower on new growth so as it was leafing, it was also busy forming lots of flower clusters at each leaf node and every early morning while it was doing this, the whole thing was covered with young bumble bees. These little guys were distinctly different from the carpenter bees in terms of them having little pollen sacs on their legs, which was cool! They really worked over that shrub!!!

{{gwi:1893}}

My beautyberry was very late leafing (one of my sisters has an identical bush bought at the same time and planted in the ground and hers had leafed out about a month before mine). I'm thinking now that since it attracted so many bees (and my gosh I'm gonna have a kajillion beautyberry berries now! WHOO HOOO), maybe next year I can position it to attract the bees for my other plants. It's just that it doesn't look like it would be leafing as early as the blueberries. :-(

Hi Jenny! It looks like you did a good thing by choosing several cultivars of blueberries because I just read that although a single cv. can be used, more than one cultivar is best for pollination.

There might be many more hybridised since 1990 when this manual of mine was writen. The author did have 'Bluecrop' and 'Elliot' under Vaccinium corymbosum - the Highbush Blueberry, but 'Patio' and 'Nelson' are not mentioned under any species on his list.

He says of V. corymbosum that they generally grow 6 to 12 ft. high in the landscape with a spread of 8 to 12 feet. Container gardening, of course, will modify that. The preferred pH is 4.5 to 5.5, and they do best in "moist, acid, organic, well-drained soils". "Native to somewhat swampy soils but does extremely well under acid, sandy, conditions; chlorosis is a significant problem and the pH of the soils sould be the first concern of any desiring to culture blueberries; actually they are very easy to grow if given the above conditions...prune after fruiting; sun or partial shade." He lists V. corymbosum for zones 3-7 (8) by the former winter hardiness map.

'Bluecrop'- midseason. Hardier and more drought resistant than most. Upright bushes are unusually productive to the point of overbearing. Medium to large, light-blue fruit of good quality. Fruit flesh is firm, resistant to cracking, and flavor is good. Plants are vigorous, spreading and consistently productive."

'Eliot' - more upright, reaching 6 ft. high and spreading as much as 4-5 ft. in diameter. Leaf color during summer is bluish green, turning to orange-red in fall."

This is from "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants" by Michael A. Dirr, copywrite 1990. He is a professor of horticulture at the University of Georgia, and quite an expert on plants of the south-east. I should have bought his latest books this past January when I attended the Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition in Ft. Lauderdale, but had already spent over $200 other wonderful books offered by the Univ. of Florida. (I am truely a bibliomaniac)! Goodness, my arms really got a workout lugging home seemingly 2 tons of catalogues, book, etc. from this exhibition and conference. LOL. It was wonderful.

Wonderful pictures, and a great thread.
About carpenter bees and stopping the drilling - I read that carpenter bees are attracted to raw wood, and are less likely to burrow in painted wood. Dunno if it's true all the time, but if your porch wood isn't painted, maybe putting a coat of latex based house paint would deter them.

John - thanks for the info! I've had the blueberries out there for between ~6 - 10 years now (the "Patio" ones are my oldest and were purchased mail order as 6" bareroots...lol). They are all around 5ft - 6ft in their containers and form a nice little privacy hedge... if it can be called that and if one was really needed up here in the sky. LOL They do a good job at blocking the early morning sun that comes blasting into my bedroom in summer so that's a bonus. :-p

This is what they look like at the moment, sitting between my lilacs (my Coffea arabica with the big floppy leaves is to the right in the foreground):

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They offer nice winter interest with their reddish canes too. Here they were this past January after a blizzard we had:

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With the temp ~96 F here right now, the above blizzard pic is definitely "cooling" and I certainly don't look forward to that stuff 6 months from now.

I've mulled over getting Dirr's books and am torn between which one as he has several. I've seen them at the Borders near me and one of these days, I'll probably get one or both of his most discussed ones.

Thanks for the comments Cady! I had read something about recommendations by I think the Forestry service about painting wood for those who have problems with drilling carpenter bees - this especially directed towards those with wood decks and patios. In my case, I'm fortunate to be all concrete and aluminum on my balcony and am grateful for the pollination that those bees do for me in spring. There must be some sort of wood up on the roof of my building as I do see them flying towards the roof (and I am a floor below the top floor of the building).

