Advice needed for a hardy patio plant...

[Hrochnick]

Hello,

I?m hoping you can help me find the perfect plant to place on my patio, I tried doing a bit of searching online but I'm getting a bit lost under all the detail and I have some specific requirements:

I want it to sit in the corner of the patio so it?s a semi sheltered position (not completely wind or rain free). The corner is bordered on two sides by large patio doors/windows and is south facing so it gets full sun. I would like something that is roughly 1m wide and about the same tall, maybe a touch taller. I want to be able to leave it there throughout the year, spring to winter, but I live in the Czech Republic where summer temperatures can get up to 35 degrees c and winter temperatures down to minus 15 or so?. Some flowering would be nice but not completely necessary.

Any ideas? is there anything at all that would fit the bill? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

[Candy]

How about a Castor Oil plant? :-)

Hrochnick;837274 Wrote:

[Hrochnick]

"TOXICITY RATING: High. Death is likely with consumption of even small amount of castorbean. "

Trying to kill me? I should have mentioned that I have two small children under 3 running around too...

So thanks, but no thanks. Looks nice though.

[Laura at theGardenPages]

How about a nice Jade Plant, or some of the other succulent plants out there? They take full sun and don't mind if you forget to water them.

I like geraniums too. They flower a lot and also like full sun and hot patios.

Good luck Laura

-------------- Zone 9 So. California

[gardengal]

Here, they sell such things as "patio trees" - these are typically hardy, often flowering shrubs that are trained as or grafted to a standard or 'tree-form'. Lilacs, physocarpus (ninebark), hydrangeas, flowering currants are examples and there are numerous others. Dwarf flowering crabapples are often used in this manner as well. If it were not a full sun location and with the potential for reflected heat from the patio doors as well, a dwarf Japanese maple would work as well.

Wanting to reach your height specifications plus be hardy enough to remain outdoors in winter (will this be planted in a container or in the ground?) pretty much limits your choices to small trees or shrubs. You need to look at something hardy to at least USDA zone 7, ideally a zone or two lower.

[Hrochnick]

Thanks Laura, the Jade Plant certainly looks nice but wiki tells me that they "will tolerate a limited degree of frost but overexposure to cold weather will kill them." So that's out. Geraniums look promising though, will have to investigate the hardiness factor a bit more.

thanks,

[Hrochnick]

It will be in a container. The corner just looks so bare right now, I need to put something there and with it having glass on two sides I don't want to/can't have any kind of furniture. Plant choices are obviously limited hence my question (especially since my knowledge of such things is lower than low).

Thanks for your ideas, I like the look of the Dwarf Japaneser maple but will investigate them all.