Lately, i've been considering my balcony - what works, what doesn't, what i want to do differently this year. I moved to another unit in the same complex, the balcony is the same footprint and faces the same direction (east), but gets a bit more sun due to less tree cover.

So - what works? Well, for me, it seems that neoregelia bromeliads are fabulous in the window box that hangs off the balcony railing. They look great in the rainy summer and great in the dry winter, needing only minimal protection from our rare freezes. Other good performers are sanseverias of all sorts (i have a large pot on the floor of the tall mottled green leaf variety, and several small pots of the birdnest types, along with other small succulents on a corner baker's rack), a large Christmas cactus in a hanging basket (takes conditions well and blooms like crazy in January/February), and my philodendron Xanadu. What doesn't work? My bald cypress. It grows well in the summer, but i can't stand it's deciduous nature. All winter it looks like a dead stick and everyone that walks out there cracks on it! I think i'm going to ditch it, but i feel really bad, i wish i knew someone who might want it. Other things that don't work - small pots! Too much watering! Unfortunately, i have not had much luck with flowers (previously, not enough sun although i think that issue is possibly solved now, but also too hot/humid/wet summer followed by very hot/dry fall) and i think that the bromeliads are a better source of color for me. In the window box their spiney edges aren't much of a concern since it's impossible for anyone to brush against them.

The real problem i have is more a design issue i suppose. I've never really approached the balcony in the right way i think. Instead of planning a ~garden~, i've made a specimen collection. I want to fix that this year, and i think the key is repeating elements. So here's my plan, tell me what you think. I'm going to get more of what works! Another matching windowbox, and i'll order some more neoregelias for it. This is the bulk of the display color, although i do have one large bowl shaped pot dedicated to annuals - currently some yellow and red kalanchoes, but i'll replace them once the blooms fade. Any ideas for that container? I'm thinking symmetry is the only approach that will work well in the space, and repeating the window box with similar foliage will accomplish that. Then - another pot of tall sanseveria for the other side of the balcony. The pot i have now is the basic mottled kind, i'm thinking i could get the kind with the yellow leaf edges for a little variety but the same leaf shape. I recently bought a curly leafed croton, and i think i might go back for one more of those as well. Do you think that repeating elements like this will lend a more unified feel, more like a "real" garden? Or will the symmetry and repeating elements and plants make it boring?

I do know that there are folks who create and stick to a well-thought out plan for their small container spaces but the reality (at least from my perspective) is that growing on spots such as balconies, often means that one ends up dealing with a wild range of amount of sunlight, wind exposure, and overall microclimate, and thus the idea of repeatibility (other than perhaps color and texture) across the entire space can be difficult to achieve. I know that I have to constantly juggle my "wants" with what spot it could possibly grow in depending on how much sun there is or whether the wind is just too great for it to do well. In this case, my sunniest spot on my balcony is also my windiest spot and that automatically limits me to what can go there or I have to find ways to mitigate the adverse conditions to gain an optimum environment for any sun-loving plants that I have.

I do understand about the "specimen" collection, because that's basically what most of us who go beyond 99¢ annuals initially end up with. However I've noticed over time that I have added to the "specimens" to actually end up with more than one of a certain genus (I have several lilacs, several weigelas, several figs, several willows, several honeysuckles, etc), so in the end you may find that as things do well where they are located, you can actually use that as your base to supplement or complement.

Another thing to keep in mind if you have blooming plants (at least how I've approached it) are the bloom times of your plants so that you don't have a clashing situation going on as well as having everything in bloom during a 1 month period and nothing else blooming the rest of the time (other than perhaps getting some of the traditional summer annuals or perennials, etc). I know I've ended up in that situation with most of my shrubs (save for a crape myrtle) blooming in the spring and perennials in early summer and I had nothing but some tropicals (my hibiscus and passies) and some windowbox begonias or petunias to fill out the rest of the time. I've since got hooked on the fact that a little hummer came up 18 stories to visit me last August, so I want to put some bee balm out to give me some mid-late summer color to supplement the honeysuckles when the daylilies and clematis are done. I'm hoping I can get some blooms from my baby pee gee hydrangea too. I may even try some cannas if I can find a place for them. LOL

So like an in-ground garden, I think the serious balcony garden goes through its awkward stages and can eventually settle down to become a pleasing scheme, given some experimentation and one's comfortableness with what will do well out there and can be shifted around for maximum enjoyment!

