Hello, I am new to this forum. I am looking for advise on how to make my balcony (4ft X 8ft) more attractive by way of using flowering plans. I do not have much experience with plants but would love to learn more about gardening. My balcony gets the morning sun only and I stay on the 17th floor in Bangalore (INDIA). The idea of attaching a rectangular box plant holder does sound interesting to me but I really don't know what kind of plants can i put in. Can you please help me? Regards Pooja - An aspiring gardener
Hi, your first concern is going to be wind - I don't know how much or how strong it is there, but on the 17th floor is likely to be substantial, and it will dry out your plants very quickly unless you're growing cacti or something. If there's a way you can help to windproof it (well-attached slats of garden lattice or something - not sure what's available to you there) it might help. Spraying the plants with a hand held bottle a couple of times daily won't help, but if you have access to one of those small garden hoses (you can buy skinny ones here that have a good spray feature) that attach to the kitchen sink, using it a few times a day might help, though you could run into trouble with overwatering the soil of the plants. Or surrounding your pots with other pots full of water, all of which seem to be bothersome. I'd really talk to local garden centers or nurseries, and anyone else you know who's in a similar situation because your plant choices and options for taking care of them will be different from what we use/do here in N. America. Hope you can figure it out!
Thanks Rima for your thoughts. You are right, I do get a lot of wind in my balcony. Normally I water my plants (I have a small variety of palm & 2 button roses plants) once in the morning and I spray them with a spray bottle once in the evening. Its just that i have not been able to find a suitable flowering plant that could make my balcony more colourful and give it a cheerful look. If you do come across any please do let me know. Thanks a lot once again for your valuable advise, it sure helpful. Regards Pooja
There are succulents that 'flower' (those red/yellow papery looking things all over some cacti you see (huge Euphorbia family, for instance) that can withstand the wind, etc., but you'll have to check around locally for what's available.
