Plants
How to Grow and Care for Hippeastrum in Containers
Intro: Hippeastrum is a bulb flower often grown in indoor gardens. It is easy to grow and easy to care for, and when taken indoors to overwinter during the cold winter months, it can still bloom indoors. Hippeastrum has large flowers and two to seven long (up to 3 feet) leaves. The flower stem can reach 2.5 feet tall and supports two to 15 large flowers, each being up to 8 inches across. Hippeastrum fowers can be red, pink, white, orange, yellow and green. Some may have multiple colors with stripes or different colored petal edges. The beautiful hippeastrum flowers last for two to three weeks.
How to Grow and Care for Foxgloves in Containers
Intro: The common foxglove plant produces beautiful cascading trumpetlike flowers that range from purple to gray to white. Depending on the species and variety, foxglove flowers can be different colors (yellow, pink, red, etc.) or have spots inside of the blooms. It’s flowers inspired the plant’s genus name Digitalis, meaning fingerlike, and a human finger can fit easily into one of the flowers.
Growing the Jacaranda Tree (Jacaranda mimosifolia) in Containers
Jacaranda trees (Jacaranda mimosifolia) are tall blooming trees that cannot grow to maturity in a plant container in a balcony garden. Just like many trees, this tree can be grown in a balcony garden (or even indoors if you have a sunny spot) while it is young. Eventually every Jacaranda in a plant container will need to be transplanted into the ground, so you may have to part with your Jacaranda someday (unless you buy a house with a nice big yard).
How to Grow and Care for the Sage Plant in Containers
Intro: Sage is a wonderful-smelling herb often used in medicines and in food dishes. Sage is a great addition to an urban kitchen garden for gardeners who like its smell (for a better smell, rub a leaf between your fingers) and who like to cook with sage. Sage’s flowers, which bloom in late spring or summer, are most commonly blue to purple, but some sage varieties can have pink or white flowers.
How to Grow and Care for Morning Glory Flowers in Containers
Intro: The morning glory flower is a climbing vine with heart-shaped leaves that blooms in the mornings. Morning glory blooms, which only last one day, come in a variety of colors (pink, purple, red and white, while blue is the most common) and usually bloom in mid-summer to late fall. Morning glory flowers can begin to bloom in March in warmer climates. These beautiful flowers grow well in plant containers on balcony gardens. Balcony gardeners can attach fishing line or durable string from the balcony railing to the roof and train the morning glory plant to grow along the string. This growth will provide dappled shade (you can intersperse white Christmas lights on these lines if there is an electricity outlet outside).
