With autumn plants you can make your balcony completely winter-proof. And it's easy to care for and durable for years to come. You just have to buy the right autumn plants - not balcony plants, which are characterized primarily by the fact that they were grown for large, uniform flowers rather than longevity, perhaps from genetically modified seeds, in a warm greenhouse, and then imported. Below you will get to know “real plants” that easily survive the winter on the balcony:
Uncritically 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 is really smart is another question, these exotic plants are sold as annuals because they can only live with us in summer. And even if they are actually perennial plants (very few plants are annual=doomed to die after reproduction in one season), the uncomplicated overwintering is usually not worth it because the varieties for the balcony are large, colorful, rich flowering and not selected for longevity. The next question is whether it has the effect you want on your balcony: The balcony plants bloom beautifully and profusely, but are usually a bit monotonous, very uniform, and when choosing for the highest flower output they usually lose some naturalness and liveliness. 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 right one, it's simply not easy to care for if you have to completely redesign the plants every year. For autumn planting on the balcony, planting with the usual balcony plants is “not the right thing”, although these autumn plants do not survive for long, i.e. they are thrown away even faster than the balcony plants in the summer.
What are balcony plants?
The alternative is: No, balconies do not necessarily have to be planted with “balcony plants” (what is that supposed to mean? Plants that only grow from the first floor and not on floors?).
If you want to create a really low-maintenance balcony - and most people want to create an easy-care balcony because they have more to do than look after balcony flowers - plant it with plants that are not hardy in our climate (=Foreign plant that can cope with the winter in its new home) but is frost hardy. Frost-hardy means naturally accustomed 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 growing conditions and can therefore grow on the balcony for several years. Then the following applies to autumn planting for the balcony: If you are looking for autumn planting with which winter can really come, you should carefully check the seasonal offerings at the discount store - even if they offer cultivars suitable for local conditions (not always the case, see “Balcony and terrace in autumn"), these plants are not always grown with the aim of decorating your balcony forever; if they did that, you wouldn't buy new balcony plants for a long time.
You should also buy the classic autumn plants from a specialist nursery; the article just mentioned gives an overview of the varieties with which winter can come. But there are many more plants that endure the winter here, and you don't have to choose these plants based on whether they are called "balcony plants" or not, but rather based on whether they are frost hardy and with a normal or maybe a little something larger balcony box can cope. This makes the selection considerably larger, because many “normal plants” can grow in boxes and pots:
Unbeatable easy care
If you really have very little time to take care of the balcony, you could choose plants recommended for green roofs. The landscape architects responsible here are aware of the special stress placed on these plants, which have to withstand the highest possible heat and often also drought, because roof gardens are not always directly accessible and are therefore not always used on a daily basis. These are therefore drought-tolerant and generally not very thirsty plants that can withstand extreme heat and extreme cold; in case of doubt, they may withdraw completely, but will always sprout again. These plants survive even if a balcony box freezes completely or if no one can take care of the balcony while on vacation:
- Alyssum montanum, mountain stonewort
- Alyssum saxatile, golden yellow alyssum
- Anemone sylvestris, wood anemone
- Arabis caucasica, goose cress
- Artemisia schmidtiana ‘Nana’, dwarf silver rue
- Campanula glomerata, tangle-bellflower
- Centranthus ruber, red spurflower, robust varieties
- Cerastium tomentosum 'Silver Carpet', Compact Hornwort
- Dianthus deltoides, heather carnation, robust varieties
- Dianthus plumarius, varieties, robust varieties
- Geranium cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’ and others
- Geranium macrorrhizum, Balkan cranesbill, robust varieties
- Geranium renardii, Caucasus cranesbill
- Geranium sanguineum, blood-red cranesbill
- Gypsophila repens, carpet gypsophila
- Inula ensifolia, sword elecampane
- Iris-Barbata-Nana, dwarf iris, robust varieties
- Lychnis viscaria, Pechnelke
- Nepeta faassenii, catnip
- Pulsatilla vulgaris, pasqueflower or pasqueflower (not pasqueflower)
- Sedum acre, hot stonecrop
- Sedum album 'Coral Carpet', White Stonecrop
- Sedum floriferum 'Weihenstephaner Gold', richly flowering fat leaf
- Sedum telphium 'Autumn Joy', stonecrop with brown-pink flowers
- Sedum hybridum 'Immergrünchen', cushion stonecrop
- Sedum spectabile, sedum, robust varieties
- Sedum spurium 'Album Superbum', Caucasus Stonecrop
- Sempervivum tectorum, houseleek, including around 7000 cultivars of it and also hardy relatives
- Veronica spicata, common speedwell
- Carex montana, mountain sedge
- Festuca cinerea, blue fescue
- Festuca ovina, sheep fescue
- Helictotrichon sempervirens, blue oats
- Stipa pulcherrima, heron feather grass
Many of these super-undemanding plants bloom quite late in the year, into autumn or even longer. In any case, they survive the winter without any problems, and they usually start blooming earlier the next season and give you flowers on your balcony for a long time. With Sedum and Sempervivum alone you can decorate the balcony in all the colors in the world, but you only need a very small amount of time in the world to care for them.
Autumn Classics
There are some classic fall plants that have become classics for a reason. Asters and chrysanthemums and heather “belong to autumn”, with them you can decorate your balcony in autumn for the whole of the next season (for the next few years). They are available in so many varieties in so many colors and flower shapes that you can use them to design your balcony in completely different ways. Put three or four in a pot or a hanging basket, add a few new colors in between, and the new picture is ready. However, you have to make sure that you find and buy the species/cultivars that bloom into autumn and are really up to the German winter, which are listed in the article already referenced above.
Autumn planting for specialists
There are many herbs that are hardy here and that gourmets, healers and curious hobbyists can do something with; the same herb can often do several things. Here are the autumn bloomers among the useful herb plants and the least demanding plants, good for gaining experience:
- Achillea, yarrow, various varieties bloom until autumn, spice and medicinal plant
- Calamintha nepeta, stone thyme, mountain mint, 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 brownnock, young leaves as a herb salad, older leaves provide color
- Stachys byzantina 'Silver Carpet', carpet wool ziest, spice and medicinal plant (Brazil=Lambari)
- Thymus serpyllum, sand thyme, robust varieties, spice and medicinal plant thyme
These are just a few of the plants you can harvest from. If you collect all the hardy herbs, vegetables and fruit plants that also thrive on the balcony, you would probably never need to buy herbs and rarely buy vegetables and fruit again.
Good for combining: mini trees and grasses
You can make your balcony particularly elegant if you combine flowering herbaceous plants with small trees and grasses, which are also hardy here. Box trees, for example, grasses, ferns, conifers, there is also something there for the last shady 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 can survive a German winter without complaint. But you have to choose them yourself, well informed about the suitable species/varieties and from specialist retailers who will sell you exactly these species 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 next few years.
