Tips for a blossoming balcony
Luxuriant display of flowers and a great view – with the following tips and tricks even inexperienced balcony gardeners can easily create their own private green oasis of well-being.
This item of information will above all please those balcony owners who have not been blessed with green fingers: colourful spring flowers are completely uncomplicated and do not keep you waiting. This means that even balcony gardening novices enjoy good prospects of success when enhancing their own personal space in the open air with plants. Whatever pleases is allowed! If a carpet of primulas as monoculture in a flower box is not your thing, it is easy to put together your own balcony jungle. Differing species of plant ensure fresh variation and also attractive differences in height. Wallflowers and forget-me-nots have a bushy effect, while daffodils, drumstick primulas and tulips tend to grow high. Daisies, violets and crocuses remain low.
Colourful plant partners
The best approach is not to worry and simply combine different sorts of plant, because own creations are what give the urban balcony that modern touch. Fashionable plant partners like the sedge, a bushy tuft of grass, or the spurge with unusually yellow-green blossoms combine nicely with the classic plants. They add an adventurous touch to daffodils and primulas. Large sizes also gain respect. That’s why you should never be afraid of putting bushes on the balcony. Flowering bushes such as the spike water hazel (corylopsis spicata), forsythia and dwarf almond tree are the perfect embodiment of spring.
In addition to trendy blossoms, leaves too can provide colour. Ivy for example is an attractive option with yellow or white leaf edges. Silver-leafed plants such as santolina, silvermound artemisia and lavender also add nice effects. Depending on the type, the leaves of the coral bell shine from orange-red to crimson-violet.
The dream of a flower meadow can also be fulfilled on the balcony. A “meadow” of cowslips, narcissi or tulips is created by placing several pots and bowls containing the same spring flowers closely next to each other. Individual decorative grasses inject a touch of natural charm.
If not all the bulbs in the spring flower box have flowered or individual plants are not doing well there is no need to hesitate. Any weak plants should be removed immediately. Then simply buy some bulbs which are already flowering from the garden shop and fill the gaps. The balcony flower box will then be complete again and the newcomers will not look out of place.