• Window boxes brimming with summer color brighten any house.Creatas Images/Creatas/Getty Images
  
  Window boxes filled with hanging or upright flowering plants give a boost to your home and garden. These inexpensive, natural decorations add bursts of fresh color to the spot, fill the surrounding air with a fragrance and attract butterflies and hummingbirds to the area. Grow your favorite annuals or perennials taking into consideration the amount of sunlight or shade the container garden receives.
  
  

Geranium

• Geraniums provide round bursts of color from spring through frost.Pink geranium image by tara from Fotolia.com
  
  Geraniums (Pelargonium x hortorum) are sun-loving plants suitable for window boxes that are exposed to full sun. Also called zonal geraniums, the clump-like plants produce dense green or variegated foliage and a variety of blooms in bright and pastel shades to meet any color preference. Geraniums thrive in well-draining soils, and produce blooms from spring until fall.
  
  

Petunia

• Petunias add punch to the window box.Variety of petunias image by Sergey Kolesnikov from Fotolia.com
  
  Add a welcoming touch to your home by growing petunias (Petunia hybrida) in your window box. The popular bedding and container plants add fresh color to the summer landscape. Featuring trailing and upright varieties, the sun-loving plants produce funnel-shaped blooms in shades of purple, white, blue and pink.
  
  Petunias emit a pleasant aroma that the slightest breeze carries indoors through the windows. The heat-tolerant plants thrive in well-draining, slightly moist soils enriched with organic matter to produce blooms from spring until fall. Hummingbirds love petunias.
  
  

Creeping Zinnia

• Native to Mexico, trailing sanvatalia or creeping zinnias (Sanvitalia procumbens) are vine-like annuals suitable for hanging baskets and window boxes. The heat-tolerant flowering plant grows 6 to 12 inches long and 2 to 3 feet wide. It produces tiny daisy-like golden flowers that bloom from summer until frost, and 1- to 1.5-inch-long, medium green foliage. Plant creeping zinnias in well-draining, slightly acidic soils exposed to full sun for best flowering.
  
  

Impatiens

• Impatiens fill a shady window box with color all summer.impatiens image by palms from Fotolia.com
  
  Impatiens (Impatiens wallerana) are attractive annuals suitable for summer beds or containers. Reaching 6 to 35 inches tall and wide, the easy-to-grow plants produce 1- to 2-inch-wide blooms in a wide variety of shades. The long-lasting plants provide continual color from spring until fall. These popular troopers thrive in well-draining, slightly-moist soils exposed to full or partial shade.
  
  

Tuberous Begonia

• Native to tropical regions of South American and southern Africa, tuberous begonias (Begonia x tuberhybrida) produce low-maintenance flowers that elegantly cascade over the edges of a window box. Growing 12 to 18 inches tall and wide, the popular, summer-blooming plants produce large blooms in shades of white, red, orange, salmon and pink. Depending on the variety, blooms appear single or double, feature smooth or ruffled edges or petals with contrasting color. Begonias thrive in slightly moist soils exposed to full or partial shade.