Plants and windy weather

[WriteforFun1]

hello all
possibly getting a bit precious about this... I bought some plants for the balcony, as many helpful MNers will know!

I'm debating whether I need to buy some sort of covering for the lower half of the balcony. I live on a high ish floor so plants that would be okay on the ground are exposed to wind power that's got nothing in it's way so to speak.

So far I've just thought I was being silly, but having rescued the bougainvillea (bought as a tiny young plant) I can see a few leaves have broken off. The others I'm worried about are a climbing rose, choisia, and rhododendron. It is relatively cheap to buy a balcony awning thing but is it necessary? I would try and only put it up in weather like today's storms. Not sure if I am being precious but looking at how wildly the shrubs are waving themselves about, I'm not sure.

btw as an aside, the blue leadwort hasn't grown a milimetre since I bought it but I gather it's a plant that grows very slowly at first?

thanks for your thoughts folks.

Wind can scorch the leaves as well as damage shoots. I'd put up some protection.

Thanks JT!

I often see balconies with that split cane roll fencing around the lowest foot or so. I guess it must be in place permanently, but that would filter the wind and let fresh air still circulate.

That's interesting traviata...this morning I was looking at it and thinking that actually if I only cover the balcony railing to the floor, so to speak, the exposed area will still cause issues....so a bit unsure at the mo.

A bit of wind rock helps some plants to put down stronger roots (there is quite a fierce debate about whether and how to stake some kinds of trees because of this). A lot, however, can start to do damage - and I'm guessing that a balcony is going to be really quite exposed. A small amount of protection can go a surprising way to alleviating this, though! Maybe plexiglass panels around the base or even a topiary hedge of something tough? I have a wind tunnel down the side of my house, and a simple photinia is enough to break it sufficiently so that the howling gales of the northern wastes do less damage

You can get around it by planting things that can tolerate wind and dryness (because where air moves, water evaporates) - seaside plants that like free-draining soil will do well I would think. And using larger pots made of things that aren't porous to water, i.e. not terracotta, might help!