Jenny, once again - great pics! Recently, the air conditioning not only died in my pick-up truck, but in the house too during our recent 96 F degree heat snap (of all times). My suggestion that horticulture be a "clothing-free occupation during the hot months" somehow didn't go over too big at work. But it was only a suggestion...! LOL. This included the humid and warm tropical conservatories I labour in with passion when their A/C failed too during lightening strikes. I have a proclivity for saying upopular things.

It's great that you are able to leave some plants outdoors during the winter months and have them survive. Dirr suggests that everyone contact their local county university extension agency to see which species of blueberries are best for their zone (& soil type). I really wish he would include container gardening in the various zones with his research. But I'll bet he'd love to hear your feed-back in zone 7 on blueberries in containers since he is questioned about potted plants often. He's great to converse with, and in my experience - welcomes all feedback.

As for me with container plants: my house is a mix of tropical jungle and the "Mortcia Addams" haunted look of decidious woodies during the winter months. (Let's say they give a "peculiar ambiance"). Thank goodness I have foliage to cover up the dormant ones. Concerned friends look at all the plants I have and say, "John, it will be alright; just see a psychiatrist!" But my life style in this house has "family values" - members are just of a different species, if you don't mind. And then my tree frog leaps onto arm of our company's accountant. (But "Ms.Frog Muffin" was just curious).

Hi Cady, I had been all over the Web trying to find solutions to the destruction that carpenter bees cause. Metal is the obvious solution, except that the porch is all wood (OLD wood, I mean from 1923. Time to move?).
All products suggested were tried but have failed. Plus, I absolutely refuse to spray and destroy them. The house has been recently painted, and I've tried all sorts of repellents to no avail. Any suggestions to repel and not kill them would be welcomed.

John,
I think the "secret" is to convince the bee that it's not wood... Maybe that's why the paint works for some. Your bees must be smart and figured out that paint is just a disguise. I have seen carpenter bees hanging around the fascia board around my eaves, and they have never burrowed into the painted wood. Maybe the paint just doesn't taste good? Perhaps an oil-based paint, which makes a leathery covering, would work better than latex?

I agree with not wanted to harm them. My garden is a "wildlife" habitat, and I love having all sorts of critters, from carpenter and bumble bees to frogs and chipmunks, even hawks, visit my small yard and porch balcony.

John - I hope you can get the AC fixed at some spot! UGH! I have been there done that myself. It's not pretty.

I leave most of my plants out there as I go for ones that are on average, hardy to zone 5 or less, with a few 6s. So the lilacs, blueberries, weigelas, honeysuckles, clematis, leucothoe, pee gee hydrangea, beautyberry, peonies, redtwig dogwoods, and my perennials like fern, lily of the valley, hosta, prickley pear cactus, asiatic lilies, etc., stay out there. New hardy perennials include some monarda, a heuchera, and a dicentra and there is a new tree - a Methley plum which will obviously stay out there.

I do have a pile of subtropical, tropical plants, and tender hardies that I overwinter inside - most signifcantly my passifloras (edulis 'granadilla' and 'flavicarpa' and P. belotti, although theoretically the belotti could stay out but I like the blooms inside). My coffee, tropical hibiscus, stephanotis, mandevilla, oleander, pointsettia, christmas cactii, hoyas, and even 3, 3-year old habanero plants, etc., all come in. One of the new plants is a banana pup that one of my coworkers gave me, plus I have some cannas and tender salvia guarantica that I'll bring in. I'm already mentally finding spots for this stuff.

Cady, thanks for your empathy, and I appreciate the fact that you, like Jenny, are a kind one to the gentler beings. I have a racoon (non-rabid) that waited nightly for me after dusk for his bowl of goodies this past autumn. They like to fatten up since there is little available food in the winter months. When he is finished crunching away, he will put his two paws on my lap and stare into my face with those wonderful "bandit" eyes. That means he wants more, and he gets it. In other seasons he couldn't be bothered, although I see him nightly. Whatever he doesn't eat the opossum will the next morning, and she'll come right up to me on the porch if I'm out there before dawn if there isn't any food. That's rare for opossums!