In considering your points, it really outlines how different one balcony space can be from another! At first i was baffled by your references to vast differences in microclimate on your balcony, but then i recalled that i think you have a very long balcony and you are way, way up in the air, many floors up, right? That would mean your space is exposed to much more extremes in wind and sun, and has a lot more variation in microclimate than mine. I'm only on the 2nd floor, i face east and the balcony is only about 8 foot square roughly. It is somewhat better lit on the front near the rail, a little shadier towards the back but not much. It overlooks a pond which has kept it a couple degrees warmer this winter than a similar balcony in the previous unit which faced paved parking lot. It gets nice morning sun, the window boxes stay lit until around noon, and it is in bright shade the rest of the day.

So i think it is probably reasonable for me to be able to gain some repeatablity by getting a few more of those plants which did really well for me so far. I think that just repeating the window box with one in the same style will help tremendously to make the balcony seem more balanced when viewed from the sidewalk path below.

My challenges are mainly due to our strange climate. We have an extended hot humid summer during which time it rains basically every afternoon. Many plants which can take the heat can't take the combined humidity, or demand more light than i have available. Then we have a period in the fall months when the heat doesn't lessen at all, but it stops raining and humidity drops somewhat. This is the most miserable time to be outside, i tend to get sort of depressed and don't tend to their watering needs properly, which is ironically the time they need me most! Bad plant mom! :( What passes for "winter" here is the only time our temps are really variable, ranging from beautiful 80º days to the occasional freeze (although it didn't this year). So i have to drag my tender plants like my rack of orchids in and out depending on if the night temps are going to dip below 50º. That's very tiresome and i have vowed to not get any more plants that need so much babying. I can bring them in if it's going to freeze, but that's all the extra help i want to give them.

As far as bloom time timing - i am happy if anything manages to bloom out there at all! :) I have not yet found anything (except my beloved christmas cactus - the only plant that has survived in a hanging basket, and a desert rose) that can tolerate the conditions out there, remain small enough to be manageable, and bloom for me. I have begun to rely on foliage for color and texture, getting varigated plants, plants with interesting leaf shapes, and plants that have colored leaves. It remains to be seen if there is enough light out there to keep my new croton colorful, but truthfully, i garden because i love green. Flowers are nice, don't get me wrong, but it's the greenery that really soothes my soul. I have a deep terracotta bowl i bought this year that the kalanchoes are still blooming in - it's the only spot i'm devoting to flowers. I was planning to discard the kalanchoes and buy new ones next year but omg it is frelling impossible for me to throw away healthy plants lol. I pulled the orange ones out of my window box to make room for a new bromeliad, and ended up stuffing them into a spare pot and tucking them in with the other succulents. I still don't know what to put in the bowl in the spring, maybe i'll try some moss rose again.

Although I expect my layout is by no means a norm, at least from what I've seen around this area, I think any balcony can still have some microclimates depending on whether one side abuts a tree or is on a corner or has no dividers on one or both sides, or there can even be differences if the balcony has a solid wall-type or open grill or slat style rail. In fact, anyone who has a central air unit on the balcony (there was a poster with this situation and one of my sisters used to live in a place with one - although it was in a closet out on the balcony), would end up with a certain microclimate nearest that unit, which would be different from a spot further away.

With respect to climate - I can bet that everyone can tell a tale of "strange". I know that we often can get the effect of those Bermuda Highs with mid-upper 90s and awful humidity for days and even weeks and then a front comes through with nasty T-storms and tornado threats, and the temperature will immedately drop 20 - 30 degrees within a half hour. I've had my poor lilacs (especially the Miss Kim) fry out there, where her leaves will crisp up and she'll defoliate. This has happened a couple years in a row now (despite watering) and I've considered trying Wilt Pruf on her just for the heck of it, since it is also recommended for situations such as that.

I think with any type of gardening, whether in-ground or above ground, it's a matter of experimenting, trying different things, and in our case, we have the option of more easily moving things around to see what conditions they will do well in. I think once you find a spot the plant likes, then you can go for that repeatability. And that can of course mean bloom color schemes. But I think a general gardening consensus has been to try to establish a nice solid background against which the repeated theme or color can shine. And just as an FYI, I do "repeat" in my 3 windowboxes - I generally like planting them with wax begonias as I have found that they can take all manner of conditions and require little or no intervention on my part other than watering. The one picture that I like posting that I took back in 2001 or so convinced me of which color begonia went well with my hibiscus:

That plus a rebloom of my weigela gave a complimentary color scheme along the rail by late summer.

You might also consider a water garden. That sortof expands the possibilities and the plants in such would automatically be watered! LOL Also consider citrus, jasmines, camellias, azaleas, and plants in the Magnolia family. They should do well in the morning sun and shade the rest of the day where you are, and as evergreens, can form a nice backdrop.

