Hi folks.
This may be a much discussed topic, but I'm new here. My wife and I have balcony on our 37th floor apartment and we've never gotten anything to grow well. We tried little Drift Roses a couple
years ago, but they didn't even last the summer. We've tried low evergreens, but they get blown to pieces...we live next to the Hudson River in New York. Has anyone found a solution for this situation?
David

i am across the Hudson from you also waterfront facing NE: high winds too, but we have walls on both sides and glass on the third. so that provides very good protection from wind, although when it blows directly in, pots fly ;). we are on low 20s floor, so ev 10fl up add 5 miles to wind speed on the ground.
what direction do you face? South would be the worst for heat.
do you have railing or glass? and are the sides open?

Hi Skylark
My balcony faces south, but we also have a side facing west. We get wicked wind in the winter, but even in the summer the wind is strong sometimes. We have railings all around. There's nothing to block the wind. I've thought about getting a plexiglass baffle on the west wall, but I just haven't done. My wife just went out and bought a lot of pink and white vinca and it looks good. We'll see how it does.

depends on yr building rules...but you can get a shade cloth
like this from amazon:
https://tinyurl.com/m6pwzpmh
it says it cuts down wind and reduces temps by 15F ...
provided you can zip lock it to yr railing. it should really help.
keep in mind that square pots do not fall and roll as easy as round ones. and in FL people put plant pots in larger pots (2" + diameter, so at least 1" in-between, that helps to keep roots cooler. also you can't use dark color pots: they heat up tremendously. if you can't replace yr pots with white ones, even just painting them helps too.
getting white painted slat boxes (like for patios) to put pots in will serve the same purpose. cooler pots will need less watering.
if you do the above it will increase your choice of plants a lot! otherwise you'll need to look at xeroscaping choices like yucca, agave, mangave, aloes..nothing else will survive for long.

You have to consider two cultural points at the same time. Yes, the wind is certainly one thing but you must consider temperature at the same time. Look at how the two of them effect drying time. The two factors that dry plants out quickly are sun and air movement.

Depending upon building management rules your best bet might be large, heavy light colored containers. They would dry out a little more slowly due to their large size and lighter colors reflect heat away from the roots.

Thanks for the hints. My wife uses Lechuza "self-watering" pots. So far, so not-so-bad.
It's working better than previous years. The 90-degree weather is a real test.

Thanks for the suggestion of shade cloths you suggested, Skylark. We often have the dilemma of choosing between a little shade and a pretty good view...

That's the Hudson River and New Jersey from our balcony.

Well..😁..I see your dilemma! No shade cloth then !
Perhaps something tropical and fast growing like cannas? They can stand full frying sun, but love water too. The wind will shreds their leaves, sort of like bananas, but just a few pots will make it look lush.
When I first found out about Lechuza pots I read all their publications and started repotting all my plants into a mix appropriate for self-watering. Now I can leave my plants for many weeks unattended.
I have a south balcony in Miami FL and the sun is directly overhead , so balcony is fully shaded at all times: that is very good of course, not hot. So the plants do not burn and have very bright light. If yours is like that you can get crotons, they sell 'Petra' as annuals usually: very colorful and you can winter them over indoors.
Also Jades : they can stand the sun/heat/wind and low temps too: I keep mine outside till it drops to below 40F at nite. They can be very dry, so no need to water daily. But they get very heavy and need sturdy ceramic pots.

The crotons must be wonderful on a Florida balcony.
Over-wintering indoors is also limited in a NY apartment. Every millimeter is
accounted for! So many times we've considered moving out of New York, but
after 60 years here it doesn't seem likely.