Try Plectranthus for the shade. It's a South African native and is an annual here. Mine, on a terrace in NYC grew to two and a half feet tall, from 14" terracotta pots and was full of flowers...I know it sounds boring but try impatiens for shade too - they grow fast and make lost of flowers...maybe hot pink, or from pale to medium to hot pink in a large cluster.

Sun - so much will be great. Try some grasses: Miscanthus gets big, fast. Nice and wild/prairie-looking. Helichrysum is a pale grey-leafed annual here that grows very fast into a sprawling silver mass, with everlasting-type flowers. If you can stand it, get some roses...visit a nursery - one or tow are worth the money, even for a year. It will be a year to remember!

Hi Marie
Many thanks for your ideas, I will look them up in my Thompson & Morgan catalogue, it's the English edition but they will be in there. I am familiar with Helichrysum and impatiens, though I haven't grown them. Don't know Plentranthus, it sounds lovely!
I see on your page that you like using fresh herbs from outside, I intend to grow mediterranean herbs on the sunny deck, I wonder though if much would grow in my shady area? I was thinking perhaps parsley might be ok, and chives maybe . . . . I suppose zucchini would need the sunny area, but their leaves are SO big and are pretty bristly. What do you think?
Claire

Claire - the zucchini should do fine. You want to consider how to support it as it'll put out real long vines and grow like crazy. For the shade if you are interested in herbs, anything in the mint family should do well.

Hi Jenny
Mint family for the shady area, that sounds good. They will be nice and fragrant as well as lovely to use. Zucchini, I have grown them before but in sunny areas, do you think they would grow ok in a shady spot?

I was just looking at the pictures of your balcony, WOW! That is just fantastic! And fruit and all sorts, you really have it like a proper garden. One thing I am curious about though, how did you get photos on to your page? I can't seem to work that out at all!

Claire

Claire - the need for sun is more for the leaves than the flowers as zucchini and other squash seem to create huge leaves - but then those leaves inturn shade the flowers and growing squash underneath them. You can try it and see though. The whole idea of planting what is often-called "The 3 Sisters" (corn, beans, squash) has the squash growing all around the base of corn plants and the corn would end up shading the area a bit. I think it depends on what you define as "shady". If the area gets no sun at all, it might be difficult, although if the spot stays bright it helps. Even a few hours of direct sun or the ability of the vine to grow towards a sunnier spot will help. If the squash is a bush kind, then it may need to be positioned more towards the sun and perhaps grow up a tee pee structure (you can make one with 3 poles tied together at the top and inserted into the pot).

With respect to my pictures - Spike (the webmaster here) allows HTML code in the area of the member page where you can describe something about yourself, so you can actually enter the image code that will display pictures in with the text. I know a bunch of GW people have elaborate member's pages with background images, etc. LOL

You need to have a place that will host your photo (eg., Photobucket) and then that site will usually give you the exact code needed to cut and paste and place on a website like GW so that the image will show up. Hope that helps some.

Hi Claire!

For your climbing riot of colour in the sunny area: Sweet pea, runner bean, hyacinth bean, passiflora, mina lobata (which I think is called firecracker vine, please correct me), Cypress vine, Black eyed Susan vine and Cardinal climber vine. -Plus of course nasturtium and morning glory as you mentioned yourself.
As for when the last frost hits you, and you can start planting... Ask a local experienced gardener, or in the local garden center, they'll know. -Here it's May, but again it changes from area to area.

VGtar

Ah Jenny, I see, I wondered what that html thingy meant! Than-you!

I think I will give zucchini and or squash a go on my "shady" deck, I have been looking at the passage of the sun and I reckon it might not be as shady as I thought, come high summer. So there might be a good chance. I don't fancy those things up on the sunny deck, because it's a smaller area and we will want to be doing a certain amount of lounging about without hacking through the undergrowth of veg leaves!

