9th floor, west-facing downtown Toronto (attached pic is North-to-South from right-to-left)
12 feet wide
full sun
two 27″ and two 21″ cube containers (w foam)
Desire (eventual) minimum four feet in height with as much density as possible to block loud, ugly A/C units on roof…prefer non-homogenous look with multiple colours/bloom times, etc.
What trees and/or shrubs would you plant here?
Thank you for contacting the Toronto Master Gardeners about plants for your balcony. A good source of information about container gardening is Container Gardening: A Toronto Master Gardeners Guide. The References section has links to a wealth of information. You can find it here
There are some special considerations for containers on a balcony eg. wind (more of a consideration the higher you go), plant hardiness zones (plants need to be two hardiness zones lower than for in ground gardening in order to survive the winter, so zone 4 for most of Toronto), winterizing containers, possible building restrictions related to balcony gardening. The Toronto Master Gardeners get lots of questions about balcony gardening. All of our responses to previous questions on this topic, including plant suggestions, can be found by entering ‘balcony’ in the Find it Here box on our website
Here are our responses to some previous questions that are similar to yours :
Recommendations for tall trees on a windy balcony. Click here
Planting Trees in Planters on SW full sun balcony in TO. Click here
Trees or Shrubs for North Facing Balcony. (Content is not all specific to a north facing balcony.) Click here
What trees can survive over winter on balcony. Click here
Best wishes for an enjoyable summer in your balcony garden!