Hi, I live in Northeast Ohio, zone 7a. I have a balcony and I really want to have a plant trailing/hanging off of it like in my picture. But I can't seem to fine any that would do this. I know that vines are an option, but I don't want them to potentially stick to the house and ruin the siding. (Side note question: do vines have to attach to shit or can they just free fall and still be healthy?) So basically I want something that can trail down well but won't attach to the siding. Any ideas?
I guess the one thing I struggle to understand is what non-vine plants can trail/hang. I've seen some ground cover plants be able to do that but IDK if wintergreen (Gaultheria Procumbens) could do that or not for example. I have a lot of that and it's a lovely native ground cover.
Anyways thanks in advance for the help!
by Kitten_Monger127
12 Comments
you probably want virginia creeper or clematis virginiana I don’t think native passion flower is hardy that far north but if its planted in a sunny spot and covered with mulch it might survive.
Place a trellis and have the vines grow on that. I have seen people use wires strung from top to bottom. If you try having plants in pots, they will die in winter because they will freeze since the roots will not be protected by the soil. What about these obelisks. The tallest ones are nearly 7 feet tall installed. You could have a few of them to cover from left to right and perhaps rig wires from the top to an eye or something and allow it to grow taller.
I don’t have any suggestions for species but I just want to give you one warning. Apparently some vines are flammable and aren’t recommended to be on your house. For example Trumpet vine is considered highly flammable.
Wild Strawberries (Fragaria virginiana or F. vesca)
Great idea – keep in mind your balcony will get much colder than the ground in winter. Given that you won’t be very easily able to move long trailing plants once they get large, You might want to stick with annuals that you can replant each year in hanging baskets or planters.
You might forgive yourself some non native ornaments for this honestly !
Moss phlox is a beautiful evergreen with great spring flowers that has a hanging habit when in a planter. I don’t know if it would hang more than a few feet down though. I think it would look best if you planted either Virginia creeper (deciduous w gorgeous fall colors) or coral honeysuckle (semi evergreen) in the ground and allowed it to grow up the walls. Neither damages the siding at all because they don’t grow aerial roots. Virginia creeper attaches to surfaces using little suckers you can peel off and coral honeysuckle climbs by twining so you’d need a trellis for it to climb all the way up. Clematis Virginiana is another pretty twining vine with cool fluffy seedpods during the winter.
My experience is that generally vines do much better climbing up rather than trailing down. Trailing like that is not a growth pattern that is common in nature. Pasiflora incarnata could grow up a trellis quickly, but doesn’t attach to hard surfaces. Then you could have window boxes with a compact wildflower like a native geranuim or one of the smaller tickseeds. You could get creeping phlox to trail a little which would create some nice color in early spring.
What about honeyvine milkweed?
Golden pothos, monsteras
Ohh, what about pipevine (Aristolochia macrophylla)? It’s a biiig vine, but it twines rather than clings, and has beautiful big heart-shaped leaves. Great for pipevine swallowtails too
Has anyone mentioned hops? You’d want to run some lines for them to spiral around, of course.
I’m going to second Virgin’s Bower (*Clematis virginiana*) – our native Clematis! This plant is super cool and very beautiful – from what I’ve seen it is also a pollinator magnet. Here’s a good video that covers this species: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu0nW8PLlQc