When there is no garden, you can create a small flower garden on the balcony. In spring, summer and autumn, plants will delight the eye - but now winter is coming. What is a city florist to do? What can be saved, and what do you have to say goodbye to?
Annuals on the balcony in autumn
Usually, annual flowers are grown in pots and boxes on the balcony - asters, zinnias, marigolds, etc. Having given shoots in spring, by autumn these plants finish their development and dry up. It makes no sense to save them - just wait until they die, and then remove the dry residues.
Only if they are still blooming, it makes sense to transfer the pots to the room for a week or two - let them please the eye in the end. It is necessary to transfer it before the heating is turned on, then the flowers will adapt better.
However, there are also annuals that bear this name only in our country, because they die from frost in the middle lane. And in their homeland, pelargoniums, petunias or balsam quite live for themselves for many years. It makes sense to either bring them into the room, or insulate them, leaving them at rest on the glazed loggia. This is how petunias, vervains and snapdragons winter.
Conservation of perennials
The main danger for plants in winter on an open balcony is the freezing of the soil in the pot. On open ground, the ground may not freeze so deeply, and the roots will be preserved. But the pot freezes not only from the surface, but also from the sides, and almost always the plants die. Therefore, if you want to save balcony perennials, you need to act like this:
- cover the aerial part of the plant;
- wrap the pot with burlap, old rags or pemphigus wrapping film, the more layers, the better;
- set the pots on a wooden stand, or preferably polystyrene.
- feed the plants before the shelter with superphosphate, potassium sulfate (1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water) or with complex compounds for autumn use - then they will have more strength for wintering.
- reduce watering to a minimum, and when frosts begin, stop altogether;
- with the onset of cold weather, cover the plants from precipitation, or at least make a canopy over them from a film.
Small pots can be placed inside cardboard boxes by filling the gap between the walls of the container and the box with sawdust, peat, or crumpled newspapers. The boxes themselves need to be tied with burlap on top.
When leaving the pots on the open balcony, place small containers against the wall and support them with large ones to prevent the plants from being blown up by the wind. And the place for wintering itself should be located in the corner where there are least drafts.
In spring, covered plants open when the air warms up steadily to +5 ° C.
Wintering plants on the loggia
On a heated balcony, wintering for plants is no different from caring for them in an apartment. You just need to reduce watering, regularly feed and, possibly, carry out additional lighting with a phytolamp on short winter days. If a perennial plant falls into dormancy in winter, then it can simply not be touched.
It is much more difficult for those who have a balcony or loggia just glazed, but do not have heating. Only those plants that are cold-resistant can be left there. It is necessary to insulate the pots in the same way as when wintering in the open air.
In the spring, when the sun becomes bright again, and the day is long, perennials that have lost the habit of direct rays of the winter may burn their leaves. You can solve the problem with blinds or at least a translucent tulle curtain. Also, the pots should be rotated regularly so that the flowers do not stretch and grow correctly.
Summing up, we can say: you need to say goodbye forever in the fall only to annual flowers growing on the balcony. For those who live for several seasons, it is quite possible to provide a comfortable wintering and survival in frost.
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#flowers on the balcony#wintering flowers#useful tips