You have some awsome pics on webshots too! Thanks for the sharing!

Jenny, you have such a wonderful plants collection! Wow, and I love Passifloras, plus so many others you have. Knowing that the container media takes on the same temperature of the air, have you not had to wrap them for insulation? I know my Rudbeckia has withstood temps down to 17 degrees for a week without a bit of harm, so I guess many others would - especially woodies.

With the tropicals, I generally let the minimum temperature they'll be exposed to be 15-20 degrees F higher than the lowest allowable minimum for the species (to be on the safe side). That's an average, of course. So far it has worked, but in spring and autumn I do the "in and out, in and out number daily with about 15 of them. The heavy ones stay in once they're in. We are all such devotees of "plant parenthood", I see!

One question, if I may: I once saw a Web site that gave the meanings of codes that follow a sentence, such as :-p, etc. I didn't print it off, however. Do you know of a site that does? I wouldn't even know what keywords to use on a search engine.

Thanks! John

John - I know that if the plants can survive in the far north where the ground freezes down pretty deep and the air temps can go down to -30° F every winter, then they are fine out there on my balcony - except in some cases where I am too far south for them to grow reliably due to the hot summers (eg., Jack Pines or delphiniums, etc). I know there's been alot of debate (especially in the past on the Container Forum), about whether the soil in pots (particularly the sizes that I have), actually reach ambient air temperature, but I am not seeing that at all. I think it would take many days (all day) at some very low temp for them to actually approach the coldest ambient temps. Otherwise my stuff would have been dead a long time ago. Most of my stuff is in a minimum 12" diameter container - with the majority in 14", 16", 18", and 21" sizes.

My oldest shrubs have been out there for 10 years. And over that time, I think the lowest that we've had for temps (and according to my temp probes on the balcony) was about 4° F. We hit some single digits this year too in that range. In general, the average winter low here is ~24° F, with cold spells in the teens. If anything with containers, it's more critical to try to avoid a freeze/thaw cycle than the actual freezing of the soil in the pot. And the long springs that we tend to have here thanks to the big old Atlantic Ocean taking its time to warm up, seems to generally moderate the temps and gradually bring about a thaw. We'll get a few warm spells here and there but not anything overly dramatic too early in the season. Plus because I face NE, I don't get any sun during winter and only a little in early spring as the sun moves around, so that helps. By summer, I get it full on. But what I do get are the winds from Nor'easters and that can be a nuisance.

The only things I protect (where I bring in the marginals like my oleander, dwarf crape myrtle, the P. belotti, and my tropicals), are any evergreens. I have a 3 year old Leucothoe fontansianna 'Girard's Rainbow', that I put behind a windscreen. The pot stays where it is with no other protection as it's in a shady spot (which is what they need) and back near the balcony wall. This past winter I tried a burlap screen which worked as well as the plastic ones that I've errected in the past. The burlap seemed to do a little better as it wouldn't have a penchance to take off like a kite like the plastic (where I had the plastic attached to a PVC structure). The biggest issue with the evergreens is winter wind dessication in late spring, and that is something that I have to find a good way to deal with... Every winter is different and the first couple years I was here, I had a pieris out there unprotected that did fine without protecting the leaves - but one year was particularly dry, cold, and windy, and it couldn't handle it.

The rest of my stuff stays where they are by the rail and gets rained and snowed on - with the exception this past year of me putting my new beautyberry against the wall. I normally have it by the rail, but I know it is a marginal. It was late leafing but it did finally leaf out and is loaded with berries now! I think I'll also pull my plum tree back from the rail too so that I can minimize any potential winter tip damage.

In late spring, my lilacs, weigelas, and blueberries often try to sprout a bit too soon as their containers heat up faster than the ground, so I have had to cover them for late frosts most times in the past although this past spring was the first time ever that I didn't have to do that.

