We live just north of Toronto Ontario.
Our home faces north and our plan is to place a hanging basket on either side of the garage (north side of the house; some morning sun) just under the eve of the roof (about 8 feet off the ground). We want as much colour as possible and we want it to cascade as the summer goes on. Each year we have trouble finding such a combination ie colour, shade, cascading. Can you suggest?
Try impatiens. Technically a perennial, you can treat it as an annual. Many do quite well in the shade but tolerate sun. It's fast growing and will quickly cascade and hide the basket in which it is growing.
"David E. Ross" advised:
What about petunias? They'll bloom as long as you keep feeding, watering, and pinching off the spent blooms. There are many varieties made for hanging baskets, and if you bring them indoors in the fall, they'll continue to bloom. I've done it, but have to admit, that after a while they get to be too leggy and not nearly so nice, so then I throw them out to freeze and die.
~~ Shelly ~~
Thanks for the reply David. I do know that impatiens does well in shade (which for sure is our situation) but no variety that we know of is a "cascader" so as to cover the basket.
HI Shelly,
We would for sure use petunias and there are even ones that require minimal pinching but facing north under the eve provides less sun than I may have led you to believe in my initial post. Keep trying ;).
I use hanging basket begonias which bloom beautifully all summer long. It might be too late to start them now, or maybe not if you care to try them. Also, the tubers have to be lifted in the fall to save for next year. Do not hang them in strong, direct sun as the leaves will scald. Morning sun should be fine.
"David E. Ross" wrote in news:TOCdnQvVz7weLdvbnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@iswest.net:
Impatiens are DEFINITELY an annual north of Toronto. First frost: mush.
creeping jenny for the cascading part. bright yellow flowers over yellow leaves. plant something else to flower in the middle.
21Rouge wrote:
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How about million bells (the Latin escapes me at the moment)?
Or a mix, add a sweet potato vine to the mix with impatiens.
Cheryl
The only one I can think of is impatiens, if the shade isn't complete or they can get bright reflected light from a nearby white wall. Many porches are too dark for flowering plants. Ferns would be a better choice for the north side of a house.
Petunias need sun or part sun. They don't grow in the shade.
Perhaps consider something with variegated foliage. I've seen potato vine with pink-on-green leaves I think!
Carl
There are indeed several varieties of impatiens that will grow long, floppy stems suitable for cascading out of a hanging basket. My neighbor next door had a hanging basket of impatiens where the plant completely hid the basket. With occasional trimming, this looked great for several years until the Great Freeze of '07 this past January. In your climate it definitely would be an annual.
If you have at least three hours of morning sun I'd try fuchsias.
Browallia is a plant that doesn't seem to need lots of sun (I just tried to find more about it in google, it said it can be a hanging plant in a shaded garden)
I think they are sometimes called "bluebells".
I remember years ago my mother had one hanging on her porch (enclosed porch with screens) and it got huge over summer. Bushy and hanging over the sides. She brought it in the house when the weather got cold and put it on the kitchen table under the ceiling light. If I remember right it bloomed most of the winter.
You can easily make cuttings from it, too, and start new ones, maybe to add to the hanging one and make it thicker.
I used to get them early in pots (not expensive) at a greenhouse, but now I don't live where I can get to one, and haven't had them in years. I would buy them in pots, and when they started to grow bigger, make cuttings, stick the cuttings in pots of dirt and soon have more plants. I liked them as inside plants, like like on the windowsill over the sink (which faces north) They didn't grow as big and bushy as outside but were pretty like that.
I have seen them for sale fully grown in hanging baskets, but buying them that way for me (on a limited/fixed income) they are very expensive.
I was looking for groups that write, or have written about solar heat (I've been thinking a long time about looking into making my big old falling apart (south facing) porch, into a passive solar heated greenhouse- which would also bring warm air into the house when the sun is out)
Of course, as I said I'm on a limited/fixed income (Social Security) and not sure of the cost and if I could (a woman) do some of it myself, even a little at a time.
Just now I decided I can at least look into it and find out more about it.
And saw the plant question. Now I want a browalia (LOL)
Oh, another thought I just had, not sure where you live, but it might not be too late to plant now, is put strings up and down along the side of the garage and plant morning glories, which would climb UP instead of something hanging.
Not sure if "some morning sun" would be enough. But it would be color (at least in the morning)
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