Jesper you have some nice choices of climbers there on your list, thank-you. I have been looking at sweet pea varieties, runner beans that's a good idea! Look nice and edible too! I shall have to look up hyacinth bean, I haven't heard of that, or Cardinal climber vine. Food for thought, excellent.

Claire.

Claire - the hyacinth bean vine looks like this (I grow it on a trellis that was extended with some bamboo poles and string):

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And it eventually produces purple pods (or pink or even white depending on which cultivar you get):

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I was considering trying cardinal climber myself this year as I'm going to try to attract some hummingbirds up here. One little hummer found the honeysuckle on my balcony last August and now I'm hooked! LOL

Nice pics Jenny, the vine looks really nice. And so does your view! (if the pics are taken at your home). How lovely to see all the trees. Hummingbird - 18 floors up? In Pennsylvania? I am amazed! I had no idea you had hummingbirds in this part of the world, how lovely!

Honeysuckles are fabulous aren't they? I have a nice one in my garden in Ireland, it didn't do too well the first year but the second year it really took off, and also took really well from cuttings, so I have a few babies around the garden now too! I can't remember the cultivar now, but it's pale white and yellow, and particularly fragrant.

Thanks for the putting up the photos, I am very interested in getting to do the same so am going to look into your explanation!

Cheers
Claire

'ello again!

Just stumbled over a thread on the container gardening forum with ideas for plants in shade.

By the way, you can also eat the pods of the hyacinth bean vine, while they are still quite small (I've never tasted them myself, but I've read that they should be really nice). -I remember my grandfather tried to grow one in the living room once. It grew and grew, but no flowers. By the time it had taken over the whole window, my grandmother got so tired of looking at it, that she threw it on the kitchen dump. Two weeks later, they had the prettiest dump I've ever seen.

Here is a link that might be useful: About a shady front porch??

It's funny you should say about eating the hyacinth bean vine, I thought it looked quite like a runner bean . . . though to be able to survive on the dump it must also be quite hardy!!!

I went to the shady front porch link, interesting. Thank you for thinking of me! I am going to paste all these interesting responses into a document so that I can refer to it later, I am getting a lot of ideas! I have had a north facing situation for house plants before, in a big victorian house with large sash windows and no central heating, fantastic for house plants like ivies and ferns . . . . never had the same situation for proper outdoor plants - especially never in the Boston climate! Interesting!!!

I have been given, this evening, a bunch of daffodils. What a lovely breath of the outdoors. I wonder where they may have been grown. They will be flowering right now in my garden in Ireland. Oh!!! I wish I could see them now!!! Oh well, all things change. I was there last year; I should be jjust gratefulthat I have the chance for a different outlook - ie being in America instead of Ireland for a year.

Thanks agian for that link
Claire. (sorry for spelling, 11pm, I have had some wine . . . )

Claire - Yes, we have hummingbirds around here although this was the first time in my life living in this area that I actually saw one in person. I think they are mostly Ruby throated hummers. The more amazing thing is that I never ever expected one to fly up here, although I do get bees up here who pollinate my blueberries so it wasn't entirely out of the question. In any case, I had secretly hoped that I could actually attract something other than pidgeons. heh

It's ironic but the first time I actually saw a hummingbird up close was 20 years ago in Colorado. I had always heard they were around here, but living in the city (although I'm right on the suburban border), I never saw one. I saw this one buzzing around one of my weigelas that was reblooming on a branch that was hanging over the rail (a "Red Prince" weigela). It was small and brown-colored but the beak was unmistakable. I know the weigelas are supposed to be a known attractant, but I was surprised that it flew all the way the heck up here to spot those flowers. Guess it was a beacon in a sea of concrete! LOL Especially given the time of year that it stopped by - which is around when they start to migrate. I always loved weigelas since I grew up with one, which is why I have 2 plants now.

