Plants for Sunny and Dry Windowbox - Ideas?

dogstarheaven

Am trying out a new idea that'll help cut down on watering my windowbox and hanging basket and thought of using alpines like sedums, sempervivums etc., Can anyone recommend any for me? In previous years, I've always had geraniums, osterspermums, lobelia etc., but they took too much of my time watering and lugging watering cans back n' forth from the kitchen to the front of the house seems far too time-consuming (i do it 6 times for the back garden!).

PS would like to buy these by mail-order, so if anyone can recommend a nursery, please let me know...

thanks!

peter_the_piper

Can't help with the plants at mo but to find suppliers use the RHS plantfinder. http://apps.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/

chrisaj

Geraniums, salvias and mesembryanthamums all do well in sunny dry conditions.

mazinmouse

Mediterranean herbs also do well and re the watering - I have in the past added water retaining crystals to smaller pots and troughs to enhance the water retention if I was using compost only. In larger pots I use a mix of soil and compost as this holds water better and dried compost is not that easy to re-wet. Is your window box plastic or terracotta? I line all my terracotta pots with plastic (use old compost bags cut up) as this helps stop the terracotta wicking the moisture out. A layer of gravel on the surface also helps reduce water loss - but can add to the weight!

meant to add, agree that Mesembryanthamum plants are excellent and they come in a great range of colours.

dogstarheaven

the plastic windowbox is roughly 120cm x 40cm x 40cm. it's got water retaining gel crystals, multi-purpose compost and grit in it. also, i do mulch it with a layer of grit on top too. this applies to the rest of the pots and baskets i have. yesterday, i took out my daffs and planted them up in a out of the way spot in the back garden (along with the others) and in it's place, i have a couple of small viola plants, a small houseleek and a small prostrate rosemary that i bought recently. i've looked online but can't find a mail-order nursery with a cheap enough delivery charge (they all seem to charge at least a tenner for minimum order!).

i do have some californian poppy seeds that i haven't grown before and am thinking of buying love-in-a-mist seeds too, but am unsure as to whether i'd get a decent flowering season out of them or whether they're quick to germinate as well. this is the alternative to not getting the alpine type plants that i wanted originally (i don't have a car, so i can't visit these nurseries in person). whereas geraniums, lobelia, osteospermums et al do flower all summer long...

savemoney

Plants that have thick rubbery leaves tend to be ones that thrive in dry sunny conditions

If its just want to cut down on watering you can get stuff (gel) you put in spoil that absorbs water then releases it over time

Farway

dogstarheaven wrote: »

Am trying out a new idea that'll help cut down on watering my windowbox and hanging basket and thought of using alpines like sedums, sempervivums etc.,

If you do go for these, vine weevils love them in pots, so do use a suitable drench vine weevil grub killer, or like me your lovely sempervivums will be dead ones

dogstarheaven

oh faraway, i'm an organic gardener..i'll have to find a way to prevent this... anyone to help?

dogstarheaven

this morning i've planted up an armeria, saxifraga x 2 and sedum x 2, plus sown some california poppies and transplanted some self-sown borage plants in the windowbox, then an inch of grit on top. watered and fed with comfrey liquid, and hopefully these will provide a nice display this summer.

what do you lot think?

i'm also keen to attract wildlife in this too as there's not much around in this sparsely green area of inner-city nott'm where i live. btw, the box faces West, so it'll have the afternoon sun for quite a long time...

heynonnynonny

That sounds lovely, I love saxifraga especially, although one or 2 of mine have died off put a picture on if poss.

dogstarheaven

not sure how to post a link to my jpeg.. i've put in the address of the photo doc, but still nothing come's up.. help anyone??