help design my basket!

[earth]

hi,
I bought 3 lovely planters today which I plan to hang from my balcony. This is the first time I plan to grow flower basket & have been spending few $$$ lately preparing for spring/summer. My husband said" u better make our home look beautiful this time " I have no experience with these baskets. Pls help me decide what to plant in them so that my balcony on 3rd floor looks lovely from road. Also let me know the soil type required - I am confused between Potting soil & potting mix. I live in zone 9 - north california: temperature daytime in January will be 55'F and nite: 40's while in summers (june-july) it touches 90's.
The planters will get sun only after noon 1:00 pm.
thanks


[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2709/4242787676_76ee996181_m.jpg[/img]


[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2797/4242789868_33e8f8fae5_m.jpg[/img]


[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2697/4242789208_0d47eb4d90_m.jpg[/img]

[rainbowgardener]

Wow! Had to do a little looking for this one. Northwest facing with direct sun in the hot afternoons and shade in the AM's, is a tough exposure. Not enough hours of sun for a lot of the full sun plants, but too much hot afternoon sun for a lot of the part shade plants. And then I'm not as familiar with zone 9 plants. But here's some suggestions to get you started:

Fortnight lily is tender perennial, but hardy for you, evergreen foliage and beautiful fragrant iris like flowers.

Australian fuschia, (correa) another tender perennial hardy in zone 9, spreading and trailing, beautiful flowers, attractive to hummingbirds, blooms through the winter. (Why don't I live in zone 9, I want one!)

Dwarf daylilies, come in lots of brilliant colors and some of them have long blooming periods.

Gazania another zone 9 hardy tender perennial, comes in lots of brilliant reds, oranges, pinks, variegated flowers, blooms repeatedly, 6-12" high, attractive to bees and butterflies.

Nasturtiums, showy flowers in a range of brilliant reds and oranges, bushy trailing habit, will drape over the edges of your containers. Also hardy in zone 9.

Then you can fill in with some annuals which need to be started over every year, but have the advantage of keeping on blooming all season. For your afternoon sun location moss roses (lots of brilliant flowers in a rainbow of colors) and salvia (hummingbird attracter, lots of reds, pinks, purples) would be good choices. The moss roses are more spreading and trailing and the salvia more upright. You want to plan your container to have some of both habits. Oh and pelargoniums, the common geraniums (but not the true hardy geranium). Pelargonium is another tender perennial, but I think only hardy to zone 10. You can bring it in for the winter or take cuttings for next year. The ivy-leaf geranium is a nice one for baskets, trailing/draping.

I imagine other gardeners will weigh in with more suggestions ... Have fun!

[earth]

wow! thank for your reply, I am planning to order Gazania seeds - I googled for pictures after reading your post & simply fell in love with Gazania

I was thinking about petunia...last june-july I have seen many selling at Lowes but was not sure if they will suit the sun condition in my patio. Also, the lady who lives below my apartment had lovely million bells hanging basket - it bloomed all through till Oct...after that there r no flowers but the basket is still full & green. Do million bell & petunia behave similar?

thanks!

[cynthia_h]

The very best place to find locale-specific advice is at a locally-owned, independent garden-supply store. The big-box places have staff who can sell widgets, but plants aren't widgets; they're forms of life with specific requirements, and big-box store staff don't have that training. Small, locally owned shop staff, by and large, do.

I don't know where you are in northern California (which, technically, runs from the Ventura/Los Angeles County line to the state border with Oregon), but it's a pretty large place....

USDA Zone 9 is one way of looking at the gardening conditions here, but Sunset's Western Garden Book has broken it down pretty fine, and the Sunset climate zones are quite specific in their applicability. I'm in Sunset Zone 17, for example, but I work in my MIL's yard/garden in Palo Alto, which is in Zone 15. I can grow hot-weather plants in her yard; in mine, I can't. Out in the Valley, Sunset Zone 14, there are CSA farms growing many different varieties of tomatoes. We're all USDA Zone 9, but very little advice aimed at that "zone" would help me.

Sunset's Zone 17 advice, OTOH, does help me. A lot. Not 100%, of course, because of some oddities about my particular house and lot, but loads more than thinking of myself as USDA Zone 9.

Maybe you can leaf through a Sunset Western Garden Book at that locally owned garden-supply, or at your local public library, and get even more ideas for your flower baskets? There are lists of plants, with photographs, in the front of Sunset, for many special growing situations; maybe one or more of these lists will work for you.

Best wishes, and happy gardening!

Cynthia
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[earth]

@ cynthia_h... thanks, I checked my sunset zone...I am in zone 14 (Sacramento) ..I will try to look for some local nursery - but am worried abt the odd sunlight hours I get at my patio

[earth]

how will "lobelia" fit in Sacramento...can I grow it now- I read about it and it says that it does not like too much heat....hope I am not late for it. Below is picture of "lobelia" I would love to grow.

[img]https://www.wintergreenhouse.com/images/photo-gallery/combination-plantings/ivy-geraniums-big.jpg[/img]

[rainbowgardener]

Very nice! Those are the geranium/ pelargonium I mentioned and I didn't think about the lobelia, but it's a good choice, for an annual.

