My Balcony Update

Right side on my balcony

So here is my balcony again for all to see. Of course it has changed since I have taken this picture. I just put out a flat with some sweet potato vine cuttings and the ground is messy again. When I take photos of my balcony is always after I have swept it. I added one plant since taking this photo, the basket plant I had inside.

On this side:
bougainvillea (2), jasmine, evening primrose, torenia, laura bush petunia, abutioin, corkscrew vine, daylily, hyacinth bean vine, stock, coleus, gaillardia, parsley, cocktail vodka begonia, vinca, livewire grass, variegated devils backbone, mexican heather, plumos fern, sunflower (2 both not doing well), winter squash, woolly mint, statice, mt fuji morning glory, phlox, salvia (not doing well), nemesia, bunny tail grass, lobelia, and soapwort


Lower right corner


Upper right corner


Left side

The left side always seems to get all the bad insects and diseases. Right now that side has white flies badly, minor spider mites, and the dianthus was partially rotting for some reason. This side has improved alot since I first started. It used to be the side where nothing would really grow and just didn't look too great. It looks great now in the picture but those darn white flies. I think I had some control over them recently with my daily (sometimes twice) spraying.

Plants here:
Hibiscus, boston fern, maiden hair fern, mint, knotweed, weeping dwarf crape myrtle, jacqueline hillier elm, dragons blood sedum, myrtle spurge, jovibarba hirta, needle point ivy, variegated devils backbone, variegated dracaena, amaryllis, snake plant, purple fountain grass, sweet potato vine, mt fuji morning glories, chenille plant, white pentas, dianthus pinnocchio, campanula blue clips, and balloon flower.


Lower left corner


Upper left corner

Do click on photos to see bigger picture.

My Balcony Update

Creeping Ruellia

Last time I mentioned this plant I accidentally called it Mexican Petunia. I'm sorry for that. My teacher had said it was ruellia and had not specified. I had thought it looked mighty different from all the others. It's a creeping ruellia (Ruellia malacosperma). It has started to bloom out by the front door and is doing great. The Rex Begonia in the same pot is doing very well too. I believe it has started to get new leaves and it's red color has brightened up quite a bit.

The other pot I brought home a while back with purple fountain grass, and sweet potato vines is also doing wonderful. The fountain grass has really started to grow and make the container look better. The sweet potato vines have new leaves growing which means it's getting fuller.


Left side of my Balcony

Now here is what my balcony looks like with new plants and things rearranged. Always moving stuff around out there but I just can't help it. It's become harder to make room for all the plants I get for free, the seeds I buy, and the seeds I receive. It's really depressing because I feel so very limited. It's hard to not be able to buy all the seeds I plants I see and want because I no longer have the space. The days when space was readily available are greatly missed.


Right side of the Balcony

I've been very stressed out lately. Mainly because of school and finals coming up next week. I have been a procrastinator because I just don't want to do any more with these classes. Now I'm down to major crunch time. I'm not a happy person when I don't enough me time to do all that I want to do in the time I want to do it. I never used to be this way but after having a year that I didn't work it changed me. I realized how much time in a day there was to do art. From there I gained more hobbies and interests. I could spend the whole day on the computer, making crafts, taking photos, etc.. and still not get done all I wanted to.

The point of this..nothing really. But I'm also stressed about my plants. I'll be going on vacation soon for a week or two. I'm very worried about their survival. I'll be moving them all inside except for the vines. I'm thinking of doing a wicking system and getting the soil moist to help keep them going while I'm gone. I'll have to ask my friend who lives close by if she will come over maybe once or twice and make sure things are watered. I have wanted to plant more seeds but just can't because they will probably dry out way fast and die. I'm worried about the seeds I do have especially the poppies. They are so easy to kill and I would be sad to see my attempt fail again on them. I have though of getting a drip irrigation but I'm not sure how to hook that up. I don't have an outdoor faucet. Just a the water faucets inside. Does anyone know if they can connect to the water faucets? I wanted to buy a kit then just buy the extra pieces to be able to water all my plants. Anyone with suggests would be great. I know Anna has mentions the bottle method which I will probably do for my larger containers but most of my containers are small like 4" to 8"

Take A Look At My Nook

Right side of my balcony.

