Mini Makeover: Julie's Rooftop Revamp

Last updated: Sep 27 2022

Key takeaways

Julie transformed her rooftop garden by replacing heat-damaged flowers with colorful, pollinator-friendly plants that refreshed the space and created a lush urban retreat.

Layering flowering vines, shrubs, and perennials in complementary shades of yellow, purple, and white added vibrant color, texture, and seasonal interest to the rooftop garden.

Pollinator-friendly plants like coneflowers, roses, azaleas, and Carolina jasmine helped attract bees and butterflies while creating a more vibrant outdoor living space.

Julie Wilson, a.k.a. @gardengirlnyc, knows how to stay grounded despite living in a high-rise. How? With plants, of course! In our final Mini Makeover of September, we follow along as Julie revitalizes her rooftop garden with flowering vines, shrubs, and more!

Julie’s rooftop is brimming with a variety of plants, including fruit trees, bushes, and vegetables. While her edible plants have thrived through the summer heat, her flowers–not so much. “New York City has been unseasonably hot this year,” Julie said. “Some of my plants were scorched by the sun, and this area of my deck needed a serious glow-up.”

She wanted to curate a palette of yellow, purple, and white flowers to brighten up her garden and attract more pollinators. To achieve both the look and the earth-friendly benefits, she ordered a few coneflowers, roses, azaleas, and jasmine vines. All these plants, especially the coneflowers, are pollinator magnets!

Once the plants were on their way, mother nature turned the tables and delivered one of the worst heat spells of the summer. Julie faced an issue many homeowners fear when ordering plants online: damage in transit.

Fortunately, all our plants come with our Alive & Thrive Guarantee™. We worked with Julie to figure out a solution, so she could still achieve the look she wanted. “The Trees.com team was incredibly supportive with making sure the plants arrived in pristine condition and that I was happy with how everything turned out.”

After a little teamwork and problem-solving, Julie received everything she needed for her garden transformation. From start to finish, the transformation took two weeks to complete. “Post-makeover, I love that this area of my garden is so much more lush,” Julie said. “The taller flowering plants give my garden a warmer, homier feel. I just can't wait for them to bloom!”

We loved Julie’s rooftop garden so much that we flew out to NYC to take a tour! Get a closer look at her “urban treehouse” by watching our collaborative garden tour video. Julie also shared how she’s enjoyed her Trees.com experience since she ordered her first Meyer Lemon Tree:

“I love collaborating with a plant company that not only offers a remarkable variety of beautiful, healthy plants but also hires team members who are kind, collaborative, and creatively minded. The people I've connected with at Trees.com have made me further believe in their nursery and ability to get healthy plants into more homes.”

To learn more about Julie’s plant adventures, be sure to follow @gardengirlnyc on Instagram. Looking to transform your space just like Julie? Shop her rooftop garden flowers below.

For more garden inspiration, check out our entire Mini Makeover series here!

Written by

Elizabeth Durham

Though cursed at birth with a black thumb, Elizabeth always dreamed of being a plant person. Turns out she just needed a little guidance—now she’s the proud mama of nearly a dozen house plants! After joining Trees.com as a Content Strategist, she’s expanded her knowledge tenfold and learned how to keep her plants alive…most of the time.

As a newbie in the plant world, Elizabeth understands the struggles of beginner gardeners. And as an experienced writer, she loves creating content that makes difficult concepts easy to understand. In her free time, she enjoys immersing herself in nature through daily lunchtime walks, weekend hikes, and visits to the park with her dog Fred.