| Flower seeds for every occasion | | Posted Sunday, January 29, 2006 3:36:34 PM by Kate Grant | If you are in need of a nice, inexpensive (not to mention original) gift, that will last, if not forever, at least a good couple of months or even years, here's a new idea for you. Flower seeds or perennials.  You can buy them in bulk, then divide them into separate packets.
Depending on the season, you'll be able to find flower seeds for almost any flower there is. Invest in a nice flowerpot or container, plant the seeds, and gift wrap it with cellophane, or make a gift basket, arranging the flower seed packets nicely on a bad of raffia, and add some small gardening tools, a set of gardening gloves and maybe even some hand lotion, as a treat for those working hands.
Other than flower seeds, you can find seeds for herbs like parsley, basil, rosemary, or even vegetables, such as tomatoes, carrots or salad leaves, (suddenly the idea of having a small vegetable garden sound very appealing...).
Wild flower seeds are a very nice wedding favor, for guests to remember that special day whenever they look at the beautiful flowers. Many catalogs from many companies, will offer you an array of flower seeds, and you can choose your favorites.
You can even ask for sunflower seeds, and later enjoy both the beautiful look of the sunflower, and the taste of the roasted and lightly salted seeds, sprinkled over your salad...
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| | | Let good fortune flower for the lunar year | | Posted Sunday, February 04, 2007 2:53:35 PM by Blog57 Team | | Visit the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco over the next few weeks and you'll be seeing red. Ditto at area nurseries and at special seasonal plant sales. Red is the color of good luck, and as the Lunar New Year approaches on Feb. 18 -- this is the Year of the Boar (or Pig) -- many people will be stocking up on flowers, plants and fruit that have particular significance at this time of year in Asian cultures. ``Red is the luckiest color to use in decorating your house at the new year. And you should always wear something red on the first day of the new year for good luck,'' says Joan Tom, who for the last three years has been a docent at the conservatory, which will host a big floral display that opens Tuesday and runs through March 4. Reddish-pink and pink flowers and plants also bring good luck, she says.... | |
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| | | Half term fun at Lakenheath Fen | | Posted Friday, February 02, 2007 12:54:17 PM by Blog57 Team | | WHAT do plants, an albatross and love have in common? All are themes for half-term events at the RSPB's Lakenheath Fen nature reserve next month.The first event, Plants for Wildlife, is on Saturday, February 10, from 10am to noon when children and their parents can learn more about which garden plants benefit birds. There will be an opportunity to buy recommended plants, take part in a plants for wildlife quiz, and win some wild flower seeds. During half-term week, childrenwill have a rare opportunity tomeet Albie, the RSPB's giantmake-believe albatross on Tuesday, February 13, from10am-noon. On Valentine's Day, Wednesday, February 14, from 10am to noon children can make bird cake love-hearts and take part in a “nature's courtship" quiz.Events cost £1 for children. Call 01842 862036 or 07909 907061.... | |
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| | | Grow like a weed? You may have an advantage | | Posted Thursday, January 11, 2007 2:58:21 PM by Blog57 Team | | WASHINGTON (AP) -- The ability to grow like a weed may be an advantage when it comes to coping with climate change. Plants with short life cycles can adapt more quickly to change than those that reproduce slowly, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine. The findings are reported in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Some species evolve fast enough to keep up with environmental change. Global warming may increase the pace of this change so that certain species may have difficulty keeping up. Plants with longer life cycles will have fewer generations over which to evolve," Arthur Weis, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said in a statement. Weis and colleagues focused on Brassica rapa -- field mustard -- a plant classified as an annual because it goes from seed to flower and back to seed in one year.... | |
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| | | Hungary seeds 'Flower of the Fence' | | Posted Monday, January 01, 2007 12:57:17 PM by Blog57 Team | | Atlantic Overseas Pictures and EuroCo Prods. have launched development of "Flower of the Fence," a love story set against the backdrop of the Holocaust, with production set for the third quarter of 2007 in Hungary. Richard Dreyfuss, Maia Morgenstern and Thomas Sangster will star. AOP president Harris Salomon and Matt Salzberg are scripting based on the true-life story of Herman Rosenblat, who fell in love with a woman he met through the fences of Nazi concentration camps. Project is using the new Hungarian tax credit and a financing plan from OTP Bank, along with investors in Hollywood. EuroCo president Gabor P. Koltai is also a producer and the son of Hungarian thesp Robert Koltai. OTP veep Laszlo Wolf said the project will help attract to Hungary film production that previously had been going to other central and eastern European countries.... | |
