Flowers for the Window Box

A home with window boxes full of beautiful flowers looks quaint and charming. However, growing flowers in a window box entails more than merely installing a window box and placing flowers inside. If you choose the wrong flowers, they won't thrive and then you'll wind up with a flower box full of dead plants.

Growing flowers in a window box is merely container gardening. Apartment dwellers often grow vegetables in buckets or boxes on their patios with great success because the container is large enough to provide optimal growth. By the same token, home owners place a container—a window box—on the side of their house under a window in which to grow flowers, but they choose flowers that will thrive within the small container, with the proper amount of sunlight.

Factors to consider when growing flowers in a window box are the amount of sunlight the window box receives, the window box size, and access for maintenance. Follow these guidelines when choosing and planting flowers in a window box:

• Determine the direction of the sun as it is relative to your home. Will your window boxes receive full sun? Partial shade? Partial sun? How long will the sun shine on the window box each day? The answer to those questions determines the types of flowers to plant in your window boxes.
• Visit your local nursery or home improvement store and purchase pre-fabricated window boxes. Most window box kits come with all of the hardware you will need to hang the window box.
• Determine what plants will grow best in a window box by discussing with helpful staff at your nursery your needs. Or, research online or in your library the plants that will grow best in containers and window boxes.
• Once you've purchased your window boxes, install them according to the directions on the kit, and then plant your flowers. Measure the window box and conclude how many plants to place inside, depending upon how much room they require to thrive.
• Use quality potting soil and plant to a depth of at least six inches.
• Make sure that you have access to the window box through a window so that you can weed and water the plants as necessary.

Keep in mind that window boxes are truly seasonal decorations, so do not plant flowers from seed. Purchase already-established plants, and then replant them inside of the window box.