My Simple Balcony Garden with Flowering Plants
I don’t have a garden to do gardening. This is one of the pleasures one has to give up to stay in high rise apartments. But then, the urge to see something green growing around me and something to tend to with my own hands was always there. Naturally the balconies became my miniature gardens.
I have not done any major vegetable gardening but there are few flowering plants. And my efforts are on to turn this simple balcony garden into a gorgeous garden. Right now there are jasmine buds and water lily flowers gracing my little balcony garden.
Scientific name: Nymphaea nouchali/stellata, Nymphaeaceae
My Simple Balcony Garden
Two of my balconies face the southeast so it receives the maximum of morning sun light. (This is one of the important factors you have to keep in mind if you intend starting a balcony garden.) I have placed few potted plants in terracotta and plastic containers in these balconies.
My small collection of Jasmine Buds and Water Lily Flowers keep me happy and reasonably engaged. Jasmine and water lilies flourish well in Bangalore climate.
3 of them bloomed together on Nov 20 2010
5 Tips for Simple Balcony Garden
- Choose plants that require moderate sunshine.
- Use terracotta planters for a more eco friendly garden.
- For a start choose the native plants, once they flourish you can add the exotic ones.
- Use fertilizers like waste from your kitchen.
- Consider self-watering pots or drip irrigation if you fail to remember to water the plants
Jasmine Creepers
My Jasmine plant is of the small and yellow variety, I managed to grow only this variety. It is also called the Arabian Jasmine Flower (jasmium sambac). It is not a climber and still small, but soon I will have to provide it with some kind of support as it gains height.
There are few other varieties of Jasmine that can adorn simple balcony gardens. The flowers have different types and arrangement of petals. I have collected a few shots of different jasmine flowers during my tips to nurseries and I am sharing them with you here. The single round of petals in the common white Jasmine is the common variety and grows easily too.
Five round petals Jasmine variety
Seven round petals jasmine flower.
Just in case you are motivated enough to grow a jasmine plant, you can check out the tips here. These varieties need sun or light shade and wet, moist soil. They are easy to grow in Indian climatic conditions and you are assured of fresh flowers regularly for Puja.
Water Lily Flowers
There are so many colors of water lily available to the extent that you can choose the color variety to go with your balcony garden settings. The Lily plant I have is of the purple color variety. It is called the Nil Mahanel flower in Sri Lanka and the botanical name is Nymphaea Nouchali. It was declared as the national flower of Sri Lanka on 26th Feb 1986. Here are a few snaps of the purple water lily from my balcony garden.
Purple water lily in terracotta pool in balcony garden
The Lily flower symbolizes purity and innocence, and as the flower of the Resurrection and of the Virgin, it is widely used at Easter. The white water lily is the national flower of Bangladesh. It is said that when Lord Buddha died, lotus flowers blossomed everywhere he had walked in his lifetime.
Mine is the tropical variety, the water lily is on the stem that rises above the water. (The hardy variety has the flower sitting in the top of the water.) It bloomed quite regularly last season in my little terracotta pool. The flower survives for four to five days, opening in the mornings and closing the petals by evening.
I have few fish in the pool to take care of the mosquito larvae. This variety flowers from November to March and when they bloom it does add a touch of romance to the garden.
Check out my Hibiscus flowers: 3 Yellow Hibiscus in my Balcony Garden
Nymphaea Pubescens: Pink Water Lily
After a long wait of one year my pink water lily in my balcony garden decided to bloom! Last time the plant gifted me a flower was on 8th September 2013. And I am very grateful to her!
Growing water lilies in tiny terracotta pools is quite a task. Daily a few hours of sunshine is a must I noticed and positioning it correctly helped. Now both my purple water lily and the pink variety have a competition for my attention and appreciation. Here is a short photo essay on pink water lilies.
Pink Water Lily in My Balcony Garden
The peculiarity of this variety is that it blooms in the evening and shuts down its petals early morning. The purple one stays open throughout the day shutting itself tight at night. Getting the deep pink color in my photographs was difficult and these are taken with flash.
It is slightly confusing whether it is the Nymphaea rubra (red) variety or the Nymphaea pubescens (pink) variety because the color of the petals indicates it is rubra but it doesn’t have purpulish leaves as it should have. The leaves are pure green so I will believe it is of the pubescens variety.
Close up picture of pink water lily.
A smiling pink water lily in my balcony garden. And once more I am tempted to take a hot steaming cup of tea, sit in my balcony and just gaze at it.
This I tried taking against the rising sun. (Please ignore the dark balcony grills in the back ground.)
Nymphaea Pubescens: Pink Water Lily
Look at the stamens, all pink and folded in namaste mudra!
