Victorian Window Boxes

Victorian Window Box available in Small (38.95) and Large (48.95) at Garden Boutique.

These charming Victorian-style window boxes are perfect if you like the rustic, antiquated flavour of Victorian cottage gardens and countryside chic. They are perfect for planting up on porches, window sills and walls filled with lazy drooping ivy and pretty pink skimia.

Made of sturdy rustic iron these window boxes are designed to look like aging antiques - only you will know they weren't discovered in a tangle of weeds in the garden of a dilapidated provinical cottage.

The Small window box measures 18cm x 66cm and the Large is a generous 18cm x 88cm. They contain a flat zinc tray so you can keep your pots balanced. Our ever-popular small round zinc pots fit perfectly into these windowboxes and complete the shabby vintage look.

Free Delivery on orders over £50 at Garden Boutique

We are pleased to be able to offer free UK mainland delivery on all orders over £50 at Garden Boutique. Once your basket value reaches over £50 in value, the free delivery option will automatically be selected for you.

Autumnal Windowboxes

These beautiful planted window boxes are from Jayson Home and Garden, a company based in Chicago. The thoughtful use of colour on the bottom planter is stunning, whereas the herb box (middle) gives culinary herbs their due in an overflowing display of green . Unfortunately they don't deliver to the UK, but their lovely window boxes can be an inspiration to us all.

A good white window box is hard to find...

We have been searching high and low for a white window box at Garden Boutique. It is not an easy task, as so many white window boxes begin to look tatty and cheap after only a couple of weeks in the garden.

Recycled aluminium planter - powder coated white window box
£310 from Garden Boutique

Finally, we have found a white window box that stands up to the task. The bad news is that it is not cheap. It seems perfection comes with a hefty price tag.

The good news is that these white window boxes are nigh on indestructable. The planters are colour powder coated as a whole single piece so that there are no seams or joints on the exterior surface into which water could penetrate. Then they are baked at 180 degrees centigrade to allow the powder colour to super adhere into the aluminium surface to create exceptional colour longevity.

Each white window box comes with a 16 year colour guarantee so you know it will look good for years to come.

Aged Zinc window box for classic window box style

Aged Zinc window box availble in 3 sizes
From £16.95 at Garden Boutique

Aged Zinc window boxes and pots have an amazing patina. They have a lovely matt finish that looks old without looking tatty. This zinc window box is a favourite with garden designers as it's classic good looks are timeless and go with everything...
The aged zinc window box is available in 3 sizes: 40cm zinc window box, 60cm zinc window box and 80cm zinc window box.


Matching zinc pots and zinc tubs are also available from Garden Boutique from £9.50

Window box brackets for hanging windowboxes - adjustable hooks

Window box bracket - adjustable hooks - perfect for hanging your windowbox over a balcony wall or railings. Available as an adjustable window box bracket 37cm or 60cm long.

Garden wall bracket for window boxes also available in two sizes.

Check out our range of brackets for securing window boxes.

Adjustable window box bracket XL - 60cm long
£20.95 from Garden Boutique

The adjustable hook bracket can be adjusted to fit over walls/railings from 1cm W to up to 16.5cm W. This window box bracket will support a window box up to 6okg in weight.

Red Painted Iron Windowbox - year round windowbox colour

Painting your windowbox a bright colour, or buying a coloured windowbox is a great way of cheering up a house or business. Just see how the simple planting of cylamen, ivy and skimmia is lifted out of the ordinary by this vivid red windowbox.


I spotted this fabulously ornate red windowbox outside a restaurant in Birmingham. Isn't it an elegant solution?

ADD TOPIARY TO YOUR WINTER WINDOWBOX

Topiary can provide a great anchor to any windowbox planting scheme, but becomes especially important in the winter months.


If you want to include topiary shapes in your windowbox, but don't want to wait, try using a wire topiary frame in your windowbox and grow ivy through it instead...

Traditional plants such as box and yew can take several years to give the desired effect with a topiary frame, but ivy will produce a convincing shape far more quickly.

Alternatively, choose a topiary frame that will clip around an existing plant - so that you can trim it into shape...


