Balcony Flowers from American Plant

It’s that time of year again. It’s time to fill the balcony window baskets with annual flowers. We have three baskets that are hung from the backs of the chairs that face outward toward the street. They are coco lined and have stayed in fairly good shape for three years. So twice a year we add pansies and violas for winter/Christmas and then again in spring with whatever annual flowers we like. Our last year spikes did not survive the harsh winter so we were in need of finding replacements. The pansies and violas actually did quite well surprisingly, but we needed a few more plants to fill in the blank spaces. So we went to American Plant to see what we could find. The salvia, angelonia and silver dollar were good spike replacements. The bracteantha, gerbera, and dahlia were the flower replacements. Our balcony “garden” is nothing like the many containers, window boxes, and gardens in the Midwest. And even our tiny patio garden on Capitol Hill had a birdbath and significant flowers and bulbs. But my husband likes having a little bit of things and he is the one who keeps the garden watered and cared for. He has a miniature rose that he has nurtured for almost three years. It comes back a few times during the year and is still going. So I got out my gardening gloves and a spoon and scooped out enough dirt so the new flowers could be added after figuring out which space suited each plant the best. It’s not easy to work on a small balcony making sure the dirt doesn’t fly off somewhere and keeping things tidy. But when it’s done it’s always lovely to observe the flowers - especially whenever we sit there and have a chat. It’s hard to believe it’s already spring/summer. The rituals never change.