Window Box Brilliance: Best Flowers and Simple Setup

1. Strategic Placement and Marking: Begin by holding your window box against the wall in your desired location. Consider factors like window height, visibility from inside and outside, and direct sunlight exposure. Once you’ve determined the ideal spot, carefully position the L-brackets that came with your window box. Using a pencil, accurately mark the exact points where the screws will go through the pre-drilled holes in the brackets. Ensure these marks are level to prevent a crooked installation.
2. Precisely Marking Drill Holes: With the bracket positions established, re-confirm your marks. For each bracket, you’ll typically have two or three holes. Mark each one clearly. Accuracy at this stage is crucial for a secure and visually appealing installation.
3. Specialized Tools for Brick Surfaces: If your home features a brick exterior, standard wood screws and drill bits will not suffice. You will need to purchase specialized masonry screws and a corresponding masonry drill bit. These are readily available at any local home improvement store. Ensure the masonry bit matches the size recommended for your screws.
4. Careful Pre-Drilling: This step requires patience and precision. Attach the masonry bit to your drill. Holding the drill firmly and keeping it at a perfect 90-degree angle to the wall, carefully pre-drill the marked holes. It’s vital to drill straight to ensure the screws go in cleanly and securely. For brick, apply steady pressure and allow the drill to do the work.
5. Attaching the Outer Brackets: Once the holes are drilled, position one of the L-brackets over its corresponding holes. Insert the masonry screws and tighten them securely using a screwdriver or a drill with a appropriate bit. Repeat this process for the other outermost bracket. These two brackets will serve as your primary anchors.
6. Ensuring Level Placement for Center Brackets: With the two outer brackets firmly in place, use a level to determine the precise position for any center brackets. Place the level across the two installed brackets and then align the center bracket(s) accordingly, ensuring they are perfectly level with the outer ones. Mark and pre-drill the holes for these center brackets, and then attach them with masonry screws as you did with the outer ones. This meticulous leveling guarantees your window box will sit straight.
7. Securing the Window Box: With all brackets securely mounted, carefully lift your window box and slip it onto the brackets. Most modern window boxes are designed to click or lock firmly into place, ensuring stability. Double-check that all connections are tight and the box feels stable and secure against the wall.
8. Voilà! Your Window Box is Installed: Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed your window box. The structural work is complete, and now the truly fun part begins – filling it with a dazzling array of plants and flowers to create a captivating display.

Thrillers: The Vertical Stars

These plants provide height and a dramatic focal point. Consider their mature size and sun requirements when planning your layout.

• Geraniums (Pelargonium): Classic and enduring, geraniums offer vibrant blooms in shades of red, pink, white, and purple. They are heat-tolerant and relatively low-maintenance, making them excellent thrillers for sunny locations.
• Snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus): Known for their unique, spire-like flowers, snapdragons add vertical interest and a touch of whimsy. They come in a wide range of colors and prefer cooler temperatures, often thriving in spring and fall.
• Dianthus (Dianthus chinensis): With their delicate, fringed petals and spicy fragrance, dianthus varieties can serve as elegant thrillers. They offer continuous blooms and generally prefer full sun.
• Bachelor’s Button (Centaurea cyanus): These charming, old-fashioned flowers produce striking blue, pink, or white blooms on slender stems, perfect for a cottage garden aesthetic.
• Calendula (Calendula officinalis): Also known as pot marigolds, calendulas offer cheerful orange and yellow blooms, providing a sunny disposition to any window box. They are easy to grow and can be quite prolific.
• Lobelia (Lobelia erinus): While some varieties are spillers, upright lobelia can create a bushy, vibrant blue or purple thriller effect, especially when massed.
• Begonia (Begonia spp.): Tuberous and fibrous begonias come in many forms, with upright varieties offering stunning foliage and long-lasting flowers, especially in shaded or partially shaded window boxes.
• Diascia (Diascia barberae): These delicate-looking but robust plants produce masses of small, vibrant flowers, often in shades of pink, orange, or white, adding a soft, upright texture.
• Godetia (Clarkia amoena): Also known as satin flower, godetia produces cup-shaped, silky flowers in an array of colors, providing a lush and elegant upright display.
• Coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides): Valued for their incredibly diverse and colorful foliage rather than flowers, coleus varieties make striking thrillers, especially for shaded window boxes where they can provide year-round color.
• Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana): Famous for their bright, continuous blooms in shaded conditions, upright impatiens can be excellent thrillers, creating a cheerful burst of color.
• Canna Lily (Canna indica): For larger, more dramatic window boxes, dwarf Canna lilies offer bold tropical foliage and vibrant flowers, especially in full sun.
• Fuchsia (Fuchsia hybrida): Upright fuchsia varieties provide exotic, pendulous flowers, perfect for adding a unique touch, particularly in partial shade.