With respect to some websites showing what are called in netspeak "emoticons", where the one you used as an example would be the equivalent to the graphical version of a smiley sticking out its tongue:

... you can check out this site. These were all we had to use on the internet boards (either listserv email lists, ISP text-based forums and chats, or USENET) in the '80s and '90s, before the "world wide web" came about in the mid-90s and introduced graphics capability. Before that, everything was text only and the use of "emoticons" for giving context for what was written, has and continues to be a blessing because it is often hard to get across certain emotions (including when one is teasing) when using plain text. The ASCII smilies basically add that emotion to the words. :-)

Jenny - obviously you have been very mindful of the cultural and environmental conditions affecting your plants. Bravo! Serissa foetida is one woody you might want to consider since you face NE. It's a part shade to full shade, fine-textured plant that blooms almost continuously for me year round. Just avoid deep shade. Dirr said it had survived -3 degrees F and gives it zones (6) 7-9 by the former winter hardiness zone map. I love mine, and its dozens of small flowers have attracted friendly tiny bees that I have yet to identify. I'll give more info if interested.

For nasty winds, I temporarily hang up a "plant tarp" that is 12' x 12', but they come in larger sizes. It is a thick plastic screening material that landscapers cover plants with on open bed trucks. It permits air movement, but greatly reduces it, and it shades about 60%. Greenhouse shade cloth is another possibility, with many different % of wind reduction capacity and shading.

Having done container and balcony gardening in Pa. in my youth, later in the U.K., and then in SE Asia 6 degrees above the equator - I've too have been attentive to the sun's changing altitude and azimuth. Plus there are dramatic changes in daylength. Inside or out, my container plants here are moved continuously so they get the appropriate amount of light. But I have deciduous shade trees in the landscape to consider - and fortunately you don't. But for decades I have also successfully increased light as needed using aluminum foil attached to corrugated plastic boards to capture and redirect natural and artificial light. I couldn't maintain half the plants I have without them! All arguements against their use ignore acclimation (gradual reorientation of the chloroplasts) and light saturation points according to species. But so much is a matter of experiment using the best info we can gather. No doubt we all have some failures despite our best efforts. But I think container gardening in the northern states is the trickiest. You have extreme differences in temperature in June vs. December, and a significant difference between daylight hours in those months too. It took me a long time to get used to Sri Lankan sunset around 6:20 PM in the summertime (LOL). But at least we had 12 hours of daylight year round.

I wish I had viewed the debates on container temps to see what others were experiencing. I know that the ingredients of the potting mix, specificaly the amount of micro and macro pores spaces, affect temperature changes. Large pots obviously experience slower changes. It is also true that a moist medium keeps the roots warmer than cold ambient air than does a medium that has dried-down, but we have to be careful of root-rot. And I can surely relate to the problem of pots heating up faster than ground temps. It is especially true for me during the fickle springtime temps here, which actually begins in February. I use a meat thermometer the extends 7 inches into the potting soil, and I get some idea of soil temperature for my Alocasia x Portodora in a 25 gal. pot, and my huge 26 yr. old Pachypodium lamerii that won't tolerate temps below 50 F.

I really miss the lilac bushes I remember as a child. Zone 8 is the final/marginal zone for Syringa species, and they must usually languish here since I have never seen one! Crepe Myrtles are very abundant in the landscape, but the dwarf varieties have disappeared from the garden centres over the past 6 years. Viburnum is an alternative choice for many in the south.

Regarding L. fontanesiana, one manual I have gives it for zones 6 - 9 (old hardiness map), and another for zones (4) 4 - 8. Dirr stated it "will not withstand drought or sweeping, drying winds." "Rejuvenate by pruning to the ground after flowering." Another author suggests removing 2 or 3 old canes after blooming to stimulate new growth. No doubt you do your homework, but if you ever get an itch to e-mail me (jzhort@earthlink.net) for any additional info my books might contain, feel free. I will delete all other e-mails caught by span-blocker, and confidentiality I consider to be common decency, of course.

P.S. Thanks a bunch for the "emoticons" site. I was almost beating my head against the wall trying to think of that keyword, so I did print it off.

John - I actually do theoretically have a decidous shade tree which also fruits - a Methley plum that I am trying this year. :-) I'll see how it does over the winter. I have it where it would get a good amount of sun during the summer and none during winter (when it wouldn't need it).

