Autumn plants for the balcony

With autumn plants you can make your balcony completely winter-proof. And it is also easy to care for and durable for years to come. You just have to buy the right fall plants - not balcony plants, which are characterized above all by growing on large, uniform flowers were grown instead of longevity, maybe from genetically modified seeds, in the warm greenhouse, and then imported. In the following you will get to know “real plants” that easily survive the winter on the balcony:

Not critically hardy: native plants

Balconies always have to be planted with balcony plants, usually exotic plants that are imported to Germany from distant countries? This is possible for summer planting, then these plants can at least survive in our climate. Whether it's really smart is another question, these exotic plants are sold as annuals, because they can live with us only in the summer. And even if the plants are actually perennials (very few plants are annuals = doomed to die after reproduction in one season), it is worthwhile usually the not uncomplicated overwintering does not work because the cultivars for the balcony are selected for large, colourful, rich flowers and not for longevity. The next question is whether it has the effect you want on your balcony: the balcony plants bloom beautifully and richly, but usually also somewhat monotonous, very uniform, when selected for the highest flowering output, they usually lose some naturalness and liveliness a. A piece of "real nature on the balcony" would look a little different.

If you want to have an easy-care balcony in front of the house, this balcony variant is never the one right, it just isn't easy to care for if you completely replant the planting every year must shape. For autumn planting on the balcony, equipping with the usual balcony plants is "double not the right thing", even if these autumn plants do not survive for long, i.e. thrown away even faster than the balcony plants from summer become.

What are balcony plants?

The alternative is: no, balconies don't necessarily have to be covered with "balcony plants" (what's that supposed to be? Plants that only grow from the first floor and not on soil?) are planted.

If you want to design a really low-maintenance balcony - and most people want to design a low-maintenance balcony because they have more to do than Caring for balcony flowers - plant them with plants that are not hardy in our climate (= foreign plants that have survived the winter in their new home), but are frost hardy. Frost hardy means naturally used to the occurrence of frost in winter, like any native plant. The native plant is also an easy-care plant because it is used to the rest of our growth conditions and can grow on the balcony for several years. Then the following applies to the autumn planting for the balcony: If you are looking for autumn planting with which winter can really come, you should check out the seasonal offer at Check discounters carefully - even if suitable cultivars are offered for local conditions (not always the case, see "Balcony and terrace in autumn plant"), these plants are not always drawn with the aim of decorating your balcony forever, if they did that, you would not have any new balcony plants for a long time buy.

You should also buy the classic autumn plants in a specialist nursery. The article just mentioned gives an overview of the varieties that can come with winter. But there are many more plants that survive the winter with us, and you don't have to choose these plants based on whether they called "balcony plants" or not, but according to whether they are frost hardy and with a normal or maybe a slightly larger balcony box get along. So the selection is considerably larger, because many "normal plants" can grow in boxes and tubs:

Unbeatably easy to care for

If you really have very little time to take care of the balcony, you could choose plants that are recommended for green roofs. The landscape architects responsible here know about the special stresses on these plants, the highest possible heat and often should also withstand drought, because roof gardens are not always directly accessible and therefore not always used on a daily basis become. They are therefore drought-tolerant and generally not very thirsty plants, the great heat and endure great cold, if in doubt, perhaps withdraw completely, but always again cast out These plants survive even if a balcony box freezes completely or if nobody can take care of the balcony on vacation:

