What to plant in a windy situation

I've got a north facing balcony garden, and one of the hardest places to grow anything is in the corner that faces west and north. I've tried every perennial I can think of, including grasses, and nothing seems to grow there. I'm on the sixth floor and the wind coming across that corner can be horrendous. I've got perennials all over the balcony which do fine, but I'm ready to tear my hair out about what I can plant in that corner that will grow well. Any suggestions?? It's the corner at the top of the picture on the right. You can just see the black pot there.

This message was edited Apr 22, 2008 6:42 PM

This message was edited Apr 22, 2008 6:43 PM

What a pretty spot you have there. As to the wind problem, unless you especially want the view where your black pot is located why not try one of those bamboo shades to block the wind........they come in all sizes and you could attach it to the top/bottom of your railing. You're lucky the wind doesn't destroy some of the others.

Thanks for the suggestion bugme, but I have a view of the Rocky Mountains that I'd still like to see. I've managed to cope with the wind all except for that west railing. I'm still struggling with a jackmanii clematis in the corner next to the wall, but haven't managed to make anything survive except for a peony I had there one year which lived over the winter and survived.

Don't blame you for wanting that view. The area I was referring to is JUST the railing, not above it. It would have to be something low-growing but would still leave possibilities.

That's a thought. It would block out the parking lot below too! Thanks for the idea.

I agree with you that the wind can be very anoying (like my kids say), my mom lives in Manhattan, has a lovely botton floor patio and can't control the wind created by the buildings surrounding her. Your balcony looks lovely, I believe that if you try to put some sort of evergreen in the black pot, you might stop the wind a little bit. i agree i would hate to loose your view, it is lovely. by the way, my mom has tried to grow everything in her patio, but the wind is so intense that she has given up. The only things growing are hostas that I have given to her and if you know hostas, I see you have some, they are hard kill. Good luck, Clemen

I really don't want to stop the wind, I just want to plant something in that black pot that can take the wind. Somebody suggested daisies or daylilies. What do you think? I've had daisies in that pot, and they seemed to do all right in the wind. They dried out one summer when I was sick and I didn't plant them again. Maybe it's time to plant them again. I've never planted daylilies, maybe they would work?

REVCKAUS, from my mon's experience, nothing seems to like the wind, maybe an evergreen that has yellow colors. Actually it all depends on how much wind you get. i see that you have a lot wof nice plants there growing in your balcony, so how bad is the wind that you cannot control growth there?

It's just the plant at the far end of the balcony that doesn't like the wind. It gets the full brunt of it, especially in the winter when the cold winds start. We have winter wind that's horrendous. It's very drying. Here's what I had last year. It may be that annual grasses are the only plants that I can grow there.

The grass looks very pretty with that purple color, there are lots of perennial grasses outthere, maybe you can try one and you will not have to buy it every year. Clemen

How about a colorful evergreen like a golden cypress? I believe there is a weep[ing or spreading variety. They add such a bright burst of color and you can keep them low enough to preserve your view. I believe I saw pleanty of tiny spreading blue spruce type evergreens in CO also.

Good idea, although I'm allergic to cedar and juniper. But I found a dwarf red-tipped dogwood that might work there.

Sorry about those allergies. Wouldn't the wind tear up dogwood leaves? Maybe you have different varieties out there but the leaves on our dogwoods are sort of soft.

That's a good point.

Hi, revclaus. I just ran across this. I noticed you are in Denver. I'm in SantaFe, so I know what dry wind can do. I think a tough perennial grass, something like Blue Avena grass or a yucca of some sort might work. I also like the idea of a pine though not a juniper! My house faces west. You know, hardy roses, maybe some kind of miniature roses, are pretty tough customers if you are looking for flowers. Good luck!

I like roybird's idea of hardy roses. Our altitude is 600' in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's almost always windy here. I have a couple of knock out roses that flower like crazy. I have them on a patio that's about 8' off the ground. They've dried out a couple of times, I mean to the point where the leaves got yellow, but came back when deeply watered. They'd be lovely on your balcony, and if you add the protection of the bamboo or reed screening suggested by bugme, you'd have pretty color, nice fragrance, a wind break that wouldn't block the breeze, some late afternoon shade on the patio, rid yourself of the parking lot view yet still have your mountain view.