European Flower Window Boxes
If you’ve ever been to Germany, Switzerland, or Austria you will have noticed something… many of the houses and buildings have window boxes full of beautiful flowers. Other European countries have mastered the window box, but not quite like those living in the Alpine region!
They are also called balcony flowers, as seen below on the balconies:
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| in Tirol, Austria |
Aren’t they beautiful? I took all of these pictures on my trip to Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in 2013.
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| the world’s largest cuckoo clock! |
The flowers in the boxes are typically geraniums and ivy.
There are several types of “balcony geraniums”. The ones below are part of the “minicascade” type of geraniums. They trail about 2 feet and bloom like crazy.
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| in Austria |
The ones featured below appear to be part of the “midcascade” type. They are a little bit fluffier than the ones above!
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| in Strasbourg, France |
The ones below are part of the Balcon series. They are large, up to 4 feet! As you can see, they create huge masses of color!
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| isn’t this house super cute? It is in Bavaria. |
I love how every little window gets a planter box! It takes a house from drab to fab!
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| Bavaria |
Red is the favorite color, but sometimes people plant other colors. Pink is below!
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| in Triberg, Germany |
The great part about these balcony geraniums is that they survive the heat of Summer when others can’t.
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| in Austria |
I wish more houses in America would have planter boxes in front of every window!
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| in Germany |
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| in Germany |
I love the double layer of flowers on this building below
The hotel we stayed at in Austria even had balcony flowers for every room! I still can’t believe I visited this place!
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| Interalpen Hotel, Austria |
I found this pretty house on houzz, which is a modern interpretation of French Provencal style. I love that it incorporates everything that I love… French style, German window boxes, European working shutters, AND it is single story!
You can’t find these special geraniums at every nursery. You have to do a special search for them. Look for “balcon geraniums”, “cascade geraniums”, or “alpine geraniums”
I agree, more houses here should have window flower boxes, makes things look so nice.
Love all of these photos.
Visiting from Common Ground today, thanks for sharing.
Michele
Thanks for stopping by!
oh my gosh, GORGEOUS! i am so jealous of your travels, all of those places are on my wishlist. they really do the flower boxes up, don't they? such inspiration from my travels (paris, holland, spain) the way they take the tiniest space but still embellish with flowers.
thanks so much for coming over and commenting on my paris photos. super appreciate it.
have a great weekend!
b
I think one reason they have such wonderful flower boxes is because they don't have large yards to maintain. I suppose if I only have a 3×3 space to maintain my yard would look fabulous as well!
Thank you so much for visiting me at Home is Where the Heart is, its a pleasure meeting you! I have really enjoyed reading your post on window boxes! I love window flower boxes. What a treat it must have been to visit Germany, Switzerland and Austria. I hope to travel to Europe next year.
I am now following your beautiful blog.
Have a sweet day, Elizabeth
Thanks for stopping by. The trip was a real treat, now I'm dying to go back!
A beautiful post – love the flowers. I now trying to figure out how to attach a window box to the front of my house.
I tried to figure that out too, hmph. Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, I'm visiting from A Stroll Through Life's Inspire Me Tuesday. Loved this post and pictures! This is making me want to set up flower boxes also. I'm from Germany and I love to look at pictures taken by travelers because they often see things with totally different eyes. I have overlooked those lovely flower boxes way too often. Thank you so much for the inspiration!
Willkommen! Now that I have pointed this out to you you will notice them everywhere!
This was such a fun post to view!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Ah!! You made me feel as if I had a mini-trip! Beautiful! I wish I had a balcony to put some beautiful flowers on. Maybe sometime I could put some on my deck. Gorgeous!
You should put some on your deck! You know they will look nice in the middle of Summer!
Oh I remember these from when I was in Europe. They are totally unreal. Thanks tons for linking to Inspire Me.
Thanks for stopping by, Marty!
Thanks for posting this! Do you know where I can get these exact flowers and boxes in California? I would love to know! 🙂
I have no idea. sorry.
Wow… so many beautiful flower boxes… very colorful. 🙂
Yes, they were all so beautiful! I wish we the houses here all did that!
I'm so happy someone else appreciates the European style flower boxes! We visited Austria, Germany, Italy and Croatia last year too and greatly enjoyed the many balconies we saw. Because of that (and because I'm from Europe) we also have 9 flower boxes (3 foot each) on our balcony and each year I plant different flowers. People stop to photograph our house, which is creepy, lol. Those photos are gorgeous! Thanks so much for linking up with us at Thursday Favorite Things! Hope to see you next week!
The flower boxes were something I really noticed over there! I really wish more people over here did it! I wonder if part of it has to do with the fact that they have such small yards (if any at all). Thanks for stopping bye!
Thanks Angelina for sharing this flower inspiration at Monday's Cooking & Crafting with J&J!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
When we came back to Canada I found that I really missed the beautiful window boxes. People here are so tame with their window boxes, if they bother to have them at all. I loved the way the Germans combined red geraniums and purple lobelia in one box. Glorious!
I love those flower combinations too! In America people are also pretty tame with their window boxes!
I have always loved window boxes, and knowing what I know about even regular gardening, this is amazing. How do they do it?
Thank you for linking to TOHOT. We are so glad you are here.
I have no idea how do they do it! Thanks for hosting the party!
Love, love flowers and Spring blooms!
Thank you for joining us in Thoughts Of Home On Thursday!
Jemma
Aren't they all so pretty?
Oh wow…these are SO pretty!! 🙂
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
Thanks, Jess!
Angelina, these are amazing! I would love to do something like you shared but in Texas it's too hot and we can't keep them very pretty. I sure enjoyed looking at them.
Be sure and check out Thoughts of Home on Thursday this week. 🙂
Oh yes, too hot in Texas, unless… well you faced the North? Even then, it's so hot. Geraniums though are pretty sturdy, our plants here in the hot California sun do well, maybe you could give it a shot? And yes, I'll be checking out THT!
These pics brought back very fond memories of our European Riverboat cruise last year. We saw so many of these picturesque homes with the window flower boxes….some almost didn't look real. It was especially appealing to this desert-dweller. No window boxes here, but many of the new homes have front porches….this is a step in the right direction!
Carol, I have always wanted to go on a riverboat cruise in Europe! I am sure you saw so many cute houses along the river. They do look like they are straight out of a storybook fairytale. Yes, we have front porches, but they just aren't the same, are they?
Beautiful! Love it! Thanks for the pics!
I am glad you enjoyed it!