What can I plant in my window boxes...

[catski]

that I won't have to chuck at the end of the summer? As you'll gather by the content of this post, I'm a complete donkey when it comes to gardening. For the last couple of years I've bought petunias and lobelia to put in my window boxes. I buy them, um, 'ready made' - as it were - as I've never seen plugs here in garden centres (I'm in sweden) and it costs me about £20 a window box. As I have six window boxes, that's quite a lot of money to chuck out at the end of the summer each year.

What do you suggest? I would of course like something that produces flowers over summer, but maybe that's not possible.

I'm not sure what zone I'm in - but I'm in southern sweden which I think is approximately the same as the colder parts of scotland.

How about planting some evergreens like ivy to make a background. Then you could top with ready made bedding in the summer. Its cheaper

That's a good idea - thanks sasquatch - I reckon that would halve the number of bedding plants I would need. I could also maybe plant some bulbs in the autumn and lift them each spring...

Ivy would be good. What sbout small evergreens such as skimmia and euonymous to fill some more space - I guess they flourish in Sweden - and then just a couple of bedding plants or a few bulbs in winter to add variety and colour? You can keep the bulbs in from year to year and just put the bedding plants on top or beside them. The evergreens may eventually get too big, but the restricted root growth in the boxes shouild keep them manageable for a few years.

I have no idea what skimmia or euonymous is, but will go and find out! Thanks for your advice MadBadandDangeroustoKnow. So you reckon I wouldn't have to lift the bulbs from year to year? I was thinking about something like those mini daffodil type flowers (narcissus?) which would look nice in spring.

It's very hard being a 'gardener' without even factoring in that I then have to translate everything into swedish and go and find it here! We acutally have about 1.5 acres of garden and it's getting pretty wild - I have no idea what anything is, much less how to look after it. I'm starting with window boxes and mowing the lawn and we'll proceed from there.... Check back in 20 years' time!

Catski -

Some pictures and info are here

skimmia - www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/8309.shtml

euonymus - www.bbc.co.uk/apps/ifl/gardening/queryengine?config=plantfinder_db_simple&templatestyle=plant finderfuzzy&page=1&sort1=genus&sortsense1=ASC&sort2=species&sortsense2=ASC&sort3=cultivar&sort sense3=ASC&attrib1=commonname&oper1=eq&rangestart=1&rangelength=10&val11=euonymus&x=52&y=12

.. but maybe the easier way is to go and see what small evergreens are available locally?

I have some narcissus bulbs in window boxes and they seem very happy to be left from year to year. So do the little outdoor cyclamen, which are hardy. Tulips, though, seem to succumb to disease if left in window boxes and within a few years have dwindled to nothing. As for the language problem, the Royal Horticultural Society encourages everyone to use Latin plant names because it is the international language of gardening!

Hope you find something that works for you.

Have you thought about growing some plants from seed? Much cheaper and there are lots of seeds that are really easy for beginners. Marigolds, dwarf sunflowers, nigella and poppies spring to mind.

If you stick some bulbs in for late winter, early spring you'll have colour for about 9 months of the year. Good bulbs - snowdrop, muscari, tete a tete daffodils, crocus and tulips.

also stick in some trailing ivy.