Window boxes are not just for summer

Having spent lots of years and endless money on plants to add seasonal window boxes, to dress the front of the house, I finally decided enough is enough and went about creating the perfect window box that would require, minimum maintenance yet give all year round seasonal interest, and give relief from the task of having to re-plant window boxes every season and every year. The tinybloomingplaces signature window box was born.

The base plant for the box consists of a winter hardy, trailing evergreen, yellow flowering sedum with wonderful glossy green leaves that grow and spill over the planter. the sedums perform all year flowering prolifically from early spring through to summer.

Sedum: Yellow flowers in spring, all year round green glossy leaves

The glossy leaf sedum forms a lovely backdrop to the next arrival, the yellow narcissi, which will pop through in February and stay through to early spring.

Narcissi: early spring colour, flowering every year

These are closely followed by the purple hyacinths for late spring.

Muscari: or grape hyacinth, spring flowering every year

Next there is the arrival of a deep red geranium coupled with purple lavender and this lets me know we are truly into summer.

Geranium and Lavender: the perfect summer couple, flowering year upon year

Once the summer flowers fade some pretty white cyclamen are ready to take their place, centre stage, and bloom from autumn right through to early spring. The Cyclamen with their white flowers and silvery green leaf make a lovely winter scene, set against the remaining silver leaf of the lavender (this remains all year after the purple scented flowers have gone) and the green glossy leaves of the sedum (that remain throughout the year). They have a long flowering period and are perfect for keeping the momentum going until the arrival of the narcissi again in Spring.

Cyclamen, flowering from autumn into winter

The combination also looks great in larger containers and planters that can be added to the front garden to give joy and keep flower and plant interest going all year round. The choice of colour can also be changed to suit individual taste. The container has been developed specifically to be tolerant to dry periods and not droop on a hot summer day, give all year round interest and repeat flower year upon year.

All of these plants and bulbs are put in together in one box or planter to give an effortless, low maintenance all year round display.

And then there were …….. ten thousand

“I wondered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er dales and hills when all at once I saw a crowd a host of golden daffodils, beside the lakes beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze,  ten thousand saw I at a glance tossing their heads in sprightly dance”  william wordsworth

Every year they arrive so quickly almost like a fairy has waved a magic wand over night and they never fail to evoke a feeling of excitement and put a spring in my step.  For most they herald the arrival of spring – it’s probably their abudance and ubiquitousness that create this excitement as the crocus and snowdrops that have gone before don’t seem to create the same kind of buzz for most  (although for me they have already provided  days of endless gazing pleasure)

If your garden is lacking in spring colour – now is your chance to get started.  Buy some ready planted containers or some ready grown bulbs and plant up your own containers, window boxes or hanging baskets.  Things like narcissus and muscari always look good planted together in pretty teracotta pots or  harmonize some paper whites and white primrose in a hanging basket.  When they have finished blooming, let the plants die back to bulbs (the primroses can be planted straight into the garden to lighten up a shady spot) and think about where you would like to put your bulbs next autumn so you will have spring flowers popping up year on year. For best effect plant in clumps of threes  (space the clumps out as they multiply!

Early spring bloomers – narcissi, muscari and primroses.

paperwhites

Narcissi and muscari

White Muscari