Pansies F1 Hybrid planted up on balcony railings 08-10-2013 002

What A Great Thing you Have Done With Your Plants. Well Done. They Look Great .

oh, nice! they'll fill out and look even better in time. I've seen those balcony rings about, might get around to getting some one day!

Thanks, Lynda! :-)) I hope they will survive the winter & look fabulous come April-May next year.

For the moment I've had to take them off the railing as we are having some very strong, cold North-easterly winds. I've put them on the balcony floor, further in from the railing & sheltered a little by bigger pots. They haven't been in the pots long enough yet to become established & these winds would more than likely shred them or at least dry them out so much they wouldn't recover. Once the weather gets calmer I'll put them back again.

Agreat deal of effort obviously goes into your balcony, you have my respect.

Thank you very much, Funky, for your kind words! :-))

The pots have been put back on the balcony railings now & look very happy! I was worried about the strong, cold winds killing them, or damaging them beyond repair. Pansies are very hardy plants - once established! These had only been in the pots a couple of days before the winds came along. The balcony is quite exposed & the winds can be devastating - as I've found out to my cost over the 12 years I've been growing plants on the balcony!

A lot of plants are tougher than usually given credit for, but, just like people, if they're wrapped in cotton wool they become wimps. Of course, a lot of plants come from gentler climates than ours, and haven't yet learned to adapt - lol they should be okay in another ten thousand years or so!

Pansies are tough plants & Violas even tougher in spite of their "fragile" aspect! As they had only been planted out a few days I didn't want the wind drying them out before they could become established in their new position. As it was so strong it would have "burnt" the leaves setting them back by several weeks. Plants I couldn't move have had their leaves "scorched".

just because a species is tough don't mean that a given plant will be, expecially a young one just moved to a new home; it'd have to adapt to local conditions, which is best done in stages. always wise to be careful

Very good advice! :-))