With the return of the warm weather, the desire to put flowers on your balcony is growing. Here are a few tips to create a harmonious and long-lasting planter that will keep you happy all season long!
Choosing plants
Faced with the abundant stalls of garden centers or nurseries, it is sometimes difficult to decide.
To make sure you don't make a mistake, find out the needs of the plants you want and check that they are well suited to the exposure of your balcony.
To create a composition, don't forget that the plants you choose must have roughly the same cultural needs to be grown in the same planter. So, avoid mixing plants that appreciate shade and a humid substrate with cacti for example, the result might be aesthetically pleasing but your planter would not last very long!
Colors and shapes
Always try to create harmonious compositions by using plants whose shapes and colors match, for this, consult the color wheel to get inspiration. You can also link flowering plants with ornamental foliage such as Dichondra 'Silver Falls' with its drooping habit and soft silver color that will soften a combination of red petunias and yellow coreopsis for example.
For a full sun exposure, the combination of white verbena forming a round cousin of flowers and a 'Black Tone' ipomea with dark purple drooping foliage will also be a good idea. You can also combine petunias and surfinias because there are many varieties, with single or double flowers and in all colors. This way, you can create a composition full of pep in red, yellow or orange shades, or a romantic garden in pinks and blues.
In the shade, think of drooping fuchsias and blue lobelias, which always make an impact when combined. The latter, in white, will go perfectly with purple or bright red New Guinea impatiens. Think of coleus, with their ever-surprising foliage, sometimes tricolored, and which give height to the background of the decor. Also include Indian mint in your compositions for its long cascades of fragrant leaves. Begonias also appreciate half-shaded exposures, just like the bacopas with which they can be associated. Thus a very double pink begonia 'Pendula' will do wonderfully with a bacopa with a soft lilac tint, add a white lobelia for its vaporous structure and you're done!
Choosing a container
Choose a nice size planter if you want to create an abundant composition. If the container is too small, the root system will gradually colonize the substrate, which will dry out too quickly and will be much less fertile. The plants will not be able to develop properly. It is therefore better to plan large!
The substrate
Choose a substrate adapted to the plants you want to grow. For flowering plants, choose a good potting soil containing slow-release fertilizer balls, which will nourish them as needed. However, do not forget to add fertilizer regularly after one month of cultivation, because nutrients are quickly depleted in pots.