Now all you readers I'm sure are dieing to see the big picture. I've been avoiding showing my balcony. I'm not sure why I just don't feel I've made the jungle I envisioned. Like I mentioned before I have many times just stuck plants where there is room in a container. Things look a bit different now. I'm always moving containers around so it never stays the same for too long. Let me show you the right side of my balcony. If you come out of my sliding screen door this will be on the right.

Here you see the big green planter. The green planter right in the middle contains many things and is always changing when things die. Right now it has dianthus tall double flowering mix, grape hyacinths, one hyacinth woodstock, a candytuft, phlox of sheep seedlings, and possibly dusty miller seedlings. Right in front is a tray with little pots most are plastic some are peat. There is the dieing sweet basil, the two dead coleus, and needpoint ivy in peat pots. In plastic pots there are dimorphotheca aurantica african moon, mt fuji morning glories and gaillardia razzle dazzle. In front of that tray is my seed tray that has parsley big mountain, laurentia, and more dimorphotheca aurantica african moon.


Upper right corner to the left of the large green planter.

This is the upper right corner of the balcony. Here to the left and in front of the large green planter in the orange pot is the cocktail vodka begonia. It likes this spot a lot. I had it somewhere else and it wasn't happy. To the left of the begonias in the large container in the corner is the juanita hatten bougainvillea. It doesn't look like much now but hopefully it will come back soon. In front of the bougainvillea are some daylilies..not sure what varieties any more, maybe cold harbor and windsor castle. In front of the daylilies in the black container is the unknown jasmine. I'm not sure if the jasmine would do well somewhere else. I haven't bothered to move the jasmine but maybe I should. To the left of the jasmine is the not fairing well two woodstock hyacinths, the thriving candytuft, and the not so well godetia. If front of that container is the evening primrose. No blooms on the primrose yet but there are many buds. Lastly to the right of the evening primrose container are the newly transplanted grape hyacinths. They were in a glass bowl and just weren't doing well. It was intended for them to be forced inside but I never brought them back in one day.


The bottom right corner of my balcony to the right of the big green planter

Lastly my bottom right corner. Probably the corner I like the most. Things do fairly well here because they get sun but aren't blasted like the upper right corner. Lets start in the back. Right behind the white container and super large container hidden is the corkscrew vine. It's nicely climbing it's way up the railing. Pretty soon I'm going to have to make it go to the left. The white container has stock tudor tapesty and sweet pea bijou mix. To the right of that is the super big container in the corner with many dayliles. Each is a different variety of daylily I'll see which is which when/if they bloom. To the left of those two containers is the flowering pansy. In front of the pansies going left to right is mint, then corkscrew vine, then the minerva amaryllis. The large rectangular container has daylilies and grape hyacinths. To the left of the rectangular container is woodstock hyacinths in the glass vase (shame on me) and devils backbone (someone kindly found out what my mystery plant was). To the right of all of that are 3 little pots. 2 pots have gaillardia razzle dazzle seedlings and 1 has a grape hyacinth. There is another little pot hidden between the pansy and mint that has more grape hyacinths.

That is my right side. It contains the most of my plants. I know it's ugly I should have spared your eye. Nah I like my corner. It's my first spring so next year I'll know what to do better and actually plan. Sorry for all the misspelling and grammar mistakes I'm horrible at my own native language, english.

Ignored Plants On My Balcony

The one surviving Coleus.

I noticed I have been ignoring some plants on my balcony. They don't get their photo taken of very often. When they do get a photo session they don't get posted on the blog. For some reason I feel like I take a lot of photos of some plants but really I don't. This one Coleus is the only survivor out of 3 that I had. One was purple and the other was I think like this one. I left the two outside to deal with the elements but kept this one inside. The other two got a freeze that killed them. This Coleus has been setting out new leaves like crazy lately. I've been pinching back trying to keep it compact and branch out and leaf out more towards the bottom.


The unknown gift plant.

This is the unknown gift plant. I don't take many pictures of it because well it hasn't grown much at all. I'm not sure what it is that makes it not the growing beast I was told it would be. A friend gave this to me and said hers grows like crazy every year. She gave me some cuttings and had no idea what it was called. It turns pink some times but I don't know when or why. I like this plant really I do. It's just camera shy that is all.


