When the first rays of sunshine break through the clouds, every hobby gardener who is lucky enough to have a balcony wants to plant the first flowers. But this is where caution is advised.
The 5 most common mistakes when planting on a balcony
In March, April and even early May, there can still be ground frost at night. Then even the most beautiful balcony flowers have no chance of saving themselves from the frost. Balcony plants that have been exposed to frost once cannot be saved. Wait to plant your balcony plants until the Ice Saints on May 16th are over, because then ground frost is usually no longer to be expected.
Before you start planting on your balcony, first clean the flower boxes of soil and dirt from the previous year. This can be done easily with a hand brush, water or a wire brush. If the flowers are very dirty, you can also mix water with vinegar or citric acid. If you clean the balcony boxes properly, you will avoid infecting the new plants with any pests and diseases.
Planting correctly requires learning
If you want to have flowers that bloom in their splendor for a long time, then you should follow a few rules when planting. Don't just plant the flowers in the potting soil.
Now that the flower boxes are clean, fill the bottom area with a layer of expanded clay. This acts as a protective layer that prevents the water from accumulating. The expanded clay also stores water on warmer days, thus providing the plants with enough moisture. Then place a separating fleece over the expanded clay. The fleece prevents the potting soil from getting into the lower drainage layer. If you now mix a long-term fertilizer or a layer of horn shavings into the potting soil, you have done everything you need for a long flowering period for your balcony plants.
Now carefully remove the plants from the plastic pot. Before you put the plant in the balcony box, loosen the root ball. You can do this with your fingers or, if the plant is growing more strongly, with scissors. This ensures that the plants can take root better. Press the plants firmly into the soil and fill with potting soil. You should leave about 2 cm free up to the edge of the flower box so that the water cannot overflow.
Water correctly
There are also a few things that can go wrong when watering. Flowers in the garden have a larger water supply than flowers in flower boxes. Flowers in the sun need more water than those in the shade.
Care tips for balcony plants
Every hobby gardener wants to enjoy their balcony plants for a long time. Here are the best care tips for balcony plants.
If you added fertilizer to the balcony plants when you planted them, you've done everything right. But that doesn't mean that you no longer have to worry about caring for and fertilizing the plants. If you don't use long-term fertilizer, you should give the balcony plants new fertilizer after a few weeks. The fertilizer provides the flowers with a phosphate component and thus promotes the formation of flowers.
How do you recognize good potting soil?
You can tell that potting soil is good for your plants because it easily runs through your fingers. Cheap potting soil contains a lot of peat and bark or has a high salt content. This can affect the growth of the plants and make the flowers more susceptible to disease. It would be ideal to enrich the potting soil with compost, polystyrene flakes and flower fertilizer to optimize the oxygen content of the soil.
What to do about mold in flower boxes?
Although you take good care of your flowers and regularly fertilize and water them, a white coating has formed on the potting soil? This mold is harmful to the flowers and should be removed. The mold may have been caused by too much moisture.
To remove the mold, you should completely dispose of the potting soil and fill the flower box with fresh soil. But don't forget to clean the flower box thoroughly, otherwise your work will have been in vain. Water your balcony flowers sparingly but more often. This way you can prevent waterlogging and mold from forming in the first place.
Remove dead flowers
To ensure that your flowers stay beautiful for a long time, you should follow a few care tips for balcony plants. Dead flowers should be snipped off regularly. This will allow the plants to form new buds more quickly.
Water correctly
Balcony plants that are on a sunny south-facing balcony need more water than balconies that face north. When choosing plants, you should also pay attention to whether the flowers prefer the sunny or shady side. Balcony plants such as succulents or echeverias can survive dry periods better than geraniums, for example, thanks to their thick, fleshy leaves.
Sun protection is also very pleasant for balcony plants.
If you are thinking about putting a palm tree on your balcony, then choose a date or phoenix palm. Other palm trees require high humidity, which is not necessarily available on the balcony.
Plants thrive with lots of care and love. Don't forget to fertilize regularly and of course water them. If you follow these tips, you will enjoy your balcony plants for a long time.
Planting balcony plants correctly
Anyone who can call a balcony their own will consider themselves lucky, and not just in summer. Even if your fingers are tingling at the first rays of sunshine and you want to plant things on the balcony, you should really wait until the Ice Saints are over. That is mid-May. Then the risk of the delicate balcony plants being damaged by night frost is very low. Geraniums, daisies and begonias are particularly popular balcony plants, but they are also particularly sensitive to frost.
You should also consider which flowers are best to plant. Does your balcony face south or north? Which balcony plants love the sun or prefer the shade? Do you have enough balcony boxes available? How many plants do you actually need to make your balcony look beautiful? Once you have answered these questions, you can start planting your balcony.
Cleaning flower boxes and pots
If you want to use last year's flower boxes or flower pots, you should give the containers a thorough cleaning. This will ensure that any pests are eliminated. To do this, you can use a wire brush to remove stubborn encrustations.