• Alyssum montanum, Mountain Alyssum
• Alyssum saxatile, Golden Alyssum
• Anemone sylvestris, wood anemone
• Arabis caucasica, goose cress
• Artemisia schmidtiana 'Nana', dwarf silverrue
• Campanula glomerata, clustered bellflower
• Centranthus ruber, Red Spurflower, hardy cultivars
• Cerastium tomentosum 'Silver Carpet', Compact Hornwort
• Dianthus deltoides, heather carnation, robust varieties
• Dianthus plumarius, cultivars, hardy cultivars
• Geranium cantabrigiense 'Biokovo' and others
• Geranium macrorrhizum, Balkan cranesbill, hardy cultivars
• Geranium renardii, Caucasus cranesbill
• Geranium sanguineum, blood-red cranesbill
• Gypsophila repens, Gypsophila
• Inula ensifolia, sword elecampane
• Iris-Barbata-Nana, dwarf iris, hardy varieties
• Lychnis viscaria, Catchfly
• Nepeta faassenii, catnip
• Pulsatilla vulgaris, common pasqueflower or pasqueflower (not pasqueflower)
• Sedum acre, Hot Stonecrop
• Sedum album 'Coral Carpet', White Stonecrop
• Sedum floriferum 'Weihenstephaner Gold', rich flowering Bacopa
• Sedum telphium 'Herbstfreude', stonecrop with brown-pink flowers
• Sedum hybridum 'Evergreen', cushion stonecrop
• Sedum spectabile, magnificent stonecrop, robust varieties
• Sedum spurium 'Album Superbum', Caucasus stonecrop
• Sempervivum tectorum, houseleek, including around 7000 varieties of it and also hardy relatives
• Veronica spicata, spike speedwell
• Carex montana, mountain sedge
• Festuca cinerea, blue fescue
• Festuca ovina, real sheep's fescue
• Helictotrichon sempervirens, blue oat
• Stipa pulcherrima, Heron Feather Grass

Many of these super undemanding plants bloom quite late in the year, well into fall or even longer. In any case, they survive the winter without any problems, and in most cases they start flowering earlier in the next season and give you flowers on the balcony for a long time. With Sedum and Sempervivum alone, you can decorate the balcony in all the colors of the world, but you only need a very small part of the time in this world to care for them.

fall classic

There are some classic fall plants that haven't become classics for nothing. Asters and chrysanthemums and heathers "belong to autumn", with them you can design your balcony in autumn for the whole of the next season (for the next few years). They are offered in so many varieties, in so many colors and flower shapes, that you can always completely fill your balcony with them design differently, move three four into a bucket or a hanging basket, put a few new colors in between, and the new one is done Picture. However, you need to be careful to find and buy the species/cultivars that bloom into the fall and are really up to the German winter, they are listed in the article already referred to above became.

Autumn planting for specialists

There are many herbs that are hardy here and that gourmets, healers and curious hobbyists can do something with, often the same herb can do several things. Here are the autumn bloomers among the useful herbal plants and the least demanding of them, good for gaining experience:

• Achillea, yarrow, different varieties bloom until autumn, spice and medicinal plants
• Calamintha nepeta is used as a kitchen spice in Italy
• Hypericum polyphyllum, St. John's wort, medicinal plant
• Linum perenne, perennial flax, fiber plant
• Origanum vulgare, oregano, robust varieties, spice and medicinal plant
• Prunella grandiflora, large-flowered prunella, young leaves as herb salad, older leaves provide coloring
• Stachys byzantina 'Silver Carpet', carpet wool Ziest, spice and medicinal plant (Brazil = Lambari)
• Thymus serpyllum, wild thyme, robust varieties, spice and medicinal plant thyme

These are just a few of the plants you can harvest from if you consider all hardy herbs, vegetables and fruit plants together that also thrive on the balcony, you will probably never need herbs again and very rarely vegetables and fruit buy.

Good for combining: mini trees and grasses

You can make the balcony particularly elegant if you combine flowering herb plants with small shrubs and grasses, which are also hardy here. For example, box trees, grasses, ferns, conifers, there is also something for the last shaded corner. In the other articles about autumn plants and balconies you will even find small trees that bloom in autumn.

Conclusion

There are autumn plants for the balcony that survive a German winter without complaint. But you have to choose them yourself, being well informed about the suitable types/varieties and in specialist shops that will sell you exactly these types and varieties (stating the botanical name). Then you can even put autumn plants on the balcony, which will reduce balcony maintenance to minutes in the years to come.

Learn more about fall gardening