Tips to Start a Balcony Flower Garden
1. Three Important Factors
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What kind of plants you would like to have on your balcony depends on three essential factors:
1. The Climate You are Living in – If you live in a tropical climate, you can’t grow flowers suitable for cold temperatures. You have to grow flowers that will do well in warm weather. For example, Hibiscus!
Similarly, you cannot grow flowers suitable for hot temperatures in cold climates. Pick the ones that do well in cold weather like Camelia.
2. The Direction of Your Balcony and its Exposure to the Sun – If you have a south or west-facing balcony, it will receive full sun, which is excellent for almost all flowering plants.
If you have an east-facing balcony, it’ll have partial daylight due to morning exposure to the sun. In that case, you can grow flowers that prefer part sun, like begonias, astilbe, and bleeding-heart.
For a north-facing balcony, plant flowers that tolerate full shade like impatiens, snowdrops, lily of the valley, hydrangea, and hostas.
3. How Much Time You Can Devote – This is another crucial factor you must consider before selecting plants.
If you are a working person, who often doesn’t find a time to stay at home, go for low-maintenance plants, you can even grow flowering succulents.
However, if you work from home or find time to be in-home, you can try growing demanding plants as you will have sufficient time to take care of them.
2. Start Small
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Do not immediately fill up your balcony with so many plants if you have started recently. Give some time. Begin with 3 to 5 plants at a time. Once you have a green thumb, add more, or else you’ll feel overwhelmed.
3. Choose the Right Plants
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In the beginning, buy 2-3 annuals and 2-3 perennials. Perennials that are most suitable for your climate are the first ones you should try. A rose is an all-time favorite though it requires maintenance; consider adding it.
Annuals are pretty easy to grow. Unlike perennials, they live for a short time and bloom prolifically. You can choose them according to the season, start with popular ones, and experiment.
Here are the best flowers you can grow on a balcony
4. Don’t Grow Plants from Seeds (If You’re a Beginner)
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Unusual advice? Well, no! First, growing plants from seeds is not easy – it requires effort and time. Second, plants take time when grown from seeds, and if you have not started the seeds at the right time, they will begin to flower late, maybe at the end of the season.
So for a small space like a balcony, it is better to buy potted plants, especially if you’re a beginner. Once you learn a bit, you can start growing plants from seeds.
5. Grow in Combinations
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Don’t grow different flowering plants separately, especially annuals. To make things interesting, create beautiful combinations! The best way to start is to combine plants with colorful foliage plants and flowering species to add more drama to the space.
Note: Make sure the plants have similar growing requirements when you combine them.
Check out some beautiful plant combinations here
6. Thriller-Spiller-Filler
For a balcony flower garden, make one of the containers that follow the Thriller Spiller Filler concept. Apart from flowers, you can also add succulents, foliage plants, and ornamental grasses with similar growing requirements.
Discover more about the thriller-spiller-filler method here
7. Seasonality
To have a year-round flower garden on the balcony, choose plants that bloom at different times of the year. Buy annuals for every season and remove them once their blooming period ends. Keep perennials that bloom in different seasons.
8. Colors
Do not use more than 3-4 different colors. This way, your balcony will not look too busy, and you will continue to enjoy a rational and airy feel.
You can even select a color palette having tones or shades of the same color or try contrasting colors to create a more beautiful vista.
See our guide on how to choose colors for a garden for help
9. Types of Pots
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Buy containers of different sizes and railing planters and use plant stands to create vertical interest in your balcony flower garden. When selecting containers, prefer not to have them in every other color you can find.
It’s essential to have beautiful pots, but they should always accentuate the beauty of plants.
10. Buy Accessories
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Buy one or two small garden accessories to adorn your balcony flower garden. You can also mulch your plants with pebbles and stones.
Adding a bird feeder or birdhouse to the balcony will invite different birds and butterflies attracted to the flowers.
11. Grow Flowers Vertically
Another balcony flower garden idea you can implement is starting a vertical garden. This will look modern and create more space to grow your favorite flowers. Check out some ideas here for inspiration.
12. Grow Aquatic Flowers and Plants
If you want to make your balcony flower garden more attractive, add a mini container pond. We have a great article on the best aquatic flowers for pots here.
13. Add Fragrant Flowers
If you love scented plants, do not forget to add fragrant flowers like rose, lavender, jasmine, gardenia, and geranium to treat one of your five senses well! For more options, check out the best fragrant plants here.
14. Include Colorful Climbers and Vines
You can also add colorful flowering climbers or vines like star jasmine, bougainvillea, and blue morning glory to your balcony garden for a mild soothing fragrance and vivid colors.
Check out more vines for containers here
15. Grow Native Plants
Native flowering plants are great to include in a balcony garden. They will attract wildlife to your place and are also easy to grow and care for.
16. Use Frost-Proof Containers
If you have planned to leave the planters out in the winter, make sure that you use the frostproof ones to avoid cracking. This will save the plant roots from being trapped in snow and cold.
17. Add Flowering Succulents
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Flowering succulents like Crown of Thorns, Emily Cobweb Houseleek, Flowering Kalanchoe, and Lifesaver Cactus are great options for your balcony garden. Check more varieties here.
18. Add Hanging Baskets
Introducing hanging baskets is something you must do, especially if you live in a studio with a small balcony. These not only save space but also add drama and charm to the overall cheerful vibe.
Source: balconygardenweb.com
