Window boxes filled with attractive flowering plants are a classic way to decorate the exterior of buildings. Their popularity continues today, with the colourful blooms providing curb appeal to hotels, restaurants, pavement railings and ground floor windowsills. Its always preferable to install an automatic irrigation system to ensure regular watering.
The possibilities are endless when designing window box displays. With careful planning, these containers can provide non-stop floral interest through all four seasons, Spring Summer, Autumn and Winter. The key is selecting appropriate plants and flowers that thrive in each season, spring summer autumn and winter. For example, Violas are ideal choices for winter window boxes. As spring arrives, these cool weather favourites’ can be replaced with bright, colourful options like Primula, Hellebores and Tete a Tete. Then, for summer planting like Geraniums and Petunia’s colour through the hottest months. Finally, for the winter period cool weather annuals like brassica, pansies and cyclamen can take centre stage.
By considering sunlight exposure, blooming times and growing requirements, stunning window boxes evolve with the seasons. This brief guide will explore popular plant options and design ideas to help plan eye-catching displays. Window boxes can provide year-round curb appeal and décor.
Here are some of the popular options for spring window box planting:
Hellebores – Hellebores are typically woodland edge plants. They thrive in rich, moisture-retentive soil but struggle in boggy and wet conditions. Most will tolerate full sun to almost full shade. They lend themselves to naturalistic schemes and informal plantings and are perfect partners for early flowering spring bulbs, pulmonarias and evergreen ferns. The colours of their sepals are multifarious, from the softest woodpigeon grey to pale apricot or damson, and from leaf green to the deepest black or pure white. They can be striped or spotted, picoted or plain, double or anemone-centred or simply single. Almost all of them have evolved methods of successful procreation.
Pansies – These colourful flowers bloom early and can withstand light frosts. They come in a wide variety of colours and patterns.
Violas – Smaller cousins of pansies, violas also tolerate cold weather very well. They bloom profusely in spring window boxes.
Primrose – Early spring bloomers, primrose add bright pops of colour in shades of pink, purple, yellow or white.
Tete a Tete – This is a fantastic sunshine yellow dwarf daffodil variety that has RHS award of garden merit. It produces abundant flowers, as they are multi headed. These plants are easy to grow and excellent for all bright situations, even those that are too exposed for other taller spring bulbs.