A corner of my Balcony never before shown.

I'm sure all that read this blog wonder why I never show my actual balcony and my container massings. Really I just don't like the way my photos come out. I like my photos up close and personal all up in the plants face. And I slacked off after November and stopped sweeping my balcony. Things started to get dirty and pieces of plants everywhere. It's not a very nice site. This is a corner of my balcony, the upper left hand corner if looking out my sliding door. The black container is back in it's corner (bottom left) and no longer there. In the corner is were my dianthus pinnochio mix and dr ruppel clematis are. Then the snapdragon is tucked in between the pot with the dianthus and clematis and the pot that has the campanula, columbine and armeria. Next to that is the tiny pot of over crowded lemon balm that is infested with spider mites. In the black container there is a mystery plant, a snake plant, and the knotweed. Trust me my container mixes are less then spectacular. The black container I just shoved what I could because I didn't want the cuttings and plants to die. I had minimal containers so many things just got stuck in the same home with no care to how they look.

Grape Hyacinths and more...

Grape Hyacinths

Recently I complained that my Grape Hyacinths (muscari armeniacum) had no signs of flowers yet just foliage. Well yesterday while inspecting seedlings up close and personal I saw the signs! Quite a few of my Grape Hyacinths have the flower scape peaking up out of the center of their foliage. I purchased these in November or December maybe even Jaunuar I really don't remember. I got them on sale at lowes. Purchase them to force inside but had so many that I planted tons in any free space in my pots that I had. So I have tons of grape hyacinths to enjoy. The photo above are grape hyacinths I planted for forcing inside but put outside to receive more light. I never realized my apartment didn't receive that much light until these started yellow at the ends.

Muscari armeniacum (Grape Hyacinth)
fragrant
4-8 inches tall
deep cobalt blooms
flowers in mid spring
attracts bees
Great for indoor forcing, borders, cut flowers, rockgardens, beds, borders, and under shrubs and trees.

There are different varieties of Muscari armeniacum. There are the muscari armeniacum which is cobalt blue also the one normally called Grape Hyacinth. Album is white, Blue Spike has double florets and is flax blue, Cantab is sky blue with a slightly larger bloom, and Fantasy Creations double flowers with blue blooms that gain green with maturity. These are all fragrant.

There are over 30 different species of Muscari.


Today I have an interview/meeting to more then likely get started doing merchandising for a large wholesale nursery. Well the merchandising is at home depots I believe and lowes and those other stores. This is only for the spring. After the spring in May I'll start an internship and that I'm more than positive is a sure thing.

After my meeting when my husband gets home we'll be going to the Home and Garden show at the Alamodome. I'll be bringing my camera in hopes of great things to photograph.

Hyacinth Woodstock

Hyacinth Woodstock

My hyacinth woodstock looks like it should be blooming soon. I orginally bought these to force indoors. The container I had didn't fit all the bulbs so half went outside. I planted 3 inside and 3 outside. The other one outside is in another container and is not as large as these. The ones inside are outside right now getting some sun.


Photo from www.dutchgardens.com


Woodstock Hyacinth is a fragrant hyacinth with burgundy purple blooms. Some vary from a deeper wine purple red to a light reddish purple. They grow 8-12" high and can be grown in sun to partial shade. This hyacinth would be great for forcing indoors with the wonderful fragrance. I can't wait to smell it when mine bloom. The Woodstock Hyacinth is also good for containers and borders. They are deer and rabbit resistant. Their blooms last 3-4 weeks in mid spring.

Green Thumb Sunday

Seedlings of either phlox or dusty miller

I planted some seeds of Phlox "Phlox of Sheep" and Dusty Miller a week back. There are little seedlings popping up now. Not sure if it is the phlox or the dusty miller. I'm assuming the phlox for now because I think dusty miller is hard to grow from seeds. I could be wrong.

When I planted the seeds I had already put some grape hyacinths in the same planter. I thought by now the grape hyacinths would be blooming but they are taking their sweet time. I have a glass container where I put some grape hyacinths and they are much larger then the ones outside. I wonder if the depth that I planted them has made that difference. I'm hoping the combination will be okay with the grape hyacinths for now. If not it was a learning experience.




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