Posts Tagged ‘flowers’
Gardening tips and ideas: Growing rose of sharon and overwintering tips
Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), for many, is an easy to grow shrub that they would consider more of a weed than a plant!
For others however, they can have some problems, so let’s go over Rose of Sharon’s needs and how to best overwinter them if you’re in a very cold northern climate.
Rose of Sharon Basic Growing Needs:
Do well in Zones 10 to 5 which means they can tolerate winter cold from 40° F (4.4 ° C) down to -20° F (-29° C)
Prefers full sun and heat, and tolerates some drought. If in a very hot area, afternoon shade may be a benefit
Likes moist, well-drained soil with regular water but not too much. They don’t like soggy or wet soil, and can have yellowing leaves and leaf drop if soil is a heavy clay or doesn’t drain well. In that case, allow plants to dry out a bit in between waterings
Try not to fertilize after July. You don’t want to encourage lots of soft growth that will be harmed by frost in the fall
Where winters drop to -10° F (-23° C) or colder, protect plants with winter mulch
Growth Habit:
A deciduous shrub (but can be an evergreen in warmer climates)
Grows to 12 feet (3.5 m) tall with a spread of 3 to 6 feet (1 to 1.8 m)
Flowers all summer long into early fall (until frost) in shades of white, pink, soft red, mauve, and violet blue
Flowers attract hummingbirds
Leafs out in the spring much later than most other deciduous shrubs which can cause a false alarm for gardeners who think their plants may have died. Patience in this case is the best remedy
Foliage drops in the fall without coloring
Prune to shape in the first two years of growth, trimming lightly thereafter to maintain a compact form. If the plant needs a heavy pruning, the best time to do so is in late winter, early spring. Light shaping or pruning can be done at any time
Overwintering Rose of Sharon:
Rose of Sharon will do better if left in the ground to overwinter
One of the biggest tips is placement! Make sure your plants are out of direct heavy winds
Mulch heavily with leaves in fall and use burlap around the bush in the winter to help insulate it. You may not want to mulch until your ground is frozen so as not to attract voles or mice to the mulch. But if they have not been a problem, you can go ahead and mulch after the leaves have fallen from the trees.
Reliable snow cover all winter helps insulate them from the cold
Don’t prune it until spring….that way you can cut off any winter die back that you might get. They also bloom better after a good pruning in the spring as they bloom on new wood.
Source: http://www.weekendgardener.net/2008/09/rose-of-sharon-growing-and.htm
Ottery Flower Festival wows the crowds
A NURSERY rhyme theme proved a smash-hit as visitors flocked to savour the horticultural delights on show at the Ottery St Mary Flower Festival, which ended on Monday.
Strong crowds, peaking at 580 on Saturday, were amazed by a variety of displays detailing favourites from Little Jack Horner to Humpty dumpty at the parish church.
Organiser Carol Bennett said: “There has been a wonderful interest, people came back a second time and brought friends. We had over three hundred people most days and comments in the visitors’ book have been outstanding, saying it was the ‘best ever’ and ‘thanks for bringing back childhood memories’.
The displays did bring back a lot of memories for people, we had children coming in, looking at the nursery rhymes and then spontaneously starting to sing them, then the parents joined in. It was a wonderful atmosphere for everybody.
The actual work was stunning, and so clever, I was just a
mazed with every single one of them, the imagination from the ladies was fantastic.
Hopefully we brought people together in the town and from further-a- field and I hope visitors have gone away with a nice feel about Ottery but also the community got something from it.
Unique features of wedding flowers
Flowers are one of the most important wedding centerpieces that we use in the wedding ceremony to a large extent. It complements the entire ambient and adds oodles of glamor to the wedding decorations to give it a wholesome touch. There is no doubt that flowers acquire a good share of expenses in the wedding. If you are preparing for a wedding ceremony or involve in wedding planning business, then you would positively get detailed information on wedding flowers including its price, how to get it in cheap rate, where will you get exclusive and authentic flowers, how to decorate with flowers etc.
While it comes to wedding flowers, search for an authentic flower shop. It might be tough to some extent. However, you can take the help of internet to get some of the renowned flower shops phone number who can supply authentic and fresh wedding flowers. Then contact with them and ask if they are able to supply exclusive wedding flowers in much smaller price. Then select the best shops that will be able to provide all your requirements in an affordable price. Remember, flowers are considered as one of the used wedding centerpieces; therefore, you should be extremely careful in terms of choosing the perfect and suitable wedding flowers for the wedding decorations. While you are choosing the flowers, make it sure that the flower shop owner is providing it in an affordable price. You, as a seller, would definitely not cross your budget limit. Thus, according to our suggestion, always purchase from an affordable and newly made shops. Since they are newer in this business, no doubt they will deduct little percentage from your final bills.
Flower, as wonderful wedding centerpieces, attracts peoples attention towards its beauty. While you are decorating the entire area with this specific wedding centerpiece, you can also add two essential wedding centerpieces including candles and petals. These wedding centerpieces work as additional glamorous element and able to convert the entire environment amazingly presented towards the guests. Apart from that, selecting the place where marriage ceremony will be held is little bit difficult. If you want to create a romantic environment, the beach side could work as breathtaking wedding centerpieces. Thus, if you are completely novice on wedding flowers and wedding decorations, you can take help of the experts and flower decorators. Keep in mind, these types of wedding flowers must includes bright colored to get the positive effect and make the marriage place much colorful.
While it comes to decorate that specific area with petals, it can easily mixed up with other wedding centerpieces quickly and able to recreate an amazing atmosphere. Rose petals seem to be the much-used petal in wedding ceremonies. Petals surrounding the candles make beautiful wedding centerpieces. If you use to have rectangular tables, you can make the particular table liners out of these petals and keep those votive candles on the top of table. Before investing the hard-earned money to purchase exclusive wedding flowers, you should consult with the renowned florists so that they can be instrumental in reducing the flower costs largely, and help you to find the accurate place for purchase.
by : Groshan Fabiola
Source: http://www.allofflower.com/unique-features-of-wedding-flowers/