Balcony Garden Extends Interior in Color and Style

Anne Roth of Roger’s Gardens Colorscapes offers the following suggestions for creating balcony gardens:

* Blend the interior with the exterior by harmonizing the colors of containers and flowering plants with what’s indoors. Formal interior furnishings are echoed with using white pots.

* Place the pots where they can be viewed from indoors by clustering them in groups along the railings. Use the same style of pot or planter.

* Plant a foundation plant such as a New Zealand flax (Phormium), liriope or ficus in the center of each container, and surround each with such trailing plants as ivy geranium, lobelia, nasturtiums or alyssum.

Use seasonal annuals such as dwarf cosmos, stocks or pansies for color in smaller pots clustered nearby.

* Include several vining plants such as star jasmine or stephanotis to cascade over the balcony.

* Shady balconies can be highlighted with azaleas, begonias, camellias and ferns.