Если бы у меня был большой балкон, я поставила бы там фикус и ещё одну орхидею.

Если бы introduces an unreal or hypothetical condition: if ... were / if ... had in English.

In this sentence, it shows that the speaker is talking about an imagined situation, not a real one:

• Если бы у меня был большой балкон... = If I had a big balcony...

A very common Russian pattern for this kind of sentence is:

• если бы
  • past tense
• then another clause with бы
  • past tense

So this is the normal way to say a contrary-to-fact or imagined if sentence in Russian.

In Russian, it is very common to use бы in both parts of this kind of conditional sentence:

• Если бы у меня был большой балкон, я поставила бы...

This literally corresponds to:

• If I had..., I would put...

So:

• если бы marks the hypothetical condition
• поставила бы marks the result as hypothetical too

In English, we use different verb forms (if I had... I would put...). In Russian, the particle бы is what creates that hypothetical meaning.

You may sometimes see stylistic variation, but for learners, repeating бы in both clauses is the safest and most standard pattern.

Russian usually expresses possession with у + genitive plus есть / был / будет, not with a verb meaning to have.

So:

• у меня есть балкон = I have a balcony
• у меня был балкон = I had a balcony

Literally, у меня был большой балкон is something like:

• At me there was a big balcony

That sounds strange in English, but it is the normal Russian structure.

The verb иметь does exist and means to have, but it is much less common in ordinary everyday speech for simple possession. A native speaker would normally say у меня был..., not я имела..., in a sentence like this.

Because балкон is a masculine singular noun.

In Russian past tense, the verb agrees with the gender and number of the subject:

• masculine: был
• feminine: была
• neuter: было
• plural: были

Here, the subject is большой балкон, so the verb must be masculine singular:

• у меня был большой балкон

If the noun were feminine, for example комната, you would get:

• Если бы у меня была большая комната...

Yes. Поставила is past tense feminine singular, so it tells us the speaker is female.

Russian past tense agrees with the gender of the person doing the action when the subject is singular:

• я поставил бы = I would put said by a man
• я поставила бы = I would put said by a woman

So this sentence was said by a female speaker.

That is how the Russian conditional is formed.

Russian does not have a separate verb form exactly like English would put. Instead, it uses:

• past tense form of the verb
• plus the particle бы

So:

• поставила = past tense feminine singular of поставить
• поставила бы = would put

This is completely normal in Russian. The same thing happens in many conditional sentences:

• Я сделал бы это = I would do it
• Она пошла бы туда = She would go there

This is about aspect.

• поставить is perfective
• ставить is imperfective

The perfective verb is used because the sentence imagines a completed, one-time action: the speaker would place the plants there.

So:

• я поставила бы там фикус... = I would put/place a ficus there...

Using ставила бы would usually suggest a repeated, habitual, or more process-like action, which does not fit as naturally here.

In other words, the sentence is imagining a specific result:

• balcony exists
• speaker places a ficus and another orchid on it

That is why the perfective поставить is the natural choice.

Because both nouns are direct objects, so they go into the accusative case, but different noun types behave differently.

1. Фикус

Фикус is a masculine inanimate noun.
For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative is usually the same as the nominative:

• nominative: фикус
• accusative: фикус

So:

• поставила фикус

2. Орхидея

Орхидея is a feminine noun ending in -я.
Its accusative singular changes to -ю:

• nominative: орхидея
• accusative: орхидею

So:

• поставила орхидею

That is why the two objects look different.

Одну is the feminine accusative singular form of один.

Since орхидею is a feminine singular direct object in the accusative, the adjective-like numeral one must match it:

• nominative: одна орхидея
• accusative: одну орхидею

So:

• ещё одну орхидею = one more orchid / another orchid

The word ещё here means still more / another / one more, depending on context.

It can mean either another orchid or one more orchid.

The idea is that the speaker already has, or is already thinking about, at least one orchid, and would add an additional one.

So this phrase suggests:

• a ficus
• plus an additional orchid

In natural English, the best translation is often:

• and another orchid
• or and one more orchid

Both are fine depending on the translation style.

Там means there.

It refers back to the balcony:

• я поставила бы там фикус... = I would put a ficus there...

Russian word order is flexible, so там could move around for emphasis, for example:

• я поставила бы там фикус
• я бы там поставила фикус
• там я поставила бы фикус

These versions are not identical in emphasis, but they are all possible. The original placement is very natural and neutral.

Because Russian separates the if-clause from the main clause with a comma.

So:

• Если бы у меня был большой балкон, я поставила бы там...

This is the standard punctuation for complex sentences with если.

It works much like English punctuation in:

• If I had a big balcony, I would put...

Yes, it could:

• Если бы у меня был балкон, я поставила бы там фикус и ещё одну орхидею.

That would simply mean If I had a balcony...

The adjective большой adds an important nuance: the speaker is imagining a balcony that is large enough to make putting plants there appealing or practical.

Grammatically, большой is an adjective agreeing with балкон:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So:

• большой балкон

Yes, that is the most natural interpretation.

The sentence describes a present unreal condition:

• the speaker does not have such a big balcony now
• but if she did, she would put those plants there

Russian uses the same general conditional pattern for many unreal situations, and context tells you whether it is present or past. Here it is naturally understood as a present hypothetical situation.

So the sentence is essentially:

• If I had a big balcony, I’d put a ficus and another orchid there.