I do have a small water garden with some mangrove propagules (obtained legally!) that are about a year old. They've grown pretty well, but i haven't been able to get anything else to grow with them in the pot, everything i put in dies pretty quick. After they get taller i might try some corkscrew rushes.

I have considered citrus, but i don't like citrus fruit, and they are destroying trees left and right over canker scares. Jasmines, camellias, gardenias and azaleas all require acidic soil and i have not had good luck with them due to the hard water i suppose, but when they replaced the water main at the street the water changed to be much more neutral than it was, i should bust out my aquarium testers and see what i have now. It's time for the oaks to do their big leaf drops now, so maybe if i mulched with oak leaves that might help offset the effects of the water if it still on the hard side? I would love to have some jasmine. Maybe i could train a jasmine to use the balcony railing as a support.

I am considering some sort of a centerpiece tree, i'd really like a lady palm! I see them in all the restaurant interiorscapes and some landscaping projects, but have not found any local sources for them, it's crazy. I'm considering ordering one via the web. Honey will not be happy when he sees the bill, those things are expensive! I'm going to call around to the interiorscape places and see if anyone will sell me one direct. I tried a brug for that purpose, but the poor thing was continually infested with aphids, i couldn't rid of them and it languished all summer before i gave it away, having never seen a single bloom.

The only thing about Wisteria is that you need to be sure to get a variety that is less apt to grow seed pods - apparantly they "pop" when ripe, thowing seeds everywhere - and you'd probably wind up with plants where you and the aparments don't want them :)

Either one of them, you would have to work to keep trimmed into shape though.

Have you connsidered getting some sort of filter on your faucet to filter out most of the bad stuff?

Luxem, I'm in the same boat. I don't think our climate's quite as wild as yours (although the snow this year was really something) but I'm in a shaded north, so the biggest struggle for me is not only to impose some sort of order on my balcony, but to find stuff that'll grow at all! It's survival of the fittest here, and I've had a lot of stuff die (or gave it away to someone with more fitting conditions). It's been a lot of trial and error... I've tried to take advice from the garden books/labels but I've found that some things that allegedly take shade won't take my brand of shade, while a few things that are supposed to want more sun do just fine!!

I've cut back on buying houseplants and have started aiming for more stuff that will stay out on the balcony year round. The tender tropicals that do so well here in summer keel in the winter because I don't have the light or humidity to keep it indoors. Last year I invested in some hardy tassel ferns (polystichum) and varigated algerian ivy for my baskets. I nearly killed them last summer (you're right, small containers stink!) but with a more strict watering regimen they're starting to look really nice now. I've added some white begonia cuttings; they don't bloom as much as they do in the sun but they keep their leaf color and perenialize, I'm hoping to make these baskets semi-permanent.

As I move more of my stragglers to better homes, I'll probably fill in the gaps with annuals because that's the only way I'll probably get any color. I'll probably stick to whites and pastels, as they look good in the shade; there are touches of maroon in the ivy. The fern-ivy-begonia thing is almost a theme in itself. But, like most balcony gardeners, I don't really expect it to be absolute. I've got a blue-and-purple rex begonia that proved a winner, how can I get rid of that??! Also I have learned to stop killing orchids, and they've been a surprising success sinse. I can keep them outside most of the year and bring them in when they bloom.

In the meantime, though, I am trying to cut back buying plants for a while. My balcony is full, and I don't mean Jenny's-gorgeous-wild-profusion full, but half-empty-pots-of-convalescing-plants full. Come September we are almost definitely looking at a move, depending on how the new space shuttle contract is awarded (townhome in Seabrook with big sunny balcony?) or not (transplant to Fort Worth?) In which case by the time I get everything to match, I'll end up in a whole new climate.

But the serious issue is that my balcony is very narrow: measuring from the wall to the railing, slighly less than three feet. On the other hand, it's 26 feet long. It is hard to have any garden "design" when, except at the ends, the plants have to be arranged in a straight row along the rail. Furthermore, I want at least a small sitting area, but there can't be any plants at all in it, because if there were, there would be no place to sit!

The current plan, although I hardly dare call it a plan, entails a basically symmetrical scheme, with a tree or tree-like shrub in a large tub at each end, and window boxes evenly spaced along the rail. Then more window boxes will alternate with round pots on the floor by the rail, with some slight undulation where the seating area interrupts them and, in the position symmetrical to it at the other end, there is trellis netting on the inside wall and the plants along the rail can extend inward a bit more.