Fillers: The Heart of the Display

These plants create a lush, full look, bridging the gap between thrillers and spillers with their abundant foliage and mid-height blooms.

• Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima): Producing a profusion of tiny, fragrant flowers, sweet alyssum forms a beautiful, delicate mound that spills slightly. It’s a fantastic choice for continuous blooms and a honey-like scent.
• Pansies/Violas (Viola wittrockiana/Viola cornuta): Ideal for cooler seasons, pansies and violas offer charming, expressive “faces” in a vast spectrum of colors, providing cheerful filler around your thrillers.
• Marigolds (Tagetes spp.): Bright and bold, marigolds are popular for their vibrant yellow, orange, and red blooms. They are hardy, drought-tolerant, and known for deterring pests, making them practical fillers for sunny boxes.
• Baby’s Breath (Gypsophila elegans): The delicate, airy clusters of baby’s breath add a soft, cloud-like texture and contrast beautifully with larger blooms.
• Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis): While native to Texas, various lupine species with their unique flower spikes can be used as distinctive fillers, offering striking blue or purple hues.
• Painted Tongue (Salpiglossis sinuata): These exquisite plants boast trumpet-shaped flowers with intricate veining, adding a touch of exotic elegance and vibrant color as a filler.
• Dusty Miller (Senecio cineraria): Valued for its striking silvery-grey, velvety foliage, Dusty Miller provides excellent textural contrast and brightens any arrangement, especially in full sun.
• Licorice Plant (Helichrysum petiolare): With its soft, silvery-green or variegated foliage, the licorice plant offers a beautiful mounding and slightly trailing habit, ideal for softening the edges of your fillers.
• Petunias (Petunia hybrida – mounding varieties): Beyond the trailing ‘Wave’ types, many mounding petunias offer prolific blooms and a wide color palette, making them excellent, sun-loving fillers.
• Salvia (Salvia splendens/Salvia farinacea): Various salvias provide upright spikes of red, blue, or purple flowers, attracting hummingbirds and offering continuous color in sunny spots.
• Begonia (Begonia semperflorens – wax begonias): These reliable, compact plants offer continuous blooms and glossy foliage, thriving in partial shade and providing consistent color.
• Verbena (Verbena bonariensis – shorter varieties): While many verbena varieties spill, some more upright, compact cultivars can be used as airy, colorful fillers.

Spillers: The Cascading Beauties

These plants trail gracefully over the sides of your window box, adding drama, volume, and a soft, overflowing effect.

• Verbena (Verbena hybrida – trailing varieties): Trailing verbenas produce clusters of small, colorful flowers (often purple, pink, red, or white) that cascade beautifully. They are heat-tolerant and bloom profusely.
• Sweet Potato Vine (Ipomoea batatas): Prized for its dramatic, colorful foliage (lime green, black, purple, or variegated), sweet potato vine is a vigorous grower that creates an abundant, lush spill.
• Vinca Vine (Catharanthus roseus or Vinca major): Offers glossy green or variegated leaves that trail elegantly. It’s hardy and provides a classic, verdant spill, with some varieties also offering delicate flowers.
• Wave Petunias (Petunia x hybrida ‘Wave’ series): Renowned for their incredible vigor and continuous bloom production, Wave Petunias create a stunning, colorful waterfall over the edge of the box. They are sun-lovers and require frequent feeding.
• Lantana (Lantana camara – trailing varieties): Trailing lantanas produce clusters of small, vibrant flowers that change color as they mature. They are extremely heat and drought tolerant, perfect for sunny locations.
• Calibrachoa (Calibrachoa hybrida – Million Bells): Similar to petunias but with smaller, bell-shaped flowers, calibrachoa offers an astounding profusion of blooms and a beautiful trailing habit, perfect for a continuous cascade of color.
• Bacopa (Sutera cordata): Delicate and airy, bacopa produces a continuous carpet of small white, pink, or purple flowers that trail gracefully, softening the edges of the box.
• Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus – trailing varieties): Both the leaves and vibrant, peppery flowers of trailing nasturtiums are edible, making them a fun and unique spilling option, especially in cooler weather.
• California Bluebells (Phacelia campanularia): While less common, these delicate bluebell-like flowers can create a lovely, airy spill with their charming blue blooms.
• Creeping Zinnias (Sanvitalia procumbens): These cheerful plants produce masses of small, daisy-like yellow or orange flowers that trail beautifully, blooming tirelessly through the summer heat.
• Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’): Valued for its vibrant chartreuse-gold foliage that trails abundantly, Creeping Jenny adds a bright pop of color and texture, especially in containers that receive some shade.
• Lotus Vine (Lotus berthelotii): With its unique silver-gray, needle-like foliage and exotic orange-red “parrot’s beak” flowers, lotus vine creates a distinctive and eye-catching spill.