Daisies in glass jar

These daisies has two-tone effect, emerging white, then turning pink. It looks great with the trailing nepeta’s leaves.

The October

This October is a cold one, and most of the summer flowers on the balcony has stopped flowering. 

The apple tree performances well this year. After plenty of beautiful flowers, finally I harvested two red apples. I could have a few more if I am not too greedy at the beginning, but two apples are still good for me. To prevent the apples drop down and break, I used some fruits nest in supermarket to hold each of them. In a chill morning, both of them safely dropped into the nest.

Red apples

I bought 6 trailing roses this spring, and only 2 of them survived because of the powdery mildew problems. It seems their tender leave are vulnerable to it unless you kept removing the affected leave and flowers all the time. It is getting better once growing bigger. In the survived two roses, I quite like this pink one below, especially its non-perfect petals. Bees seems to agree with me as well.

Pink trailing roses 

Since it is cold outside, I spent more time indoor. Pea shoot seems to be easiest growing leaves for dummies, and the more you cut, the more you get.  Litchi is a surprise, we buries a few litchi stones, and forgot it completely. This morning, I am trying to clean up some pots, and found two of the young plants are actually litchi. Hope they can survive the winter.  I also tries some softwood cuttings for gardenia, now there are about eight young gardenia plants. They all rooted well, so I separated them into different pots.

Pea shoot 

Litchi

Gardenia: softwood cutting

After the first a few success, I will try more cuttings, and prepare for the next year...

The summer view

Balcony Garden

I used the balcony as a lab to plant different things I am fancy about randomly, which can make it look a bit wild over time.

So I spent some time to draw the outlook this spring before I bring any new plants home. Some of them are young plants, and some are growing from seed since it is much cheaper.  The most valuable are perennials, like roses and clematis, which has been with me for years.

Not everything has turned out exactly as planned, but I am happy to let the nature to take over a little bit, so I can just grab a cup of tea and enjoy the view…

'Trees' in window box

I bought five fuchsias last year during the Xmas, and leave them indoor next to the kitchen window to go through the cold seasons. Two of them have grown as standing trees. The left 3 were put into the window box since I don’t have many big containers left. Seems they are happy to stay there.

Fuchsia 'Mrs Popple' in two shades

Cutting flowers with Fuchsia 'Mrs Popple'

Cutting flowers in black and white

In this sunny cool weekend, I removed a few branches from the fuchsia to keep the young tree growing taller. After taking a few cuttings, there are some flowers left. So I put them around the edge of the glass jar to boost it with more colors.

The fuchsia I used is Mrs Popple, and the other 3 plants are vinca major, peppermint, and trailing nepeta. They all can root easily in the water, so are always a good background for the cutting flowers.

Trailing Geranium in hanging Window Boxes

Geranium 'Blue Sybil'

Geranium, also called Pelargonium, is always my favorite plants in summer. It is free flowering all summer until late autumn, and always to forgive me if I forget to water them for a few days.  This year, I am trying a few double flowered trailing varieties, and they are all ivy leaved, and looks great in my hanging window boxes. ‘Blue Sybil’ has the pretty rose-like buds; ‘Tommy’ is in deep red with the soft texture of velvet; ‘Mexicana’ has the vibrant colors, add spicy to the whole collection.

Pink Trailing Geranium

Geranium 'Tommy'

Geranium 'Mexicana'

Geranium 'Tommy'

Geranium 'Blue Sybil'

Growing Chinese Toon in Two Ways

Chinese Toon: Grow as speedy veg sprouting

I always want to grow something eatable, and what can be better than a Chinese Toon (香椿) tree, which is formally called Toona Sinensis. The young shoots and leaves are popular vegetable for Chinese dishes. The only problem is that the tree grows fast and will reach 25meters eventually. That will definitely make an odd looking balcony.

Anyway, I still asked my mom to buy some seeds for me because I miss the spicy flavour.  The variety I chosen is the one with red young leaves, which has the best taste.

Surprised, my mom found there is another way to grow it, grow it as speedy veg sprouting. I’ve tried a few times, it is very easy if keep it warm enough.  I just soak the seed overnight, and sow them the next day. The sprouts will pop up after about one week.

Just for my curiosity, I kept a few to grow bigger to see how big it can be inside a container.

