I need suggestions on a pretty flowering, trailing flower

Hello, I needs some suggestions for a flowering flower to put in my window box this year, although they will sit on my front porch on either side. I would like for them to be very colorful and have them grow really long and hang off the porch. I hope this all makes sense. I can see in my head what i want just cant seem to get it out right...lol

Thanks,

Char

Ah, you want color to drape and cascade from the porch? Flanking both sides and blooming...did you want fragrance?

Tammy,

yes i want color to drape both sides of my porch...I would like fragrance and lots of color (if possible), Just something to set my porch off. I get alot of sun in the summertime so something that does well with full sun for like 8-10 hrs out of the day and does well in humidity. Thank you so much for time :)

Char

I hear that the sweet alyssums are good for that exact purpose. Also the new wave petunias, is the shade from the porch going to be a factor or will they get mostly sun?

I find that million bells will withstand heat and humidity better than petunias but they may not trail as low as what you are looking for. How about a mixture of plants for your window boxes? You could have lots of color with greenery cascading. Do you have a picture of your porch and window boxes?

There are old fashioned vining petunias that are quite fragrant, also sweet pea, but I'm not sure how those will do in the heat of your summers. I use nasturtium for cascading situations... also, nemesia, linaria, lobelia, brachycombe, salpiglossis... most of these may like cooler climes, so check it out.

Thank you all for you suggestions. i will look into all of them...The window boxes are not gonna be under a window. they are gonna be just sitting on the front of my porch...and after i thought it about, they dont have to be trailing flowers or even flowers....just something that is pretty for summer. I would prefer something that would last the whole summer ..if that is even possible

Weezin, Per your hardy endorsement I bought seeds for the alaska nasties, I just love that varigation! Are they easy to germinate?

i use trailing verbena and millions bells in my deck box. for shade, i like trailing coleus.

I've never seen trailing coleus! Do you have pictures? Would love to try that!

here's trailing linda.

Beautiful picture! Are you referring to the plum colored plant in the middle?

Edited to say I just looked it up in the PlantFiles. I just love learning something new every day!!

This message was edited Feb 21, 2005 3:49 PM

yes, it's in my mom's garden, in a large pedestal pot. here's mine on the top of the cabinet.

Very pretty. Thank you for sharing!

Tammy, soak the seeds for awhile before planting. I've never had trouble germinating them here.

Back when I had to be happy with a few annuals on my apartment balcony I had great luck with verbena, lantana, and the wave petunias as trailing plants. Another nice plant that can take being blasted with sun all day long is mexican heather. It has nice deep green leaves and tiny purple non-stop flowers.

All of those did well in clay pots that got full blazing zone 8 sun from noon till sunset. You might want to think about some of those water holding polymer crystals so you don't have to water nearly as much. I got two pounds of it shipped for 15 bucks this year after reading about them in another thread on here.

http://www.terasorb.com