Planting balcony plants correctly
Balcony plants should not just be planted in any potting soil. Take a little more time to make sure your plants are eye-catching. Start with expanded clay, which is filled into the bottom layer of the flower boxes. This prevents waterlogging. The clay stores water and passes the moisture on to the flowers even on warmer days. Place a layer of separating fleece over the expanded clay so that the potting soil cannot bond with the clay. If you want to do everything right, then mix potting soil with a slow-release fertilizer.
Now generously fill the balcony boxes with potting soil.
Carefully remove the delicate flower plants from the plastic pots. Hold the plants by the bottom if possible and press the plastic pot together in different places with your other hand so that the root ball can be released. On most plants you will find roots that you can easily separate with your fingers or scissors. The roots must be separated so that the plant can spread again.
Now place the flower plants in the designated spot and carefully press the root ball into place. Now fill with soil, leaving about 2 cm free to the edge of the flower boxes. This will prevent any overflow when watering.
Which plant thrives on which balcony?
When choosing plants, you should definitely pay attention to whether you have a sunny or shady balcony. You will find the right balcony flower for every balcony in stores.
Plants for the sunny balcony
Geraniums, petunias, daisies, marigolds and of course many others thrive wonderfully on the south side. You can also contrast flowering flowers with coleus. All plants on the south side of the balcony need a lot of water. Balcony boxes with built-in water reservoirs are therefore particularly interesting. Always water your plants in the morning or evening. The plants can absorb the water particularly well in the early morning hours.
If you want to give your balcony a Mediterranean flair, you can also plant bougainvillea or oleander. These plants love the sun and thrive.
Plants for east and west balconies
If you have a balcony that faces east or west, you can consider yourself lucky. With a balanced ratio of sun and shade, plants can thrive wonderfully. All plants grow on east and west balconies and develop their wonderful flowers.
An important aspect when planting on a balcony is the wind. How often do you see broken flowers and uprooted plants? Offer your plants a shelter from the wind so that they are protected. But you can also do without hanging varieties such as hanging geraniums and hanging petunias.
Plants for north-facing balconies
Even if you have a north-facing balcony, you can still plant flowers. When planting a shady balcony, you should buy plants that are rather undemanding and easy to care for. But there are also many different flowers for these balconies. Busy Lizzie, marigolds, fuchsia, hydrangea, begonia, bellflower and others.
You can also enrich the plants with box trees. Small trees create a beautiful contrast to the colorful and flowering plants.
Flowers that grow on a north-facing balcony need much less water than plants on other balconies. To check whether a plant needs water, press your finger into the soil. If the soil is still moist, the flowers do not need water.
When watering the plants, you should make sure that there is no waterlogging. The water does not evaporate so quickly, especially on a north-facing balcony. For most plants, plucking off the wilted flowers promotes growth and flowering splendor. Especially for plants on north-facing balconies, you should pluck off the wilted flowers as soon as possible, because they have a harder time developing their splendor anyway.
Tips for balcony plants
By mid-May at the latest, when the Ice Saints are over, most hobby gardeners will no longer be able to hold back. The farmer's rule says that when the Ice Saints are over, there will be no more night frost and the tender buds will not freeze. The ever-popular begonia and geraniums in particular are very sensitive to night frost.
Before you start planting your balcony boxes, you should find out which side of your balcony is on. Because whether you have a sunny or shady balcony determines the choice of flowers.
Every year, when the time comes, hobby gardeners want to plant particularly beautiful flowers and make the balcony box even more beautiful than the year before. It is no problem to design a balcony box in a particularly imaginative way. There is a large selection of plants for every balcony. Make sure that the flowers are closed and the stems are not bent. If possible, avoid long-stemmed flowers. They can quickly be bent by the wind.
If you want to harvest something as well as flowers, then try growing tomatoes. Ask a gardener which tomatoes are best suited to which balcony orientation.
If you prefer delicate tones in pastel colors, then choose, for example, magic bells, which are particularly wind and rain resistant. The magic bells can be combined with white plants. Hanging petunias with small and medium-sized flowers are particularly hardy. You can use licorice herb as a border for the flower box.
Perhaps you would prefer to plant everything in the same color this year. Choose a fast-growing fairy bell with Japanese sedge. With cute fairy mirrors and hanging petunias you can create an attractive balcony box.
For north-facing balconies you can also choose Lizzies, as they are hardworking, continuous bloomers. Fuchsias also feel comfortable in the shade. You can place hanging fuchsias in the front area of the flower box and combine them with a spotted coleus.
A beautiful balcony with flowering plants needs to be looked after. The more plants you have, the more work you inevitably have. That's why you should think carefully about which flowers and how many flowers you want to plant. Balcony plants need to be watered regularly and the wilted flowers need to be removed. And don't forget to fertilize regularly. You may also need to fill the flower boxes with potting soil or even repot them.
Also think about vacation care. Especially during the summer, plants need water and care.
Every year the selection of flowers and plants becomes larger. This makes choosing the right ones more difficult. But every year the balcony box is more beautiful than the year before.
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