I think a mix of a perennial or two plus some annuals is nice in baskets, because the annuals do just keep pumping out the color like that.

The lobelia should be fine as long as you aren't going to have any freezes. Definitely not too late for it, possibly too early if it's going to get really cold yet, but it does like cool weather. Its one of those tolerates part shade or full sun, adaptable plants that should do well with your sun exposure. It likes to stay moist, so especially in a hanging basket (which dries out fast) it will need a lot of water.

[earth]

YAYY!! thanks rainbow gardner...I fell in love with this basket picture - dnt know if mine will be as beautiful... Also could u tell me a place where I can buy seeds from... I checked Lowes & they dnt have much yet. I read people buy online...will that fall cheaper as I will not be buying too many .. I have a very small patio to decorate How r the seeds at ebay- there r few Top rated sellers selling these for 0.99 + 2.50 shipping ..around $3.50 for 50 seeds packet.

[cynthia_h]

Again, that locally owned garden-supply store will have seeds year-round, given that you're in Sunset Zone 14. No shipping + handling charges to consider. Smaller carbon footprint: no airplane just for your order; no truck just for your order.

One or two packets, if the baskets are truly the gardening space you have, will keep you in succession planting for quite a while!

Re. lobelia, Sunset says:

"L. erinus. Annual. All [Sunset] zones....Lives over winter in mild climates. In mild-winter, hot summer regions, grow it as a winter-to-spring annual. If started from seed sown in pots, takes about 2 months to reach planting-out size. Give rich soil, regular water....Can take full sun in cooler climates; needs some shade in warmer regions."

Sunset Zone 14 is def. a mild-winter, hot summer region, so for this year, it may be better to use transplants vs. seed-sown plants, then start seeds for next year's display perhaps in late September or in October, whenever the weather starts to change, next fall.

Lobelia is a very dramatic-looking plant; a little goes a long way!

Cynthia

[earth]

yes cynthia_h: maybe I have missed lobelia this year I just loved it. Where did u get this Sunset magzine details....its wonderful. I searched a lot online to get this info but couldn't!

[cynthia_h]

Sunset's Western Garden Book has broken it down pretty fine, and the Sunset climate zones are quite specific in their applicability. I'm in Sunset Zone 17, for example, but I work in my MIL's yard/garden in Palo Alto, which is in Zone 15. I can grow hot-weather plants in her yard; in mine, I can't. Out in the Valley, Sunset Zone 14, there are CSA farms growing many different varieties of tomatoes. We're all USDA Zone 9, but very little advice aimed at that "zone" would help me.

Sunset's Zone 17 advice, OTOH, does help me. A lot. Not 100%, of course, because of some oddities about my particular house and lot, but loads more than thinking of myself as USDA Zone 9.

Maybe you can leaf through a Sunset Western Garden Book at that locally owned garden-supply, or at your local public library, and get even more ideas for your flower baskets? There are lists of plants, with photographs, in the front of Sunset, for many special growing situations; maybe one or more of these lists will work for you.

Sunset's info is mostly in their book. There is some info online, but the book is the main event.

Cynthia

[earth]

Sunset's info is mostly in their book. There is some info online, but the book is the main event.

Cynthia

thanks I will look for this book then.... I have subscribed to Sunset magzine (just 2 months back) and it doesnt have enough on gardening.

[cynthia_h]

I agree; the magazine (I read past copies at MIL's house when I do her yard/garden work) has just enough "gardening" info to frustrate the living daylights out of the reader.

The Western Garden Book, on the other hand, has been my constant companion since it first saved my buns in the garden in the early '80s when I took up gardening in the weird state of California's Bay Area seasons. I had tried to garden in Atlanta while I was in college; at least Atlanta had four recognizable seasons: dogwood, HOT, beautiful/cool, and slush. Those, I understood.

I had gone to high school in Tampa but was too busy to learn much about gardening. However, DDad assigned me the task of cutting off all the runners in his beloved Bermuda grass lawn. They were year-round.... he had some veggies growing in the back yard, too, but they never seemed to make it into our kitchen, and I was truly sooo overscheduled, even in those times, that the back yard seemed very far away. Besides, there was all that Bermuda grass. Yuck.

So Sunset saved me, explained micro-climates, northern California seasons (well, the seasons in the mountains are pretty self-explanatory; they're like Cheyenne and Denver), the clay soil, etc.

And each time I thought I might purchase a $$$ copy of Sunset magazine for an up-to-date gardening article, I looked through it at the grocery store and gave up b/c there was just nothing in the magazine; it was all in the book.

Or the Sunset book on Weeds and Insects (maybe it's called Garden Problem Solver?)....You can get the Western Garden Book, 7th ed. (2001) on line for very little $ now that the 8th ed. is out. The 7th is easier to read, as far as I'm, concerned, and I'm waiting until the 9th before I purchase a new one. I hope they figure out the readability thing by then.

Cynthia

[earth]

thank! that was detailed info.... I will buy the book! I dnt think I should wait for 9th addition as the spring is near and I know nothing about gardening thanks again