I've considered getting a thermometer to stick down in one of my containers just for the heck of it - and especially to see what happens when they get snowed on.

Interestingly enough, I never grew up with lilacs. I don't recall many around here and it was only recently when I moved into my apt. and wanted to try something fragrant, that I saw a cute baby "James McFarlane" lilac with pink flowers calling my name, and decided to try it. It's been about 10 years later and he manages to bloom every year. A few years after, I picked up a baby "Miss Kim".

We have alot of big crape myrtles around here now - they're all in bloom at the moment. I have a dwarf "Victor". There are alot of viburnums around but then there are so many different species and cultivars available that there are probably even more than I think.

I have my "dog hobble" (the leucothoe) down low on the balcony floor back away from the rail. I did it to give it the deep shade that it prefers and I keep it pretty much wet/boggy and it seems to like that. If I ever let it go dry, the leaf tips will tell me about it by browning. LOL This year, it has interestingly been blooming on and off most of the growing season since spring. Believe it or not, I have more recent pictures of it but never got them on my hosting site! But here is an older pic of it:

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I like how the new stem and leaf growth is a deep red, where the leaves gradually change to green and then green with pink and white variegation.

Glad the emoticon site was useful. I know I sometimes forget that term when describing them!

Jenny, you have really gone all out! I'm so impressed with your selections - fearless, tireless one. Were you talking about Crepes in the landscape? Dirr lists Lagerstroemia indica (the most common here) for zones 7-9 (old zone map) and "-5 to -10 degrees F is about the break point between a woody plant and herbaceous perenial." If so, it might be L. fauriei ("is hardier than L. indica and probably should be considered Zone 6 since plants have survived -10 degrees F in Raleigh. 'Fantasy' will be released by N. Carolina State University Arboretum. It has outstanding bark and will make a handsome small tree)." That is the only cv. he lists for L. fauriei, but this book is copywrited 1990 (when I was younger and more good-looking). My other sister in Freemansburg (next to Bethlehem) loves the Crepes in the south, and wished they grew in Pennsy. Hmmm.

I was also curious how many hours of sunlight your full sun plants get around the first week of summer and for about a month or so afterward. Here in Atlanta, sunrise is ENE and spends hours in my east-facing growing room, but you face NE. The first week of winter, sunrise is ESE, and doesn't come into the east window at all, but I have plently of artificial lighting that I use year round.

I was also thinking about your Ficus carica you mentioned many moons ago. How is it doing? Here they grow into monsters in the landscape, and are often cut back a few feet above the soil line and restarted, especially after a bad winter. I have F. retusa with wonderful buttressing & aereal roots, and rooted a cutting in late winter of F. maclelandii 'Amestel King' that is now in a 10" pot. I keep saying, "Oh, just one more plant and I'll never get another one again for the rest of my life". You know the story!

Thanks again for the picture share, it's a lovely!! I'll be getting the camera I inherited cleaned and ready to go this weekend, once I learn to adjust all the settings (ugh). I hope to get some pics of my rainforest cacti in bloom (Cryptocereus anthonyanus, several Epiphyllum species, etc.), plus some of my uncommon tropicals.

Jenny,
You keep surprising me with your photos...so many unusual plants (and critters) show up on your balcony. :) Leucothoe is superb for getting an evergreen presence on a balcony. Have you tried other evergreens, such as mini-rhododendron, azalea, pieris and wintergreen?

I have leucothoe in my "ground" garden, but have not tried it as a container planting on the porch/balcony. I do have containers of cranberry, blueberry, boxwood, crowberry and even a couple species of willow. It adds dimension to the more "standard" container plants.

John,
Your raccoon story is enchanting. I had an aunt (who passed away at 94 a few years back), who had an entourage of raccoons. She fed them every night, and they were as unafraid and expectant as your furry friend. If my aunt was a few minutes late with the bowls of food, they would patiently line up on her deck outside the picture window, and stand on their hind legs, front paws neatly folded in front of them like choir boys.

Cady, I think your aunt and I would have had a "major hook-up point" and shared some humourous stories. I once cared for a stray female cat that disappeared for an afternoon, and I later found her nursing baby rabbits after having a litter herself. I crept quitely away, and let these loving beings be undisturbed.

