American Plant Balcony Baskets

It was about time to finally get some flowers for our balcony baskets! When we lived in the Midwest we wouldn’t even think about it until at least Memorial Day. We just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. So yesterday we took a ride to American Plant in search of the best annuals we could find. We are rather limited because we only have three coco lined window baskets that we hang from the back of the patio furniture. The ivy and liriope didn’t survive this year so we would also need to find greenery replacements. The place was rather busy as we made our way up and down the isles. I used to love planting in our several gardens in the Midwest - especially the pots on the patio and the window boxes. I do go about it quite methodically - each one usually has a tall item like the spike, a flowing trailing item like the ivy, a larger bloomed flower like gerbera daisy or geranium, and then a few different smaller decorative items like pansies or marigolds. My husband is more in tune to the color. He actually thought a purple flower would be nice in memory of my mom. That was her favorite color. Then he always likes yellow and red and always white - “gentle colors.” For whatever reason I was having a hard time coordinating the flowers. Before planting this year I removed all of the dirt because the coco liners were leaking too much last year and the plastic needed to be replaced. It was more work than I thought and was quite a messy situation. It’s hard to plant on a balcony! You have to be aware of not only your space but your neighbor’s as well. In the end it looks good but I probably needed to put in more fresh dirt which I didn’t have. There are a couple of bald spots that could do with a filler. Hopefully the plants will all do well and grow nicely. Whenever we sit on the balcony it just adds a bit of life to a sterile environment. Flowers are just so pretty.