New Topiary
New Topiary is this new technique for creating topiary forms using ivy and topiary frames. It has been developed over the last two decades in the USA, in particular at Longwood Gardens near Philadelphia, by topiary expert Patricia Riley Hammer.

Instead of training ivy over a bare frame, the topiary frame is stuffed with either sphagnum moss, or with a surface lining of sphagnum holding in a central core of compost. Rooted ivy cuttings are then planted into the frame and the shoots are pinned to the surface, into which they will root.

Hedera helix cultivars such as ‘Eva’, ‘Goldchild’ or ‘Shamrock’ are small leaved ivy's that are well suited to this method. Patricia advises that they should be spaced about 10-15cm (4-6in) apart. With careful irrigation, this method should give complete surface coverage in around three months.

For more information, you can read her book The New Topiary: Imaginative Techniques from Longwood Gardens



Topiary frames are sold from specialist shops - or you can make them yourself from chicken wire.

This Squirrel topiary frame from Garden Boutique is hinged
so you can simply clip it around your plant and trim to shape

For smaller frames (which can be fiddly to make) it is often worth buying a pre-moulded topiary frame.

Small topiary frames can be found at Windowbox Supply and specialist topiary companies

Window Boxes for Winter

Window boxes can make a great cheery display throughout the cold winter months.

This window box from Cottage Living.com contains trailing ivy, ornamental kale and cabbages, heather and red berberis

To enjoy the best effect from your window boxes, you will need to remember a few window box rules:

1/ Choose a deep planter or window box.
Soil will help to insulate plant roots from the cold and freezing weather so make sure there is room for plenty of lovely soil in your window boxes.

2/Site your window boxes in a sheltered location.
Place them under porches or in deep window recesses if you can. Alternatively, site your window boxes where they will escape frosty weather, and receive plenty of sunshine.

Window box allotment : more inspiration

If you are inspired to try growing fruit and veg in your windowbox, but don't know where to start, there are plenty of books out there to guide you.

My favourites are: Crops in Pots: 50 Great Container Projects Using Vegetables, Fruit and Herbs and The Window-box Allotment: A Beginner's Guide to Container Gardening

Crops in Pots is written by Bob Purnell. It is a glossy book, filled with lovely inspiring images - but could be said to be a little light on practical content...

The Window-box Allotment by Penelope Bennett is a completely different affair. It is written in a lyrical, diary form without any pictures, but the writing is so evocative, you would almost be happy to read it as a novel!

Window box allotment :

This balcony allotment grows 5 different types of tomatoes, parmex carrots, purple sprouting broccoli, kale, mizuna, rocket, pak choi and chicory in terrazzo window boxes.

Notice how the 60cm terrazzo windowboxes are hung over the balcony rail, close butted together in a line, so they look like a giant planter. Very sleek

Sugar snap peas, leeks, sunflowers and a wide range of herbs are grown in tubs and windowboxes placed on the floor of the balcony like a planting trough.

Create a windowbox allotment, without having to grow your fruit and vegetables from seed, with these pre-grown vegetable plug plants.

£24.95 gets you a selection of baby growing plants, in biodegradable coir pots. All you need to do is unpack them, and pop them in your windowbox - it's easy!


You will receive the following growing baby plants:

Dwarf French Green Beans x 3
Mixed lettuces x 10
Rocket x 10
Mizuna x 10
Spinach x 10
Golden streak mustard x 10
Spring onions x 10
Beetroot x 10
Basil x 1 pot
Parsley x 1 pot
Chives x 1 pot


This window box garden garden is ideal for those who would love to grow some of their own food but have little space or no garden available.

The plants can be grown in window boxes, pots, containers, in the garden, on a patio, roof terrace, balcony or on the window sill...

It's amazing how much you can harvest out of this garden - and it's so simple that no gardening experience is required! Order your windowbox allotment now for delivery Spring 2009

Edible plants for your windowbox

Great tips from the Independent about the best edibles to grow in your windowbox.

My favourite Chanteray carrots get a mention - although parmex will also grow very happily in a windowbox...