My delight today was having a Purple Finch fledgling fly onto my head as I was filling a bird feeder (I have 9 of them up), and its little dropping onto my shoulder only brought a good laugh. I'm glad it was healthy and eating!

I'll bet you and my aunt could trade some wonderful stories, John. Meanwhile, I picked up the newspaper today and read a story about a local fella who was puzzled by the disappearance of all his fish from his backyard garden pond and stream... And discovered a pair of river otters had taken up residence. He took great photos of them frolicking in his waterfall. The article quoted him as saying that he was so delighted to have otters living in his garden that he was thinking of feeding them fish every day just to "bribe" them to stay.

I would love it if otters moved into my little pond, but I don't think I would want them to eat my fat, lazy, tame fishies.

Cady, that is hilarious! I'd probably do the same, although I don't know if I can take on any more wildlife on top of 200 container plants, an aquarium, tree frogs, crickets for the frogs, 2 abondoned cats, etc. But I must ask Jenny if she ever considered becoming a balcony birder, besides her (our) love for the hummingbirds.

One guess, Jenny: I'm out of space and seeds make a mess! I have to admit that I tried mixing containers and bird feeders - and forget it!!! I didn't want to be growing millet, sunflower seeds, ad infinitum in the same pots with my annuals and tropicals. LOL. And I did try this on a balcony too, and neighbours below complained, although I had quite a variety of birds. Weeding pots was a weekly drag too.

Sorry didn't chance to get back here. I go through so many forums on GW that I have to make the "rounds". LOL!

John - we have alot of crapes in the landscape here in the Philly/Delaware County area. These are no longer die-backs in city locations (meaning they don't die back to the roots and they sprout their new leaves from the canopy) and are seen more and more in the landscape at 10 - 15ft tall and getting bigger every year. People are even planting them in their front yards away from the house. There are all sorts here - particularly ones like the popular and hardy "Natchez", "Sioux", "Tonto", etc. I think what has helped is that the lowest temps here haven't gotten below 0° F since 1994. I have a "Victor" crape which is a dwarf and it literally hasn't grown to more than 3ft in its 14" container. It's starting to bloom now itself.

The figs were very slow to sprout due to the very cool spring but I am looking at expanding the selection. I bought my sister and brother-in-law a Celeste last summer for in-ground, had them plant it at the SW corner of their house, it made it through the winter with protection and is growing pretty well in the heat. Haven't been by there to see what's happening with it but as long as it is establishing itself (it was a 4ft baby), that's fine with me.

As for amount of sun - Since I am up about 150ft or so in the sky with nothing to block the sun like trees or buildings (other than the hills about 5 miles to the NE of me, although I'm on a hill myself about 400ft above sea level), in summer, I get sun from sunrise at ~5:50am until about 11 am (or later for those plants that have branches hanging over the rail that can catch a couple more hours of "rays" before the sun goes up over and behind the building). I have seen sun on an extended branch of my tropical hibiscus until almost 1pm. And since I am on the end on the western side of the building, I can get about 3 - 4 hours more of afternoon sun over on the western corner of the balcony as it sets (from about 4pm until sunset ~8:30pm or so). Thus I try to put some of the real sun lovers over on the western end of the balcony so they can get sun in the front and later, sun from the side and rear during summer. Only thing is that it is windy over on that side.

Good luck with the camera! I hope to eventually get a pic of my opuntia humifusa in bloom next year. It's growing quite a few pads now. I've overwintered it outside the past 2 winters in a clay pot (my only plant in a clay pot) and it shrivels down during winter and plumps back up each spring. I think that it needs more sun earlier in the season to get the bloom triggered though... something I have to think about with respect to where to place it.

Cady - I've had a number of evergreens over the years - mostly different pierises as it's one of my favorites. I actually have a minature one out there right now that is new and it's sortof lost in the shade of other stuff. My honeysuckles are semi-evergreen but what usually gets things out there are the dessicating winds in late winter. Even with some of the protection schemes, it has been difficult finding a good spot to put evergreens where they're not in an eventual wind tunnel. But I'll keep experimenting! I have a heuchera this year and those are supposed to be evergreen so I'll see how that goes.

