Plant selection with strange requirements

I was looking at metallic curtains and they all (so far) look cheesy..

but hardware store chain itself is interesting.. and I like the idea the rod would fold inside the house so chain wouldn't be whapping around in wind.

I still don't mind a plant either tall and spikey (fall over in wind? depends on pot) or feathery. I like asparagus fern, dunno how that would do west facing in Portland, but it both sort of stands up and drapes.. or slow growing and pruned, like laurus nobilis. Hmmm, be interesting if one could get/make a semicircular basket like container, that hung at the top of the balcony rail, and worked like a window box. Cute, but it would probably dry out in thirty seconds.

Is that a curved railing I see circling the rim of the balcony?

Here are a few more ideas to consider:

Hang two or three lightweight planters from the railing and fill them with cascading annuals such as the cascading petunias.

http://www.bestnest.com/bestnest/RTProduct.asp?SKU=PAP-88512&src=nextag&kw=PAP-88512



Or, mount a few hayrack trough window boxes on the top railing.

Click here to see a photo of it on a similarly curved railing:

http://www.hooksandlattice.com/railing-hayracks-troughs.html

If attaching something to the railing won't work, what about a display rack for smaller potted plants?

http://www.bestnest.com/bestnest/RTProduct.asp?SKU=PAP-89178&src=nextag&kw=PAP-89178


Lots of other similar ideas here:

http://www.hooksandlattice.com/rapl.html


This would widen the selection of plants to something other than just small trees or vines and the containers along the railing or on a moveable rack would still allow egress for a fire escape.

They would be lightweight enough that you'd be able to bring them in for the winter. It would be a great place for starting plants to be later transplanted into your home's gardens.

Planter boxes would give your house a decidedly European look.

Did I miss the post that says it has to be outside on the balcony? It might fly off in a wind storm.

What about a traditional potted palm on the inside in front of the glass? Sort of 19th century ballroom.



The site I took this photo from is in Portland:

http://portlandplants.com/

Oooh, that's nice...

Here are some plant selection lists from OSU's agriculture department:

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/ec/ec1534/

And here's a blog from a Portland gardener with lots of photos and plant names to help narrow down the attributes preferred and match them with the varieties for the Portland area:

http://www.cloudforest.com/northwest/forum/20088424.html

Check out the other local gardening info for the Portland area:

http://www.cloudforest.com/northwest/index.html

It's why they pay me the big bucks.

Boomer, if that is Mo 's fire escape,
I hope that u have given him a ladder.

He shoud not have to jump from there.





David

or a PARACHUTE !

Some great ideas here but I probably should have explained myself better...

This photo was taken of the house right before we moved in about a year and a half ago. The house was very seriously dilapidated. We are slowly trying to bring it back.

I have ripped out the shrubbery shown in this photo and we aren't going to do any landscaping until the structural parts are redone -- painting and replacing all the trim (we have 90% of the trim already but we have to have the arches milled to specification and it's taking forever). Any serious planting is down the road. I love wisteria (or maybe grapes -- I like edible plants) and think it would do great in this spot but I'm probably a year away from that. We will probably add window boxes then, too.

The room that the door goes into is pretty small and the door opens in so I can't really do a potted plant on the inside. The door has to be able to open not just for safety but for ventilation (we don't have air conditioning).

For this summer, I just want Mo to have some privacy when the door is open. When his lights are on you can see right into his room from the street. I'm just looking for a quick fix that will carry us over until more of the structural work is complete.

Since it rains here so much I'm skeptical of fabric anything.

I do like the bamboo idea and the spikey grassy things osso posted. Something like that would be great. I just need suggestions on what kind of plant would meet the criteria. I can always wire the pot down so it won't blow away.

can you do a planter on the balcony rail?

a mix of 3 foot tall stuff with some trailing creeper plants mixed in would screen...

thinking door opening into large pot presents troubles.

I really like the house, kind of a classic fantasy English Cottage, '20s or early '30s. There were a lot of them in the town I grew up in in Michigan, which had a building boom about that time. Always liked the style, hope you're keeping the exterior intact, and any interior detail there may be, the ones I knew growing up, even well after they were new, always felt really homey and cosy.

