Ideas for shady window boxes

[clinellwipe]

Finally bought our first home and am very much a garden novice. The front of our house only has sunshine until about 11am and then is shady for the rest of the day. We have two empty window boxes and I have no idea what to put in them, everything I see in garden centres seems to love full sun. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Most bedding plants would be fine, and will actually appreciate a bit of shade on really hot, dry summer afternoons.

It’s only for the summer months, as it is a tender plant, but impatiens aka busy lizzies love shade. For the winter you could try some trailing variegated ivy and small ferns and plant them out in the garden for the summer and then back in the window box for winter agaon.

Congratulations on buying your first house and your interest in growing plants.

There’s lots of annual bedding plants that will do well in the partial shade you describe. As @narniabusiness wrote, impatiens (known as Bizzie Lizzie) will do very well but also begonias, pansy and viola, antirrhinums, nicotianas and fuchsia. Plus plants like small ferns, ivies and other green trailing plants if you want to include these.

Bedding plants are appearing in the shops now but they can’t be grown outside until the last frost has passed. This is usually in April-May depending on where you live in the U.K.

Choose good compost and water the plants regularly, preferably morning and evening. You could add some water-retaining granules which help keep the compost moist. Also deadhead the flowers that have finished to encourage other flower buds to form. If too many dead heads are left on the plants, few new flowers will be formed.

Good luck, I’m sure you’ll be very pleased with your window boxes.

I’m a fairly avid gardener, but my window boxes (in the same position as you describe) are the bane of my gardening life! Over the years I’ve tried begonias, impatiens, pelargoniums, lobelias, gazanias, pansies, fuchsias and lots of other stuff, and they never deliver a great display. I dead head, feed regularly, water a lot, and still they never amount to much. I long for a big, full display but I’m starting to think it’s a lost cause.

I also suspect a local cat is peeling in them, which can’t be helpful. I’ve seen it a few times on my window sills 🧐.

My only neighbour who has some success in the same light, as hers planted with bulbs (daffodils), ferns, ivy and perennials. and netting on top to prevent squirrels (and cats?). All other houses have completely bare boxes, so it’s not just me 😂

This winter I planted some ferns, primulas and irises for a spring display. It’s gone ok but iris reticulata is very short lived and already long gone, and primulas don’t grow tall or wide, so again they look half empty. If I do bulbs again I would go for daffodils as they last much longer. I just don’t like daffs that much…

I’m currently mulling over what to do for this summer. I will be watching your thread for ideas. I also think I need to plant more densely, and really pack the plugs close. I’m tempted to do an experiment and plant one with begonias, one with petunias, one with impatiens and one with Calibrachoa, and see if any works. It may look odd for a year, but worth it in the long term?

All this to say, in case you try something and don’t succeed - you are not alone!

@clinellwipe hHow is it going with your window boxes? After years of trial and error, I planted mine this spring with marigolds, petunias and trailing fuchsia, and that’s the best display I’ve ever had. Everything is flowering and looking lush.

Sun until 11am is still 6 hours of sun in the summer - I think I was making the mistake of thinking I had more shade than I actually do. There’s a gardening litmus test that if a petunia is flowering, that means it’s not in full shade. Petunias are very cheap, so I wish I’d started with them before trying all kinds of shade loving plants ☺️