I used to do window boxes, treating them like annual hanging baskets I'd really stuff them, keep them well watered and fertilized regularly. My window boxes were in morning sun afternoon shade. I had purple wave petunias or other single flowering(nip back when they get scraggly), impatiens, pale blue and white lobelias (not the trailing type, these draped nicely over the edges, the trailing type got to be a bit much), lemon colored (Tagetes) marigolds, maybe some dwarf snaps, a couple of pieces of trailing nepta maybe an ivy geranium or whatever else struck my fancy at the time. The thing is to stuff them for visual impact :). We once did 2 big moss hanging baskets with about 150 plants in each one. It took two of us to lift them into position as they weighed over 60 pounds. I wish I had taken pictures, to expensive to make now, it was back when you could buy flats of plants quite reasonably. Other nice plants for window boxes are Schizanthus and Salpaglosis. Annette

soxxxx - you have a good idea. And after looking at the photos, I've grown so used to the odd window placement that I really see how it could be made to look much better. My brain is clicking again. Uh-oh. My uncle was a carpenter but did some strange things. On the back of the house (school),he merely dropped the ceilings down over the two tall windows of the half of the building he made livable. In other words he didn't cut them down or out, so the original windows are there but only the bottoms show inside. The tops are visible from the outside but are camouflaged. Hard to explain, so here is a pic, taken last Fall showing the two windows, the center one and the one on the far right. I'm actually very happy he didn't destroy them because I love the illusion plus who knows a future owner may decide to completely gut the house and restore it. You never know.

Phlox stolonifera or Linnaea borealis may work. I have no idea how much sun/shade you are dealing with. I am totally surprised by the ease of growing Linnaea. I thought it would need cool, peaty, moist conditions, but it trails like crazy and never flags in the heat. Plus, what wonderful fragrant flowers. Rx

NW facing is going to be a tricky situation, because most of the day will be shady (which would be fine for a lot of things like impatiens), but THEN, unfortunately, your partial western exposure is going to subject the box to the hottest sun of the day - a fairly brutal adjustment for some plants. The plants shown in the link are mostly NOT suitable for your NW exposure, especially the small conifers, which I can't positively identify from the photos angle - if they are either very young, dwarf Aberta spruces, or possibly stone pines, neither will get sufficient sun. (Incidentally, conifers are evergreen perennials, which will quickly outgrow the box, and require all-winter watering to survive.) The trailing purple flowers are petunias, which again may not get sufficient sunlight - in addition, to keep them lush and full, petunias like to be deadheaded regularly, a tricky task whilst dangling out an upper story window! The trailing chartreuse vine is a sweet potato vine (producing NO potatoes!) - once more, limited sunlight could be an issue. Here's my suggestion: expect to experiment this first season, but to be on the conservative side, choose annuals from a good quality nursery that are only marked "part shade to shade" (nothing that says full sun to part shade). If you REALLY like the trailing petunia and/or the sweet potato vine, then go ahead and experiment - but with just one of each in various boxes, to see how they stand up - if they don't work, just delete the experiment and other plants in the box will fill in. If you can find them (sometimes difficult, which is why I suggest a quality nursery), there are a few trailing coleus which are really stunning, and might hang down as much as 5 or 6 feet by summer's end (but you can easily shorten them) - it is my #1 choice for hanging pots/boxes in partial shade to shade. If you're familiar with regular coleus, the leaves on the trailing varieties are much smaller; also look for trailing torenia (purples) and even trailing lobelia (blues). Begonias "might" work there, but I'm concerned the blazing afternoon sun will scorch the leaves. Good luck!