Also see: Pink Water Lily of Thailand
Common name: Pink Water Lily, Pink Lotus
• Manipuri: Tharo angouba
• Tamil: VeLLAmbal
• Sanskrit: Kumuda
• Bengali: Shaluk
• Malayalam: Neerambal
• Kannada: Kannaidile
• Assamese: Nal
Botanical name: Nymphaea pubescens
Family: Nymphaeaceae (Waterlily family)
Synonyms: Nymphaea lotus var. pubescens, Nymphaea purpurea, Nymphaea esculenta
Cereus Night Queen Flowers
Commonly known as Queen of Night, they bloom at night and have a sweet and strong fragrance.
We were lucky to see 8 “Night Queens” blooms together in a single plant a couple of nights back. These two were pretty, close and fighting for their own space and my attention. The Night Queens start blooming in the evenings and by dawn they droop off, lasting for less than 12 hours.Locally they are known as “Nishagandhi”.
Most of the pollen strands are clear. With so many pollen strands it looked like a bed of pollen grains. Photography at mid night has never been so ‘fragrance-ful’ experience before.
Morning Glory: Easy to Grow in Balcony Garden
The back view is beautiful too. A purple Morning Glory from my balcony garden. Purple morning glory flowers usually symbolize nobility, royalty, and beauty.
Fun and interesting fact: By soaking the flowers from the Morning Glory in water for a couple of weeks you can create a mildly alcoholic wine with a good flavor and mild psychedelic effect. You can add herbs or honey to this to enhance the flavor.
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I love this site! Thank you sooo much for all your posts!
What a lovely garden you have!..beautiful!
i think thats a lotus
You have a wonderful blog!!
I know how heavenly is the fragrance of the seven round petals jasmine and the star variety jasmine!
what a wonderful garden ..Ive always wanted a small house and a big garden ..i grow some hibiscus now..but nothg more 🙁
just the other day i was discussing ‘moggina’ with lakshmi
nothing like the smell of jasmine to bring back memories of south india…
thank you for a daily dose of beauty 🙂
thank you for a daily dose of beauty 🙂
i love these jasmines & water lilies! I hv the same climbing jasmines with small white blooms at the pathway to our home. It is so wonderful to wade through the fragrance when coming home! I don’t hv the water liliy but hv drawn it as a mehndhi design on my daughter’s tummy!
I envy your garden..while I smell the jasmine flowers on reading your post..
Too good!
what a beautiful post
Great pictures as usual and the jasmine brought memories of it’s heavenly fragrance, something we Mysoreans grew up with. I may want to run over to “Little India” in Singapore (where I live) just to get a whiff of this flower. Lovely post as usual.
Thanks Amila, Reader Wil, Vlahos, Bengbeng, Mimi, Brenda and Gowri. Thankyou very much for the compliments.
Indrani, what beautiful flowers! To grow water lilies on a blcony garden, and then to photograph them so perfectly. Wow. This was such an informative post too! Waiting for more!!
Since you were kind enough to comment on my Blog I thought I should take a peek at yours. (I’m not yet sure of all the blogging conventions) And what did I see but glorious photography that would look wonderful in an art book. I agree, you should let us see your whole small garden!
Rinkly Rimes.
Hello you have lots of beautiful pictures of lovely flowers…love them all…
the water lily is beautiful
so you have a wonderful balcony with all those beautiful flowers. those purple water lily are truly remarkable
How beautiful! I especially like the last pink flowers with the yellow-orange hearts! Thanks for your visit!
Thanks a lot for this informative post Indrani!. The pictures of the flowers are very nice. I enjoyed this post.
Thanks Raji… I am waiting for your macros. 🙂
Thanks Michael… our independence day is just round the corner… 15th August.
Thanks Swarna… ME??? 😉
Thanks MamaGeek… but your floral shots are a class apart.
Thanks Hilary.
Thanks Chris… When the compliment comes from a professional like you, it means a lot to me.
Thanks Arlene.
Thanks Mouli… and welcome to my blog. Initially I intended to put the shots of balcony too, but those black grills would have spoilt the whole look. However I am soon going to post on my third balcony, so watch out for this space. 🙂
Thanks Lakshmi… I am glad you are enjoying my posts with pictures. Do convey my regards to your Mom and I wish her luck with the jasmine plant.
Wow! Really, i just love ur pictures. They’re always awesome!! You know, u remind me of the jasmine plant my mom bought yesterday. She was unsure wheather it will grow in calif soil, but thanx for that imp link u gave there. I’ve copied that out for her. Italian women weat jasmine? really? I never knew that!
Could you also post a picture of your full balcony garden? I am sure, all of us would be interested in viewing that as well.
pretty flowers.
arlene,
Gig Harbor florist
Wow! I say you are doing well with small space gardening. Thanks for inviting me over.
I had no idea there were so many varieties of Jasmine. I love how it smells. And that purple water lily is amazing!
Wow. I am partial to any floral shot. These were FAB!
Indrani
please start online lessons on the art of capturing nature on bytes!
Oh those water lillies are beautiful! Thanks for stopping by my place so faithfullly! BTW, When was India’s Independence day?
How nice, Indrani, that you have this mini garden – and as usual, such lovely pictures!