You might think about getting, or making, a lightweight folding screen, like those three panel ones. Even one maybe just three feet tall just inside the door, would, considering the angle people in the street viewed it at from the street, probably screen most of the room.

Get some scrap cardboard, like a refrigerator carton, and some duct tape, and make a mockup and see how high a screen has to be to cut off the view into the room. Come down to that, let the scrap cardboard BE the screen. Get some poster paints, sit down with Mo and figure out what your favorite stories are, and paint each panel of the cardboard with one of them. Or collage pictures of your favorite tv stars, or sports heros,or family vacations, or invite his friends in to paint their favorite things. Make it a party.

monstera deliciosa.

practically unkillable. will grow to a certain size depeding on the pot size. N plant has giant sized elephant ear leaves.
Possibly it wont grow big enough soon enough.


Star jasmine
a climbing plant with masses of white flowers could be trained on the balcony railing

We're trying to keep things as original as possible while knowing that a house that has been neglected for 40 years will have to have some parts replaced. By structural I mean things like the roof -- which had to be completely torn off and replaced, and drainage (we added french drains to keep the basement from flooding), and having the oil tank decommissioned and adding a gas furnace. Appearance-wise, nothing has really changed except that we had some low profile storm/screen doors made for the door/windows (there are five doors like this one, that function as windows, in addition to three doors that lead to the yard), to help make the house more energy efficient.

I worry about putting planters along the railing, or at least too many of them. We're not sure how much weight the balcony can support and plants are heavy. Putting too much weight on the perimeter of the balcony would put too much stress on the house, I'm afraid.

This door opens in so a pot on the balcony wouldn't prohibit anyone getting outside.

I like that elephant ear thingy, dadpad.

After thinking on it overnight, I'm not completely opposed to a fake plant to use for the summer as a quick fix. I just hate to buy anything that I won't be using again. Maybe I'll look at Goodwill.....

I don't think a screen type thing would work. It would impede air flow, which we need, and it wouldn't last through the first rain.

What are French drains?

If u r concerned about the weight bearing capacity of the balcony,
maybe put a plant near the balcony, to protect Mo 's privacy,
but inside his room, so as not to threaten the structural integrity of the balcony ?


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What about some kind of bamboo shade curtain mounted on a swiveling curtain rod on the inside of the door that Mo can swivel into place when he wants privacy, and move out of the way when he doesn't. If you anchor it on the opposite side of the door frame, it won't interfere with the functioning of the door when it opens to the inside.

You could probably easily make something like that out of fabric too, just need to construct a frame for it and mount it on the other side of the door.

I'll see if I can find some photos of what I'm thinking of in case my description isn't coming across.

Something like this. I couldn't quickly find a door version of this, but this window version shows the concept. People used to have the door versions in their houses to separate the kitchen doorway from the rest of the living space before it was chic to have it all open space.

A bi-folding shutter door mounted on the opposite side of the door. He could then swivel/unfold it to cover the door opening when he wants privacy and open it when he doesn't. The shutter slats would also let him control the amount of light that comes in while still giving him privacy.

I like those bifolds.. .. but exterior to existing door.

I checked star jasmine, which I'd considered as a maybe myself since I love it - that's Trachelospermum jasminoides - and it's said in Sunset to be for other zones than Portland's zone 6. But that kind of idea, a vine that can attach from a pretty pot on the balcony to the railing and grow in a bunched mass above it and also hang down, could work, but might take a while to screen well enough. Your local nursery...

I just looked up Monstera - it would be way out of its zone.
Still, a big eared plant has appeal - but most of the ones I know are tropical..

Editing myself.. if the doorway is what I guess, twenty eight inches wide, or less, 24? is that legal? - then a louver door might work as just one panel, attaching in front of the existing door.

That's why I was going on about special fabrics that were developed around the time of the '84 olympics (far as I know) re flags, banners, etc. That's why outdoor furniture has better fabrics nowadays.

At our gallery, we made flags for across the front facade --- out of cheap material from Joanne's fabrics, and the gallery was in as rainy a spot as Portland, or almost so. We replaced the material about every three months.