12 of the toughest container plants to grow on a balcony

Even the smallest of spots can stay looking lovely all year, with our top choice of tough-as-nails plants that have attractive foliage or flowers that can brave the cold, wind, and rain. Balconies of high-rise flats can be particularly windy, so it's important to grow plants that will survive such onslaught. Choose from small shrubs, evergreen perennials, hardy ferns, herbs and ornamental grasses, in a range of colours, shapes and textures.

You can also add bursts of seasonal blooms with spring bulbs and tough bedding plants like violas, bush and trailing lobelia, and sweet alyssum. Plant with an eye to the view from indoors as well as out, and enjoy a bonanza of spirit-lifting colour regardless of the conditions you grow them in.

Ajuga reptans

Popularly known as bugle, this low-growing, spreading plant forms rosettes of attractively crinkled leaves in varied colours that include purple, variegated, and tri-coloured. Short stems of bee-attracting mauve flowers appear in spring and summer. An excellent gap-filler for underplanting and for pot edges. Sun or shade. Height x Spread: 15cm x 30cm.

Carex

Forming clumps of slender leaves, some long and arching, others low-growing or even curly, this grass-like sedge comes in many different varieties, with leaf colours that include rusted bronze, green and gold, or yellow and green. Carex are handsome and shapely enough to look good when planted alone and also partner well with many other plants. H x S: 60cm x 60cm.

Euphorbia

Choose smaller species and varieties from this varied plant group for their striking shape, handsome foliage, and lime-yellow flower-like bracts in spring and early summer. Trailing Euphorbia myrsinites, with glaucous leaves and fleshy stems, is a pretty sun-lover for window boxes and pot edges. Bushy Euphorbia x martini has rosettes of green leaves with contrasting dark stems and is good for shade. Multi-coloured ‘Ascott Rainbow’ does best in sun or part shade. Just be aware that the stems, when cut or broken, exude a milky sap that can cause skin irritation and is dangerous if in contact with eyes. H x S: from 15-60cm.

Hardy ferns

Marvellous for shady and windy spots, hardy ferns brighten the gloom with lustrous foliage in different shapes and textures. Wintergreen ferns that keep their leaves though winter include hart’s tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium), soft shield fern (Polystichum setiferum) and common polypody (Polypodium vulgare). Site in partial or full shade. H x S: from 30cm to 60cm.

Heucheras

The scalloped-edged leaves of these clump-forming perennials come in an astonishing range of colours: dark shades of red, purple and pewter, through to vivid fresh greens, lime, yellow, and orange. Slender ‘wands’ of tiny flowers are borne in summer, which make good cut flowers, too. Site heucheras in sun or partial shade. H x S: 40cm x 40cm.

Ivy

Familiar for its lobed leaves in a wide colour range, ivy (Hedera spp and varieties) is one of the toughest plants you can grow and is fantastically versatile. Use little plants of variegated ivy as gap-fillers in window boxes and pots or send larger-growing ivies upwards. Stems are self-clinging by means of aerial roots, so either allow to grow on a wall or fence, as long as the support is sound and stems are kept trimmed away from window frames and gutters. Or train onto a trellis, obelisk, or a decoratively shaped framework to make topiary shapes. H x S: variable, according to support size.

Rosemary

Rosemary is resilient to sun and rain but may struggle in very windy environments. Recently renamed from Rosmarinus to Salvia, though still often sold under its old name, rosemary comes in both trailing and upright forms. Stems are clad with needle-like dark green leaves, plus pretty, blue, bee-attracting flowers. These are borne mainly in summer, but sometimes even appear in winter. Trailing Salvia rosmarinus Prostrata Group grows in hanging curtains of stems, while Salvia rosmarinus is bushy and upright. Site in full sun and shelter. H & S: 70cm x 70cm.

Sage

Another invaluable kitchen herb that needs a bit of shelter, sage is popular for its aromatic oval leaves. If harvesting for cooking is your main aim, grow the green-leaved Salvia officinalis which is most productive. Or, for maximum ornament, opt for the purple, gold, or tri-coloured leaf forms. Sage is best trimmed two or three times a year to encourage fresh good-looking foliage, or just trim occasionally and enjoy purple-mauve flowers in summer that insects love. Grow in full sun and ensure good drainage. H x S: 60cm x 60cm.

Thyme

Yet another herb that both looks good and tastes great. As with sage, the green-leaved common thyme (Thymus vulgaris), which is bushy in habit, is best for use in cooking, though all thymes are edible. Depending on species and variety, growth can be ground-hugging and spreading, or low and bushy, with tiny leaves that are green, gold, or silver. Clusters of tiny flowers, borne in summer, are popular with bees. Grow in full sun and ensure good drainage. H x S: 30cm x 30cm.

Viola

This pansy relative has charming little blooms, borne through winter when weather conditions are favourable, on plants which are usually small and bushy, or sometimes trailing. Choose from lots of pretty colours such as blue, yellow, mauve, pink, white, and orange. Deadheading encourages more blooms to be produced, though is quite a fiddly job. The violas which are sold for winter bedding tend to be short-lived, so plant these ones fresh each year for a reliable display in containers or choose perennial species such as the horned violet (Viola cornuta) or fragrant sweet violet (Viola odorata). H x S: 30cm x 30cm.

Winter heathers

The best species of these bone-hardy little winter-flowering plants to grow in pots is Erica carnea, which has the most compact growth of the different winter-flowering heathers. Forming low cushions of dense stems clothed with tiny leaves – usually green, sometimes gold or orange-tinted – and bearing many little flowers in colours including purple, pink, mauve, and white. Site in sun or partial shade and grow in open free-draining compost. H x S: 15cm x 45cm.

Spring bulbs

Enjoy pops of colourful blooms from January onwards, choosing different types for a succession of flowers. Start with snowdrops and aconites, then move on to dwarf narcissus and grape hyacinth. Either plant dry bulbs in autumn, tucked between or under other plants, or buy small pots of ready-grown bulbs in bud or flower and squeeze them into gaps, or use to fill new containers. H x S: varied.