Chinese Toon

Fragrant climbing rose in Container

Rosa ‘Souvenir du Docteur Jamain’

I've been doing some experiments with my balcony garden to see how far I can grow with limited space. One long time going lab project is growing climbing roses. ‘Souvenir du Docteur Jamain’ has been with me for 3 years, and I have mixed feeling for it.

Rosa ‘Souvenir du Docteur Jamain’

The original reason I chose it is because I want something which like a bit shady place to balance the space. The south facing side was crowded with too many plants already, and the shady corner has been left empty.  When I surfed online for the potential candidate, the combination between the classic deep red flowers and long flowering period was definition something i like.

I've put it in 3 different places each year.

Year 2011

The first place was near the west facing wall, so it can climb up the balcony edge, which get the powdery mildew very quickly, and I have to cut it almost back to root. After all, it survived.

Year 2012

The second place was the south facing fence to make it part of my flowering fence union, it was getting better, but the sun will quickly dry out the tender flowers. It has also slightly powdery mildew issue, but can be fixed easily by cutting the affected leaves.

Year 2013

After the first two unsuccessful tempts, i move it inside the balcony, which still have good circulated wind (thanks to England's windy weather), and not too much direct sun shine. It seems like the new place, and has been keeping flowering for weeks so far.

The plan for next year

First thing is to upgrade the pot size as I know the bigger the happier. Second is choose a better compost, not sure which one to choose, but it is has been in my garden budget for next year’s plan. 

Flowering fence on the balcony

Clematis: 'Madame Julia Correvon' 

I've been try to build up a flowering fence for the balcony since we moved in. Each year, one or two new plants will join us, including clematis, cosmos, roses, jasmine, etc.  Clematis is my favorite so far, because its long flowering time, and also very simple to take care.

I have three clematises currently. 'Madame Julia Correvon' is the first joiner, and has been with me for more than 3 years. The reddish-purple flowers just keep coming out from early June until November. Since it is group 3, the only ‘special’ care I took was just to cut it back once a year. It is a joyful climber to have and the bones of my flowering fence.

Clematis: Triternata 'Rubromarginata'

Clematis: Triternata 'Rubromarginata'

The other clematis is Triternata 'Rubromarginata'. It has starry, four petals flowers dancing around the fence. I put it in the west facing shady corner last year, and it is the only survivor which can happily flower in that place.  I moved it to the front line this year to give it a better spot.

Rosa 'Felicia'

Rosa 'Felicia'

Climbing roses are also good for my fence. Rosa Felicia smells sweet. It suffered heavily with the powdery mildew last year, and I have to cut it back really hard. I moved it to a bigger pot, and it started flowering freely again this year :)

Dive into the woods

Yesterday is the hottest summer day this year in London, so we decided to dive into the woods to keep it cool.  The route we chose was London’s green chain walk, which contains about 11 sections. We chose Section 8, between Beckenham Place Park and Elmstead Wood, and the return journey is about 5 miles.

Green chain sign, which is always very handy

To avoid the heat in the afternoon, we setup off at 8am. The temperature was really nice. We’ve been this route a few times, so there is no map needed, especially there is always a very helpful green chain direction sign to shows up whenever you feel lost.

Even we've been there before, different seasons always looks different. In summer, it is just as its name suggested: Green. Sometimes it gives you a little surprise, like found a red poppy starring at you from the cracks in the paving or some unknown white flowering vine with pretty twines.  All in all, it is a good way to be outdoor for half day during the weekend, and stay cool as well.

The red poppy popup from the cracks in the paving

The white flowering vine

The fern with delicate leaf

A different fern

Follow the butterfly

On the way back, it felt a bit hot near to noon

The Apple tree on the 1st floor

This apple tree is really a pretty thing. As its name suggested, “Red Love”, it has deep pink flowers and produces red fleshed apples.  It settled on my balcony last year.  I was too greedy, and kept about 7 young fruits after the flowers.  That is a big mistake since the container is too small to hold up so many.  Now, only two stays…

Welcome to my little paradise

It's been almost 4 years since I started the balcony garden.  Since I am a novice gardener and used to be a plant killer, so the first few arrivals are all easy to grow, like Pelargonium, Petunias and spider plants.  Now the pots number is just becoming bigger and bigger, it’s been hard to find a sitting place on the balcony. Now my favourite spot is to grab a cup of tea and look at the flowers from the living room J