For many years the Queen of Flowers has been labeled as one of the most chemically dependent plants in the garden.
And to be honest, a good number of roses are fussy and high maintenance.That’s because over time.
In the pursuit of what was hoped to be a more appealing bloom, disease resistance was bred out of many varieties. And casual gardeners found them too frustrating or time-consuming to bother with.
Sonam Konchog, 44, is obsessed with flowers. The lama of Serkhang Monastery in southwestern Qinghai province has spent a good part of his life observing the plants blanketing the holy Gadoiqowo Mountain in Chindu county, Yushu Tibetan prefecture.
"Have you ever gazed at a flower for more than a minute? If you have, you'll know you can communicate with them," he says. This passionate man of flowers has compiled an illustrated pamphlet of the indigenous flora and distributed it to the villagers in this area. Sonam believes that only when they become aware of their natural environment, will they be motivated to stop tourists and pilgrims from picking the flowers at will.
In the 25 years that he has spent at the monastery, Sonam has traveled to the holy mountain every August, as dictated by his religion. The numerous flowers fascinated him and he began to set aside some money to buy himself a camera. He finally got one in 2004.
Flowers in full bloom always draw his full attention. His favorite is the red poppywort. The lama seems to share a special relationship with this tiny flower with bright red petals and a sweet fragrance. Sonam sets off on its trail between May and June, as the flower stays in bloom for just four short days.
Want to brighten up your home with some greenery? How about some aquatic plants, suggests ANUSHA K.AQUATIC plants or plants that can adapt to living in water can be categorised by the air spaces trapped in their roots which have hairy leaves to trap air.
With rather scattered (feathery) roots, when touched, the flat leaves are a little cold while the stem is a little moist compared to normal plants. According to Zam from Melati Evergreen Nursery.
At Jalan Langkawi, Setapak, aquatic plants can brighten up any living space while also adding a little greenery in the house. Some aquatic plants need more sunlight than the others, so those are better kept outside the house.
The maintenance of an aquatic plant is relatively easy provided you change the water frequently. One of the most common misconception of having an indoor aquatic plant is the emergence of mosquitoes. Well.
"I'd love to have a garden, but my yard is too small." So say many people who want to grow their own food but think it's hopeless. Yes, yards these days are tiny and often so shady that only the moss is happy. But if you have any sun at all -- no excuses! Here are 10 ways to make the most of the garden space you've got. It's the Smart Car garden: small size, great mileage. Choose crops that yield big, but have a small footprint.
A carrot needs only four square inches to grow, which translates to two inches apart in the row, two inches between rows. Other low-rent, high-volume vegetables include beets, turnips, onions, scallions, radishes and greens.
Don't even consider pumpkins. Grow a zucchini plant. One zucchini plant. That's all you need. Grow cut-and-come-again crops, such as lettuce, mesclun mixes, spinach, Swiss chard and kale. Keep picking them, and they'll regrow. Look for words like "compact," "bush," "dwarf," "mini" and "baby" (applied to the plants, not their fruits) when researching varieties. Go vertical. Vining crops such as cucumbers, climbing beans or cherry tomatoes, grown on poles, trellises, arbors or fences, occupy the air above the garden.
Plant successions. Whenever an early crop, such as peas, comes out, plant a midsummer one such as paste tomatoes. Follow those with a late one such as kale. Practice interplanting. When you set out your Brussels sprout or broccoli plants in spring, there's room between them for scallions or lettuce. Those will be harvested before the larger plants shade them.
Qin Lingjun, a stall owner selling potted orchids in Huaxiang Flower Market, is ready for the high season. "Days near National Day and Spring Festival are the best periods for the flower market. Many people buy orchids as gifts or to decorate their own homes," Qin explained.
Wang Chengshuang, who sells cut flowers in Huaxiang added, "Since more people buy cut flowers for Spring Festival, usually the prices will increase by 20 percent, beginning about 20 days before the festival."
Most of Qin's orchids are transported from a garden in Zhejiang Province, and the increased transportation prices near festival days are reflected in price hikes for the plants. The same price rise goes for cut flowers, although they can be obtained from local greenhouses.
It was only in the past 10 years that most flower markets in Beijing sprang into being. Flowers must be cultivated in greenhouses in the winter, so fresh flowers were once quite the luxury. Now that Beijingers have more money to spend on home decoration, blooms are available every season.
A huge flower known for its gag-inducing odor has started blooming at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
The exotic flower is called a titan arum. But it's better known as a corpse flower because it gives off an odor of rotting flesh.
The stinky smell helps it attract carrion beetles and sweat bees in its native rain forests of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. WISN-TV reports that the seven-foot-tall flower started blooming — and reeking — over the weekend. Corpse flowers can bloom as infrequently as once every 15 years, and then only for a matter of days. They can weigh as much as 170 pounds, reach nine feet in height and open to a diameter of three or four feet.
Heliotropis is a solar powered sculpture that harvests the sun’s rays to provide energy to the sculpture. Designed by Anthony Castronovo and commissioned by Beth Deutch and Larry Rubin, the solar sculpture uses solar panels as leaves, providing power for the movement of the handmade glass petals.
The flower opens when the sun rises and closes at dusk, with a microcontroller monitoring the light level, temperature, pressure and wind. Like real flowers it will lie dormant through the harsh winter months. The sculpture, located in Rumson, NJ, aside from being visually beautiful, will also raise awareness about alternative energy and caring for the environment. Heliotropis is expected to be completed in early 2010.
As I write this, high up in the hop kiln where I work, the snow is swirling around the windows and fragmenting the garden below into a thousand soft white shards and spangles. It has been, alternately, ferociously icy or snowy all over Christmas and New Year, interspersed with those odd days when it is gently raining but the ground remains frozen, so puddles form on the grass, and the paths, although glistening wet, are as skiddy as a rink. This is the attractive face of winter. Make the most of it, because, like oil, it is running out.
We have hit peak winter and as the climate creeps up these weeks of proper wintry weather will get fewer and further between. But global warming does not mean the absence of cold weather - just the constant increase of the annual average temperature, so cool, damp summers and icy winters are all possibilities within the inexorable heating trend, and we gardeners have to prepare for them.
It may be frigid outside, but somewhere far south hummingbirds are in bliss, unaware that many of us are getting cabin fever.
These same hummingbirds will eventually be making their trek northward and stopping to feast at the gardens of those who have chosen the right plants.
Doing a little planning is a first step for attracting hummingbirds to your garden this year. As a group it is hard to beat the cuphea.
If cuphea is not a word you are familiar with, then Mexican heather, Cuphea hyssopifolia, may be ring a bell with you.
Anything is possible now in our gardens," says Rita Hassert, a Morton Arboretum librarian. "There are no weeds and no pests." Hassert is referring to the utopian gardens in our imagination and literature that bloom profusely in January. With winter, every gardener becomes a bibliophile, trading plant beds and borders for books. If you can't weed 'em, read 'em.
A 23-year veteran at the Sterling Morton Library, Hassert notes that at this time of year, "we typically see a real upswing in our circulation. The library's warm and dry, and you can let your mind wander and dream." Hassert has her favorites lined up for this year, but notes that browsing is equally fun.
"Serendipity is really powerful," she says, having observed patrons who come in "just to look" and emerge an hour later with a pile of books. Arboretum staff horticulturists take some down time in winter to peruse back issues of the library's garden magazines. Nursery and seed catalogs also provide inspiration for gardeners. There's something for everyone.
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