More green and white themed window boxes and planters

Double windowboxes in white and green - with black gloss planter

Some more classic winter window boxes in white and green - it would be hard to make anything else work with the bold black and white tiles I guess.

Window Box Style - elegant white and green

White cyclamen with trailing ivy, and buxus spheres complement the blade like leaves of phormium and a slate grey window box.

White and green themed window boxes are everywhere at the moment. In a break away movement from the bright colours of summer flower box plantings, the trend for this winters windowbox is neutral whites, creams and greens...

Fake it with plastic plants in your windowbox.
Here fake buxus, fake ivy and fake white hydrangeas make a sublime planting combination for this planting trough

But look how much better it looks with real plants!

Here terrazzo cube planters containing tall clipped bay cones are underplanted with the soft domes of white hydrangeas. The large leaves of the hydrangea really softens the effect and introduces and new texture into the planting scheme.

This is a planting combination that could easily be ammended for a windowbox or long planting trough.

CHOOSE A RED WINDOWBOX FOR VIBRANT PLANTINGS

There is a saying that "Red and Green should never be seen" but when it comes to planting up garden pots and windowboxes, you can ignore this rule completely. The pictures of red windowboxes below prove why...

Red wooden windowbox planters are filled with buxus balls and the sharp colour contrast is softened by blue winter pansies...

Red and Green are complementary colours - this means that they are opposite on the colour wheel. Using red and green together in planting is particularly effective for winter displays as when placed next to each other, complementary colours make each other appear brighter.


You can make use of this colour device by using red and green planting together. Red cyclamens are seen here against the green of ivy. Alternatively you can use your pot or windowbox to provide a bold block of red and plant your container with evergreens such as buxus.

Classy white windowbox matches white wooden shutters

This elegant granite windowbox has been planted with trailing white petunias and the silver foliage of lavender. The white is an excellent choice for this setting as it complements the white window frame and the white wooden shutters inside the property - as well as toning in with the cream rendered walls of the house

UNUSUAL PLANTERS

I stumbled across these great planting displays on my Sunday morning ramble. It just goes to prove that you can plant almost anything.

I love this milk churn - doesn't it look romantic...

autumn window box planting plan

The new autumn planting plan for your windowbox has just been released at Garden Boutique.

Each season, a new window box planting plan is designed for customers by leading UK garden designer Alice Bowe

This planting plan comes free with every window box purchase - and with both traditional and adventurous planting suggestions on every planting plan, it's a great idea for an original birthday gift

GALVANIZED ZINC WINDOW BOX - GREAT VALUE

Galvanized zinc window boxes are a garden classic - and these gorgeous versions with their chunky lip are great value.

Available as a 40cm Galvanized Zinc window box or a 60cm Galvanized Zinc window box

BEST PLANTS FOR WINDOW BOXES

When planting a windowbox, choosing plants to match your exposure is the key to success.

If you choose shade loving plants for a window box on a south or west-facing wall, the foliage will get scorched in the high light levels; and plants that thrive in full sun will grow tall and leggy in a northern exposure.

SHADE LOVING PLANTS FOR A NORTH FACING WINDOW BOX

If you are planting a shady windowbox, try:

Hellebores - I particularly like H. orientalis 'Ballards Hybrids' but there are some lovely ones to choose from

Hosta - try mixing a few different sized hostas in the same planting for a lush effect

Fern's such as Polystichum Aculeatum (Hardy Shield Fern) and Adiantum (Maidenhair Fern) or even Asparagus falcatus (Asparagus Fern}

Shade loving herbs such as Parsley, Chive and Mint

Pansy - classic window box plant

Ivy - great for evergreen structure throughout the year

Fuschia - Elegant in hot pink or white

Hydrangea - looks great with ferns if you can get them small

PLANTS FOR A SOUTH OR WEST FACING WINDOWBOX

If you are planting a sunny windowbox, try:

Lavender - classic when planted on it's own

Salvia - long flowering

Nasturtium - great for trailing over the side of your window box, and edible flowers too!

Sun loving herbs such as Basil, Oregano and Thyme

Strawberries - I particularly like to combine alpine strawberries with erigeron karviscianus

Verbena - another great long flowering essential