More winter plants!

After the success of the winter annuals we bought in November, we were looking for more plants. We went with an open mind to buy anything that looked nice. And we picked up quite a haul!

The first one was Salvia. I've seen them growing in public places (which is generally a criteria for me to NOT buy them for our garden), but they look lovely. So we picked up two plants.

Salvia

Another interesting purchase were Stocks. Incidentally, this flower is part of a Hercule Poirot murder short story! Anyway, the flowers have a delicate smell and came in multiple colours. We picked up white and purple.

Stocks

One of my favourite flower is Carnation. We saw these pretty variety of Carnation at the nursery, which smell like cloves. 

Carnation

Our next purchase was Ranunculus. I've seen this beautiful flower in many gardening magazines and always wanted to own one. These grow from tubers and will come back again next winter. They will flower through spring. Lets wait and see what they are like!

Ranunculus

Our final purchase were African Daisy! We had them in three colours in Australia and they flowered beautifully from spring to autumn. I'm looking forward to them putting on a show here too.

African Daisy

Winter flowers and fruits

We've always had very few seasonal flowers. Our past focus was on perennials that flowered, so that we didn't have to keep putting in and digging out plants at the turn of the season. With a balcony garden, this is much easier to do. So we decided to get some winter annuals. We're hoping that they brighten up the dreary winter!

Our regular nursery doesn't stock many flowers, he's also a perennial type of person I guess! But the nursery next to his had lots of flowers. We picked up Petunia, Calendula and Chrysanthemum.

Calendula

Petunia

Chrysanthemum

We also got a Strawberry plant. In Melbourne, we were losing all of them to the Possums. Hopefully no one steals them here! 

Strawberry

While we got these plants, we also re-did our vertical garden. We planted seeds of Coriander, Methi, Spinach, Kale and Chives. Except for the Chives, all of the others have started to grow nicely.

Adding new plants

After settling our balcony layout, we were keen to add more plants. 

We had a huge box of seeds that are definitely expired by now! Even so, we sowed them in seed trays to see if something would germinate. My MIL would look at it closely every morning when drinking her tea and would give us the report of the germination. So far the germination rate is 0% 😂 So we have decided to get new plants.

This nursery trip was for the functional plants. We wanted to get plants to screen our balcony from our neighbour's (they will move in a few months). We also wanted some plants for the pot next to the grass patch, to shield it from view. 

Our first purchase were 3 plants of Bamboo. We've never owned bamboo before (unless you count the Chinese bamboo that people have gifted us), but we know about the plant. It is a vigorous grower and is best contained in pots. Its also great for windy locations as it does not break. Ours look a bit straggely, but we hope they will grow out soon.

We also picked up a few plants of Marigold to underplant with the Bamboo.

Bamboo

Bamboo with Marigolds

Next up were the screening plants for the pot near the grass patch. We wanted Tecoma, but the nursery did not have any. They did have an unusual burgundy coloured plant, whose leaves and flowers were both burgundy. Turns out it is a plant called Cranberry Hibiscus. Its very tall and was growing quite wildly in the nursery. We decided to pick those up for our balcony.

Cranberry Hibiscus

Cranberry Hibiscus plants

We planted Marigolds under the Cranberry Hibiscus as well. The last few times we have planted Marigold (in Ahmedabad and Melbourne), they have not lasted beyond the first flush of flowers. They always seem to wither from the bottom up and slowly die. Lets see whether these survive.

Marigold