Trailing plants for a windowbox

21 years ago

Hi!

I am new to gardening and this is my first visit to this forum. I seem to have been bitten by the gardening bug and have been living in the Balcony and Container Gardening forums trying to learn all I can. I have a west facing balcony, and am anxiously waiting for last frost so I can start planting. Initially I was just going to grow herbs and some vegetables, but I have decided to try flowers too. I want to use a self watering windowbox from Gardeners Supply. I was going to use it for lettuce but I couldnt get my act together, and now it is March and I should have planted my seeds in Jan. So I decided to plant some flowers now and wait til fall for the lettuce.

What I am interested in are easy, fragrant trailing flowers. I want something that can smell while sitting on the patio, that will trail over the balcony railing. Not something night blooming since I dont spend much time out there once it gets dark. Mostly I sit out on weekend mornings and early evening.

I am kind of funny about scents though. The perfumes I prefer are floral and heady. Dont much care for citrusy, spicy, candy type scents or vanilla. I like the smell of jasmine (I think), and I walked by a sweet olive tree at the nursery not too long ago, and really liked that fragrance. I seem to remember liking the smell of honeysuckle as a child. I walked around Home Depot this weekend looking and smelling flowers but didnt find much. There were some that had a nice fragrance but they were all upright types. I like roses but am definitely not ready to tackle those.

I would appreciate any suggestions and advice. I want something annual and fast growing if possible, since the windowbox has a date with lettuce in the fall. Also, any tips and recommendations for using self waterers would be greatly appreciated. Especially a good soil mix. I am trying to mix my own, but I cant seem to find any specific information about those. The Earthbox website gives a recommendation for mixing it yourself, which is 45% each sphaghnum and compost, and 10% perlite. But that seems heavy to me.

I can use all the help I can get!

Thanks,

Lydia

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Comments (4)

risingpower1
21 years ago
I can't really name many trailing plants that are fragrant, only one which comes to mind that's trailing isn't fragrant(i.e lobelia).

If you wanted some suggestions for non-trailing plants but which are very controllable/low growing, you could have an osmanthus fragrans(apricot scent), one of the sambacs(possibly maid of orleans), lonicera purpusii or fragrantissima.

I would also recommend berlandyra lyrata (wrong spelling?) or cosmos atrosanguineus, they're both very low growing and have a chocolate/hot chocolate scent.

If you like the smell of jasmine, I could also recommend a mandevilla laxa being grown around some kind of frame it can climb, but it does tend to be very quick to grow and is best left to take over a certain area.

Just realised if it's kept fairly warm it may be possible to grow quisqualis indica which is known as the rangoon creeper, and grows very quickly with a stephanotis like scent.

I'd recommend hoyas also but they tend to have a bubblegum like scent, and like shady conditions generally. Might be worth a look though.
babette11
21 years ago
Lydia
I have here is San Antonio passionflower Incense. It has a nice fragrance and is not too invasive, easy to keep under control. If you come by I will give you a plant!
Lucy
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jimshy
21 years ago
Good small, scented trailers:

jasmines, including "fake" jasmines like trachelospermum, solanum and gelsemium;
petunias -- some old-fashioned varieties are quite fragrant
alyssium
night scented stocks
datura (more sprawling than trailing, but big flowers and scent)
mirabilis (4 o'clocks)
dianthus (carnations)
oenothera (evening primrose -- some are Texas natives)
phlox (the low-growing kind)
scented pelargoniums (geraniums) -- they love the heat!
zaluzanskya (if you can find it, easy from seed)

and don't forget herbs like lavender, sages, prostrate rosemary, mints, etc.

Most of these need at least partial sun -- which direction do the windows face?

I'd stay away from woody plants like osmanthus and loniceras; they'll take too long to get started and then you'll have to dig 'em up to make room for your greens ;-)

Some fragrant annual vines you might like are moonflowers, hyacinth beans, nasturtiums and vigna caracalla.

Check out the seed selections in your local garden centers and ask around for what grows well in your climate -- no point in planting sweet peas if they're going to whither away by May!

Check out the FAQ for more options.

Jim
katwomn59
Original Author
21 years ago
Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. Being new at this, I am not familiar with a lot of the botanical names but I have been looking them up like crazy! RisingPower1, the osmanthus fragrans turns out to be the sweet olive I encountered in the nursery! I want to get one, but I decided to wait a bit on the bigger things. I have a bay tree in a 15 gal pot and I might not have room for another big plant. But I love the scent!

Lucy, thanks for the kind offer, and I may have to make a trip down to SA to take you up on it! I would like to set up a wide planter with a trellis for shade and privacy (my balcony is just above the level of the parking lot) and I was thinking about some kind of clematis. I read that they like their roots in shade and I figure my balcony would work well. The first 2' of the balcony wall is solid, then the rest is railing, so that should provide good shade for the roots. But I thought I better wait til next season for something like that to get some experience under my belt. I am a total beginner, and even though I have learned a lot on this forum, I thought I better start small and start with easy stuff.

Jim, as a matter of fact, I have been wanting to try petunias, and as it turns out, someone on this website posted a link to Flower Scent Gardens. I checked out the site and lo and behold! they have fragrant petunias! So I ordered some! I saw lots of petunias at local garden centers, but none of them had any scent. So that is what is gonna go in my self watering windowbox. If it works out well, I may get another one.

There is a garden festival coming up the first week in April and I intend to be there with my nose wide open, sniffing away to get some ideas for what I want to try next season!

Thanks again everybody!

Lydia