Can I do anything with window box plants?

[rickyrickygrimes]

Late summer / autumn I planted up a couple of window boxes with a mix of flowering / foliage plants. Some of them are clearly past their best, others seem to be going strong, and I’m wondering what to do with them next. We are in mid/ south of France, so temps in winter tend to be cold and dry (5 degrees today) but only a few days a year under zero. I live in an old style apartment with deep windowsills/ railings. Front of the building is full sun and very hot in summer. Rear is shaded but gets a little direct sun in autumn. we also have a very small garden out front - basically a (dying) privet hedge, a path and a flower bed against the building. Again full sun in summer, it’s incredibly hot and dry out there. The soil is crap - more like dust tbh. We don’t own it but as we are ground floor and it’s outside our windows I keep it tidy. I’ve given up trying to grow much - they get hammered by heat and ants every summer, but the old roses and some ivy seem to be doing fine.

anyway, that’s all preamble to my actual question: can I do anything with the window box plants once they stop flowering? I’d like to conserve / reuse them if possible.

chrysanthenum - mostly died off
english ivy - doing well
Heather (calluna i think) - still flowering but tips are brown
Carex grasses
Various cyclamen - most doing fine

Thanks all!

chrysanthenums are perennials so they should all come back. In the spring scrap off the top layer of soil and replace with fresh compost.

Ivy will just keep going, plant it out or keep it in the window boxes. Heather can be planted out but most prefer an acid soil, they also need moisture and light, so probably not worth the effort for you. You can give them a light trim. Cyclamen - depends on species. I’d probably overwinter indoors. Carex aren’t grasses, they’re sedges (different family). They can be planted out or kept in the box. They tend to grow in moister and shadier places than grasses.

Thanks both

hmm the carex definitely will need to be moved eventually, it’s a real sun trap outside in the summer.

Will the cyclamen just keep flowering all winter? I’m just trimming away the dead flower heads atm. I don’t have anywhere indoors to keep them - we have big old fashioned cast iron radiators everywhere, no conservatory or other cool room. Its pretty mild here over winter most of the time and I can’t remember the last time we had any snow.

chrysanthenum I’ll just cut the dead heads off? And otherwise leave it in the pot?

Cyclamen I just chuck in the ground under a tree here. I get a bit of a display around the autumn time then pretty leaves through the winter. It’s not the most exciting of displays and if this wasn’t a particularly unkempt area that I try and make more attractive to wildlife I would long since have discarded them and just use them as an annual.

Chrysanth, yes just dead head. Cyclamen - if you were in the UK there are 3 candidates, 1) Cyclamen hederifolium, hardy in the UK and what @Billybagpuss may have. Autumn flowering 2) Cyclamen coum, similar, but flowers Dec to Apr 3) small variety of Cyclamen persicum often sold as winter bedding. Not hardy in UK though may survive in central London, probably hardy for you.

First two have pale pink or occasionally white flowers, 3rd can be anything from white through to almost red.