You mention willows and I have a pussy willow (Salix discolor) out there that has been forming its catkins for next year.

Jenny - you are a wonderful resource for zone 7 (Pa. particularly) container gardeners! The Crepes you mentioned, 'Natchez', 'Victor', and 'Sioux' are all L. indica - but don't know about 'Tonto' & 'Celeste'. If my sister hasn't been in tune with the Crepe reality in her ABE area, I'll tell her what you related, with credit to you. Thanks!

I so often hear that overwatering is the biggest mistake of container gardeners, but I have the view that it is ignorance about light needs and observing sun positions; this structures so much of the care that follows - if one even cares about basic care to begin with. You've done some keen observation about those sun positions, and I'm impressed. I still think that plant tarps might solve your wind problem; they did for me, especially during hurricane season. Put them either over the plants, or preferrably use one large on nailed/hooked to the balcony itself. As you know, their shading won't be a problem when plants are dormant.

So many Opuntia species are real die-hards, here in Zone 8 too. If they shrivel during the winter months (meaning the epidermis becomes wrinkled), you can just water them sparingly so they don't dehydrate. This I learned will also keep the roots warmer. But one mistake I made was rotating the pot. Boo-hiss!!! That caused the pads to twist towards the sun and fall off (and the same with Hibiscus flower buds).

P.S. No need to apologise about getting back here. I just went for 4 days without phone/Internet service because of an error at the phone company. Then we had afternoon heavy lightening strikes, so the computer was unplugged. Imagine going for 5 days without Internet!!! I almost had a psychotic episode all over the floor, but instead chose to clean out the bedroom closet and make use of the time. LOL.

I have two types of Opuntia in a raised planter, and am amazed at how they "deflate" in the winter and "re-inflate" the next spring. They are a nice, unusual plant to add to the container collection, and you can eat the "pears" and pads if you remove those evil glochids and spines first.

Back again! I've been making the rounds and have been hanging out at the Hummingbird Forum - mainly because this is migration time and I am hoping that my little ones (plural as I've confirmed at least 2) hang around as long as they can before going away to their winter homes. I've been fooling around with some of the settings on my new camera and captured a few new pics of my little visitors.

This was part of a series (camera set to snap 2 pics per second) that I didn't realize I caught where a paper wasp was chasing one of the hummers away from "its" feeder port. LOL

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Here's another pic where you can see the shimmering green of her back and a closeup on the pic shows a tiny bit of her white tongue sticking out of the end of her beak (can't really see it here though):

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The vines are morning glories that are coming out of various containers nearby, grew up the rail, found the shepherd's hook, and have grown all over it and are now blooming. What has been blooming from them are seedlings of the "Grandpa Ott's" that I grew a couple years ago and that keep reseeding. LOL I was hoping the reddish "Scarlet O'Hara" that also reseeded would have been what wrapped around the hook, but I think that might be in the trough with my SRBs as I noticed a reddish flower bud the other day over there. I have seen the hummers nectaring in the MG blooms including that blue-purple Grandpa Ott's so I won't complain. They also finally found the Salvia 'Black and Blue' that is blooming just below and to the right of the feeder, with the spikes having grown through the rail fencing for easy access by them:

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They also love the Agastache 'Tutti Fruiti' which is also blooming again right across from the feeder:

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John - I hope to be a helpful resource along with so many others who post here, for those interested in growing shrubs and perennials and trees in containers. - especially those of us who have no ground to plant in where we reside.

With respect to the crapes - they have done so much breeding recently that there are a number of cold hardy ones out now. They are good to Zone 6, although in the colder areas, they will die back to the roots. Here in the city, I have just been amazed at the ones that haven't died back to the roots anymore and are tree size. I guess if we continue to have no below 0° F temps, then we are good to go. I think alot has to do with the heatsink here, where since the building height restriction was lifted in the city in 1984 (originally restricted to ~40 stories which was the height of the statue of William Penn on top of our city hall), there have been upwards of 40 skyscrapers built, including the Liberty Towers that are shown alot now, and that has really changed the city's climate...

