Ideas for Window Boxes?

I have a West/South facing bay window on my London flat and I've just bought three slate grey window boxes for it (one large, two small). I don't suppose anyone can recommend any plants for full sun for these? (In summer it gets a lot of sun, although one of the smaller boxes will be next to a wall with more shade).

At the moment I am thinking of dwarf lavender combined with some low trailing white flowering plants. But I worry that the lavender will look straggly quite quickly. I also like the idea of something a bit more contemporary, with some spikier ever green plants, or even some large daisies to get a nice bed of greenery with some flowers higher above the leaves. I think I prefer simple and smart, with either one or two types of plant.

What's everyone else doing this year? I'd love to see some photos for inspiration

 

Lavender is a good option, but go for french lavender over the English type, which is more compact in growth and shouldn't look scraggly as quickly as English would do.

How about growing some Thyme in one? These are evergreen, loves dry well drained soil, is compact and does produce flowers (which are either white or light pink I can never remember). You can use it in your cooking too.

 

How about some of the more unusual varieties of trailing Fuchsias? I've bought tons of them this year, some of which will be going into wall mounted troughs. They love full sun. If you want something unusual you can even get 'black' ones, nearly white ones, marbled ones and giant ones.

Quite cheap to buy the plug plants as well and midsummer you'll have a stunning display.

Have a look here for some inspiration.

 

How big are these window boxes?

For many years I grew conventional things - Petunias, trailing Loellbia, Fuchsias, Geraniums ... and then decided to try some other things. I still grow Bulbs in them for the Spring, and I have some topiary Box "round the back" that I put in them for the winter, but for the Summer I've been growing some more varied things like Coleus, Canary Date Palm and some shrubs [until they get too big!] like Albizia "Summer Chocolate" and grasses like Pennisetum setaceum.

Begonia 'Santa Cruz Sunset' is pretty spectacular too - see http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/your-new-plant-find-of-2013.54250/page-2#post-728190

My tubs:



Albizia “Summer Chocolate”, Phoenix canariensis , the golden Choisya ternata (forgotten the variety, might be “Sundance”), some White Begonias and Geraniums , some Coleus that I grew both from seed and the more fancy ones from cuttings, and some Ipomoea (“Black Tone” and “Sweet Caroline Green”) at the front.

 

Hello Jack - I've planted up some trailing begonia (purchased from Wilkinsons) - they are £1.50 for 3 corms - for colour and some night scented stock for perfume.

 

Lots of inspiration here, thank you everyone!

JungleJane & Merleworld - thank you for the suggestions on Lavender, Thyme and Fuchsias, I will definitely consider these. I hadn't thought about thyme but that's a great idea. Fuchsias I do love but I worry that sometimes they look a little too showy, so I'd have to choose a variety that are a little leafier with flowers more spread out. I personally love them though, especially some of the new paler varieties.

Kristen - wow! Those tubs look stunning! I love the variety of leaves, colours and plants you have there. My window boxes are fairly large, especially the main one, though not particularly deep. I wouldn't be able to recreate exactly what you have there but I could certainly imagine some of it. My mind is whirring now.

Clanless - thank you, I shall investigate further!

I think I'm either going to go with a more delicate and drier 'pale plant and flower' combo with the likes of thyme and lavender, or for a 'lush and leafy' combo with plants like fuchsia and attempting to recreate something like Kristen's tubs! :D

 

Hi Jack

I lived in London for quite a while , my boss from work lived in Kensington and had 3 window boxes for her bay window , it had permanently growing variegated ivy (white and green) what she would do for each of the seasons would have pots that she could put in and take out and replace, she even had mini Christmas trees with white lights on over the Christmas period.

Always looked good even with just the ivy , she kept it simple either red geraniums or white in the summer .

Spruce

 

Ooh, I like that idea a lot for easy maintenance throughout the seasons. Thank you very much Spruce!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

very similar to this but she was OCD with it looking more tidy

 

Not the greatest photo but I thought I'd share an update. I went with brachyscombe blue for starters and will add / change later. The flowers have just started popping with loads more to come.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Looks fab. Heatwave on the way according to the weather people - so keep on top of the watering

 

Will do, thanks for the heads up. I gave them a good soak this evening to get the ball rolling!