Specialty Gardening:windowbox entry

moonlit Southwest, OH(Zone 6a) Apr 22, 2007

I normally lurk here but just had to share a windowbox and hanging basket display that I entered in the Cincinnati Flower Show.
The Cincinnati Flower Show is the only North American flower and garden show endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain which puts on the Chelsea Flower Show. So imagine my excitement when it received not just a Gold medal but won the Founders Award for Excellence in 2007. I am on cloud nine. The title of the windowbox is called "Baby, let your hair hang down!" and was done with mostly inexpensive houseplants and cutting from friends.

�Baby, Let Your Hair Hang Down�

Designer�s Comments:
At the end of a stressful day, nothing�s more relaxing than letting your hair down and sipping a glass of wine while dreaming of a shady tropical setting. Our window box embodies all these thoughts. The wine colored plants remind us of that sip of wine while the tropical plants provide the setting. And the slow-growing Ponytail Palm relaxes by letting its hair (fronds) down providing diffused light to the other shade-loving plants.
Lots of textures with deep color can be achieved strictly through foliage. Any flowers born by these plants may be left on for added pizzazz or cut off keeping the window box strictly as a foliage arrangement.
Note: As with any other window box arrangement, some plants may need to be pinched or trimmed to keep them to a desirable size.
Growing Conditions:
These plants will grow all summer long in part shade.
In the winter, most of these plants will make great houseplants.

Plant Material:

Ponytail Palm, Beaucarnea Recurvata

Shamrock, Oxalis 'Charmed Wine'

Moses in the Cradle, Tradescantia Spathacea Variegata 'Vittata'

Caladium, Caladium Bicolor 'Little Miss Muffet'

Radiator Plant, Peperomia Caperata 'Emerald Ripple'

Mosaic Plant, Fittonia Verschaffeltii var.�Bianco Verde�

Wandering Jew, Tradescantia Zebrina

Rex Begonia, Begonia Rex �Fireworks