And yeah - the opuntias are neat although the evil glochids are NOT! I actually stick my pot on top of my window AC in winter so it is back away from the rail and right next to the window (to get some warmth and can stay somewhat dry). Since I have it in a clay pot, that forces me not to overwater in winter because any freeze/thaw will crack that pot!

Jenny, I couldn't resist putting some of your pics in "My Pictures" file, but they are all labeled, "Jenny's Wonderful Balcony, 1, 2, 3, etc. It's such a wonderful sharing!

Sounds like your area is creating a "heat dome" like here in Atlanta, from all the asphalt, concrete, buildings, etc. (But it also caused 5 years of drought). The taller building are nortorious for wind tunneling too. I'm glad I live in a woodsy neighbourhood outside of downtown, rather than in the heart of the concrete. The view from you balcony down below looks like my place.

I've really been enjoying my 2 female and 1 male Rubythroated HBs, although I did get my first tiny dent in the forehead on Saturday when they were dive-bombing eachother at the feeder with me sitting only 3 ft. away. LOL. They're there up to fifteen times per hours all day long. I'm going to keep the feeder up longer this year for migration, and just bring it in at night so it doesn't freeze.

This is a wonderful thread
Jenny, I love your balcony, it is unbelievable!!!
Please keep posting pictures
We all love them!
Thanks

I agree. :)
Jenny, are you using a digital camera? The hummer pics are wonderful. And the colors of the flowers... ooh-la-la. :) :)

Back again! I've been on other forums this week and am cycling back around again. Thanks all for the compliments! :-D

John - yep, we have a heatsink for sure. It's interesting that for years, the temps where I lived were about 5° less than downtown and the airport. Now it's about a 3° difference. That actually helps when temps are near freezing and delays the time of first frost quite a bit. Hope you can hang onto your hummers as long as you can! Up here, they are supposedly mostly gone by the end of September so I am trying to get my time in enjoying them - especially since I now have more than one...

Cady - yep it's a digital. I just got it in April. It's a Kodak Z740 which just came out this year. It has a 10x optical zoom and is 5 megapixels and that really helps!

I have confimed that I have 2 juvenile male Ruby-throated hummers who have joined my female. I'm thinking that these may be her sons and they followed her up here. Some pics for skippy! Both males are shown below:

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I had wondered where my female had gone to and discovered that she has setup territory at the other end of the balcony where there is a big food source - swarms of gnats and other insects that congregate early in the morning and late in the afternoon at the corner of the balcony ceiling. And she has apparently been perching down there out of my view for some time now, occassionally coming to the feeder while the "boys" duke it out there. She let me watch her feed this morning. The 2nd time she fed, it was after a big chase back and forth along the balcony and I had my camera and was able to capture this:

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You can even see her tongue right before she snapped up a tastey morsel! It's been amazing watching these 3 out there this week and even more today!

Yesterday I managed to capture a showdown between the 2 males - something that is hard to do with these hummers since they usually chase each other away to somewhere. But this time, they put on a minute-long display (the hanging bag is my red "beacon" to get wayward hummers' attention... and it works! lol):

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All this happening up here. Incredible. LOL

Jenny,
These photos are just amazing. The one of the hummingbird about to snap up a gnat with her toungue...WOW! The gnat is as clear as day. The new cameras are just incredible with their highspeed shutters, but you must have a keen eye too. I'm impressed.

I am so impressed with these photos Jenny, they are remarkable, great job! The photos of the boys are great, what beautiful creatures they are. Your balcony must be quit an exciting place this time of year. Your balcony was the inspiration for my starting one of my own, only a lot smaller. I just don't have the space that you do; but I became convinced that I could grow lots of things out there and this summer reality rang true. I grew so many different things that I wouldn't have thought about growing in containers on my balcony deck. The Moonflowers and Morning Glory's in particular, and my "custard & cream" Four O'Clocks that are blooming like crazy, clematis, nicotainia, and even tomatoes, although I did have to move them to a space in what yard I have because they were getting way too big. One thing I am looking into growing next year is some sort of tree, maybe lilac or something a little smaller. Jenny, please keep the pictures coming, they certainly do make my day.

Linda