A Summer Garden on the Balcony

Balcony A quirk of sunlight and enshadowed trees sixty feet west of my balcony makes this Ikebana-like photograph possible outside of the studio.  For the most part, and as lovely as blooms and plant forms may be, the magic of the garden resides in its dawn to dusk atmosphere.  This summer's plantings turned out rather bushy in miniature and tan, white, and blue for field colors: Euphorbia ("Silver Fog"), Labelia ("Techno Heat White"), Plumbago ("Escapade Blue"), Angelonia ("Angel Mist Deep Plum" and "Diamond Frost").  There are other plantings today in hanging baskets and on the deck, which offer about 6x12 feet for a bistro table and two chairs plus a teak side table and one or two director's chairs (toward the back, there's also a now old friend of a peace lilly in a big clay pot on a wrought iron table).

A lovely space for coffee at dawn as the birds make a racket in the neighboring woods.  The light show starts around noon.  The challenge this year has been in selecting plants that would do well in direct and dappled sunlight and much shade, and remain with me into October at least.  The Euphorbia, as did "Dusty Miller" before it, may winter over, and this year too I'm trying to keep a few of the spring's pansies going with hopes they'll survive the worst of the summer and have a second round as fall-to-winter and later winter through spring plants.