Interestingly enough, last spring I finally broke down and bought the Goldflame honeysuckle. I loved the flowers and made sure I sniffed first to make sure it had a scent and then I put it in a container on the balcony and had it climb a trellis that I had along a concrete column against the wall. The vine eventually grew to the ceiling and started hanging down and it was flowering with each new bit of vine growth. It eventually produced some side shoots with flowers on them that were dangling in mid air about 6ft (2 m) up. And later that week, I happened to step out on the balcony and saw the hummer buzzing around one of the dangling honeysuckle flowers. Of course once again, I froze like a deer in headlights! LOL By the time I thought to get the camera, it had flown off.

That did it for me! I actually had a thread about it on this forum here.

Yeah, I have a great view up here (part of what makes me stay), plus the balcony is fairly large so I can put a bunch of things out there.

That sounds really amazing, yes I reckon your balcony must be an oasis amongst all the concrete of the building.

But, that what gardening is all about eh? Bees pollinating your fruit bushes, I know bees will travel several miles for nectar, but vertically too - that's pretty determined!!

Actually, carrying on your bird theme, I was inspired to look through some of my photos taken in my Irish garden. I have a set of pics of a bullfinch eating forget-me-not seeds. He sat there long enough and tamely enough for me to get my camera and take about 20 pictures, though it was only through the window so the angle wasn't ideal! But it was lovely to capture the moment (well, 2o-odd times, digital cameras can have a downside!). I had a lot of birds in my garden in Ireland, though none of them were very rare of remarkable. In fact the bullfinch was one of the better ones. But there were also hawks at times, which was thrilling at times. I love to watch the birds, and has hoping to see some here but havfen't seen much so far, only pigeons starlings seagulls and sparrows. Oh well, perhaps some other birds will come out in the spring! Of course I can't really put any food out, what with squirrels around the place. I've never had to deal with them before (lucky me!) and everything I've read about other peoples problems is looming large in my mind. In my Irish garden I was troubled with hares, and they were a real pain, but at least not as nimble as squirrels!

Claire, I don't know how hardy it is. -If I knew my grand dad right, he would have been out on that heap watering every day and making sure the root ball was covered. He loved his plants to bits, but in a way that didn't make him much of a gardener. For instance he refused to cut his roses, because he was sure they could feel pain. LOL! -He was an exentric man with a big heart!!

Jenny, how many plants did you have in that pot? -I've bought some hyacinth bean seeds in the botanical gardens, and on the packet it says I should sow 3-4 together in a pot, somehow I think that sounds like a lot. As I remember (it's about 20 years ago I've seen one) they branch out quite nicely. I was thinking maybe two plants for a 2- 2.5 gallon pot. -What do you think?

Jesper I love the picture you conjure up of your grand dad watering his thrown away plant on the compost heap! It's funny, though, how sometimes something will grow fine on a heap . . . and also I have had lots of occasions where seeds from vegetable scraps have stayed viable until the compost gets put on the garden 2 years later!!! (still, it shows how not very hot my heap was most of the time!). Tomatoes were the best culprit for that, it was brilliant to see them spring up in other parts of the garden. But that's one of the nice things about gardening in Ireland - although it's very wet, it also is very mild and surprising things self seed. Lobelia is one thing that has self seeded in various parts of my garden, and it's a delight to see!

I too would be interested in how many Hyacinth Bean plants Jenny would grown in one pot.

Gosh - sorry I missed the rest of this thread! LOL

I think I started 6 seeds, with 3 per 6" pot. I then transplanted into a 2ft long by 1ft wide trough and ran the vine up a wooden trellis in that trough and extended the trellis with the bamboo poles and some string. I'm going to do some more this year, along with Cardinal Climbers and Scarlet Runner beans. Yes I am trying to attract hummingbirds. LOL

Well hello again Jenny! Your post has reminded me of the hyacinth beans, I must have a look for seeds. I have so far bought the grand total of ONE packed of seeds! Nasturtiums; now that the weather seems to have perked up a bit I am going to make a start on some garden purchasing though, and will see what kind of containers I can pick up. Hopefully some garage sales will give me a few bargains!

Cheers
Claire