Lovely! I am hoping to add window boxes to the store my family owns this year, but was wondering what to do with them in winter- this is perfect!

Very nice! I love evergreens...and CONES!
So pretty with snow.

How do you keep your window box so pristine white?

Annie, I dunno. It probably helps that it is under our porch roof.

TM

Love, love, love your winter window box TM. We've only had a couple of light snowfalls so far this winter, here today gone tomorrow. We've had such a mild winter this year I've actually got a good piece of spring cleanup done, stuff I usually have to wait until the end of march to do.
I was going to go out and take a picture of the mix of crocus and snowdrops blooming under the dogwood tree but we are in the middle of a 'Pineapple Express' , very mild but it's pouring :(.

Annette

Ha Ha Ha!
"Pineapple Express"

Thank you Hawaii for all the pouring rain.

We're supposed to get some of that very same storm on Monday, only by the time it gets here it may be mixed winter precip - snow and rain and whatever.

Maybe I will bake a pineapple upside-down cake in honour of the arrival of the "Pineapple Express" ...and think of you. LOL

Annette
You have crocuses, snowdrops, and a dogwood tree blooming? How nice.
I'm still just dreaming of Spring to arrive here - ain't you thinman? Weeks away yet.

Thinman, Did you plant some spring bulbs in that window box?

Jealous of the blooming! I have crocuses peeking through, but weeks away from blooming here in VA :(

Annie the dogwood doesn't bloom till May, besides the four different varieties of Snowdrops and Crocus the only other things blooming right now are my Helebore, Lecojum, Sarcococca and Winter Jasmine and maybe a few violets. The house sparrows have eaten all the flower buds off my Winter Viburnum for the second year in a row, this shrub usually blooms throughout the winter and on a sunny day the fragrance was really lovely, darn birds :(.

Once the bulbs die down under the tree we cover them with a thick piece of landscape cloth and mulch. I found out if I do this I never have to weed this area, in November we lift the mulch and landscape cloth, no weeds or grass just bare earth :)

Annette

Annie, I'm with you in the only-dreaming-of -spring department. Up here, March is just another winter month.

I have never put bulbs in the window box. It would be a great idea if it worked, but the soil in the box freezes solid each winter, and I don't know if bulbs could live through that. Still, it might be a good experiment some year.

Thanks all, for liking my window box.

TM

I love window boxes that are kept pretty year round. Yours looks terrific, TM.

As far as spring bulbs goes, you could always plant them in a liner box and keep that in the garage maybe.

Yes, it is time to force some forsythia or flowering quince. One would think I would be able to accept that March is still part of winter (even here in northern VA), but by now, I am always ready for spring, so it is doubly hard to take the cold weather at this point. Oh well. I do have daffodils and other bulbs coming up. Yesterday, I even spotted a couple of Hosta stating to emerge. Way too early for them all if we continue to get this freezing cold windy weather!

Thanks for the window box pic, TM. I always enjoy your arrangements!

Cynthia

We had such a "warm" winter through January, that my flowering quince started blooming in late January. Foolish quince! It finally turned winter, had some cold days and even some snow, and all the pretty blooms withered.

All the tulips are up, grape hyacinths, daffs, and the yellow jonquils have begun to bloom. They always start blooming in March, so right on time for them.

A few of the fragrant bigger hyacinths are up and two have bloom heads. I can just see the purple forming. All my roses are making their new leaves too and the succulents are even waking up.

All my irises have emerged and the daylilies, but we are still a l-o-n-g way off from actual Spring. I fear they may all be spoiled by late cold spells and freezes all too common here on the Plains from March thru late April and sometimes into May. Spring is very erratic here. Warm days, cold days, warm days, cold days. The plants not native get fooled into emerging and even flowering. You just cross your fingers and pray that the flowering shrubs and bulbs don't get ruined every year. And fruit trees...it's an even worse scenario.

As for planting bulbs in your window box, TM, I agree about planting them in pots and setting them into your window box. Set the bulbs in pots in the fall. Place them somewhere in sheltered spot in the garden (cause they need the cold to make them bloom), and when they emerge in spring, set them into your window box and add some mulch around them and voila! Instant spring flowers in your window box.

When they wither, you just lift them and set them in the garden to finish their thing, and replace them with pots of annuals in the same manner. It works! That's how many people do it in Europe and the UK.

Much easier to maintain.

Sounds good, Cynthia and Annie. That would be a nice early boost of color right in front of the kitchen window. We don't usually have anything in there until early June. I wonder if I could get pre-chilled bulbs that would bloom this spring. I'm going to Google that right now.

TM

TM,
WalMart has pots of bulbs at their garden centers right now, at least here. Tulips, Hyacinths, &etc. They are all up about three or more inches tall in 4 inch pots.. Lots of plants per pot, too. I bought some last year - very pretty tulips and hyacinths..All you'd have to do is set them in your window box and add potting soil or mulch around them.

Good idea, Annie, though our Walmart probably won't have them until April, which is fine, because the window box will probably take until then to thaw out.

TM

TM
that's so pretty. I'm going to steal your idea for next winter.
If I remember :)
I bet if you leave them in there all summer the red twig dogwoods will grow roots. Just keep them watered. I winter root a few shrubs from cuttings, and while I haven't done dogwoods yet, I know people who do it just that way.
:) Laura

Thinman - that's really pretty but looks too cold for me!

I do just what sweetannie4u mentions above with the pots. Not because the soil in the boxes would freeze but so I can change the displays fast. There are permanent things in them but each has two pot shaped spaces which I change around. Here's the current version. The pots will come out when the February Gold daffodils finish and I have Kaufmanniana tulips which I planted in November standing by in a corner of the back garden. The primroses are permanent. They were sold as annuals but are clearly perennial since they have been there since last winter. The view is out of an upstairs window. There are three boxes on the front of the house.

That is lovely flora_uk,

I'm glad you came on and posted too. I've missed your input of late.

My February Gold daffs and yellow jonquils are blooming now, but only out in the garden. :) I tried having window boxes, but couldn't keep the cats out of them. My windows are too close to the ground. The windows that are further from the ground simply get too much sun and the plants roast, even geraniums, so I gave up. But I LOVE window boxes! Adore them. They are like happy greetings to passersby. :)

Every year I buy Primroses. Yours are so lovely. I like how you have the one on the inside so you can see it out your window.

I grow both the short annuals and the taller perennial types, but even the perennials are only good for a year or two, sometimes three, before they die out or voles eat them. They are expensive to keep replacing, but still I simply MUST have them. Little reminders of my childhood and my dear grannie who always grew them..

Flora, it's too cold for me too, but I just soldier on and grumble a little. It sounds and looks!) like a good scheme you have going: switching pots instead of digging out and replanting things. You've made me wish I had some daffodils right now. Maybe I'll have to stop at the florist shop one day soon.

TM

Oh, love your window box idea too flora. What a lovely idea to pair the daffs with the white(?) primrose.

Hey, Schoolhouse. The primroses are primrose ;-) Maybe they look white through the glass. They look a bit fuller now as the daffs have opened a bit more.