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| | | Gregoire's science project is a budget | | Posted Thursday, November 23, 2006 12:54:53 PM by Blog57 Team | | Gov. Chris Gregoire smiled at the convoluted mix of levers, pulleys and incline ramps used by Covington Middle School students to demonstrate Newton's laws of physics. She prefers blunt force, however, to sell her education reform centerpiece to state legislators starting next month. "I'm going to part the waters and say: 'Education,'" Gregoire vowed Thursday after students showed their stuff. Her state budget plan due in December will target hundreds of millions of dollars more for schools and instructors. "It's the No. 1 fiscal investment we make." Orchards was the latest stop in the governor's week-long tour to promote the ambitious Washington Learns blueprint issued Monday. The day's focus was science, which along with math needs a major boost if future graduates are to compete in the global market, she said.... | |
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| | | Discovering the joys of nature through gardens | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 6:55:37 AM by Blog57 Team | | By Lola Nayar, New Delhi, Nov 14: Children potter around the garden, digging the earth, sowing seeds and tending to plants, in a hands-on teaching of learning to live with nature started by the Eden Project of Britain. Through the project, scores of school children work in the vegetable and flower gardens and green patches in protected shelters near the play ground, learning practical lessons about environment, botany, waste management, reproduction and crops.Children from nine schools in Pune and 11 in Mumbai are involved in the project."The children learn to toil with soil," said Subbalakshmi Kumar of the Centre for Development Education, a NGO that manages the Garden for Life project in India.Schools are linking the experiment, supported by Britain's Global Dimension Trust and coordinated by the Eden Project - a huge botanical garden in Cornwall - and the Science Across the World website, with their school curriculum.... | |
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| | | Veterans Day events | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 10:57:01 PM by Blog57 Team | | Georgetown red poppy planting — 9 to 9:30 a.m. today. Seeds of the red poppy, the official flower of the American veteran, will be distributed by the Georgetown Visitor Information Center along with a map of key areas of Georgetown where they are to be planted. Georgetown Visitor Center, 101 E. Seventh St. www.georgetown.org. The Moving Wall Remembered — 10 a.m. today. Dedication of a panel of the Moving Wall, a traveling replica of the Vietnam War Memorial, with a flyover, a color guard and keynote speaker Bill Goshen, a U.S. Army long-range patrol ranger. The documentary 'The Moving Wall Remembered' will be shown after the dedication. Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, Visitor Center, 100 Ladybird Lane, Johnson City. www.nps.gov/lyjo. .... | |
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| | | Endangered aloe gets new lease of life | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 10:57:47 AM by Blog57 Team | | Lesotho's national flower is heading for the endangered list. The spiral aloe is found only high up in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho, north of the country. A garden for vulnerable plants is run by the Lesotho Highlands Water Authority. Bongani Ntloko, the gardens chief horticulturalist, has miraculously grown the Aloe Polyphylla from seeds outside a laboratory. He says laws are no longer enough a 16 years jail sentence doesn't stop poachers from removing and selling the plants. Ntloko says economic development through conservation is the answer. A German team will arrive next year to help design community based ethno-botanical gardens. The most striking feature of this aloe is the perfect spiral in which the leaves are arranged. It has become a prized collector's item and is possibly also used for muthi.... | |
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| | | Gardening With Charlie: The Dirt On Composting | | Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 3:09:40 AM by Blog57 Team | | (Family Features) Gardening is dirty business, but that's a good thing because building healthy soil is essential for growing productive flowers, vegetables, and herbs. One of the best ways to improve your soil is to add compost. While not high in fertilizer value, compost has many benefits, including making nutrients more available to plants, improving water drainage on clay soils, and retaining water on sandy soils. Fall is a great time to make or buy compost and add it to your garden beds.Buying CompostFirst you need to know how much compost to add. For existing flower and vegetable gardens, work in a 1- to 2-inch-thick layer of compost in spring or fall. For a new garden on poor soil, add a thicker layer.The easiest way to apply compost to a small garden is to buy bags. Bagged compost is usually sterilized and free of weed seeds.... | |
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| | | Straw house | | Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006 7:10:01 PM by Blog57 Team | | There is a flower bed on the west side of my house that is sheltered by a large, multi-grafted apple tree. In winter I use the bed to overwinter tender plants, such as pineapple guava and hardy ginger. Some citrus plants, such as hardy orange (Poncirus trifoliata 'Flying Dragon'), also do well here, as does limequat with some protection. The plants benefit from their proximity to the foundation of the house and shelter from the winter wind. I use bales of dry straw to make an enclosure that provides additional protection for some of the plants. The bales -- usually 3 feet long and about 16-18 inches wide and tall -- vary in price depending on their size, weight, availability, etc. They come bound with steel or wire; don't remove the bindings. I prefer to use straw because, of all the baled grass products, it has the fewest seeds that cause weed problems later.... | |
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