Valentine’s Day with flowers

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, I want to take us back to the Victorian era and the language of flowers, sometimes called floriography. At that time, messages were popularly conveyed using flowers, with secret lovers sending seemingly innocent bouquets to each other to convey their feelings.

Particularly during the Elizabethan period, strict rules of moral conduct gave rise to subtle ways of getting around them.

Romantic liaisons were conducted with the help of flowers, which evolved into a language to convey romantic gestures and true love. This language was most commonly conveyed using tussie-mussies, or small hand-held bouquets, an art which still has a following today.

Victorian flower dictionaries help shed light on this secret flower language. Poetic symbolism was assigned to the shapes and colours of flowers and just about any message could be passed on in floral form. The language of flowers was as important to the Victorians as being well-dressed.

This language is mostly forgotten, but red roses still imply passionate, romantic love; pink roses a lesser affection; white roses suggest virtue and chastity; and yellow roses still stand for friendship or devotion.

Gerbera (daisy) means innocence or purity. Iris, named for the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, represents the sending of a message. A pansy signifies thought, a daffodil, regard, and a strand of ivy, fidelity.

A combination and arrangement of flowers could be altered to convey specific messages. A red rose combined with white rose buds, for instance, meant something different than a single, blooming red rose.

Flowers with Meaning

Meaning of the specific flower called floriography, allows the unspoken to be transmitted through the symbolism of flowers.

Roses, of course, are the go-to Valentine's gifts to represent love and passion. Each color has been assigned specific meaning, including red for enduring passion, white for humility and innocence and pink for gratitude, appreciation and admiration.

Anthurium, symbolizing hospitality and hard work, present this to someone who makes you feel welcome. "Those are really very hardy,"

Azaleas, the delicate blooms suggest temperance and fragile passion and ask the receiver to "take care of your-self for me."

Cyclamen, indicating resignation and good-bye, this multicolored-leaf plant with a crown of flowers is appropriate for someone who is retiring or relocating

Kalanchoe, this succulent speaks of enduring, lasting affection. It will continue to bloom tiny flowers if kept outdoors in a shaded area.

Orchids, in general, these tropical plants convey luxury, beauty and virility

Yellow Flowers Bursting Sunny February

Yellow is bursting out of the gate as the hot color this year for inside the home as well as in the garden. Inhaling deeply of the perfume from a pair of venerable Chinese witch hazels covered with yellow flowers on a (relatively) warm, sunny February day is as uplifting to the spirits.

This cheerful hue can range from creamy white butter to spicy saffron tones to endless shades in between. It's the kind of color that, simply, makes you happy. An exuberant patch of lanky, gold sunflowers will put a smile on your face every time. So, you'll be planting some sunshine this spring when you give these winners a try.

• Gaillardia, ‘Mesa Queen’: This blanket flower is recommended for its drought-hardy, daisy-like flower. The 20-inch tall "Mesa Queen" was chosen as a 2010 Flower Award Winner for its cheerful, yellow blooms that continue to bloom all summer. As an extra, bees and butterflies are attracted to it, too!

• Echinacea ‘Mango Meadow bright’: This glowing-yellow addition to the coneflower family boldly separates itself from its pink-purple cousins with its narrow petals and sassy new color. Use it to display some fireworks in your summer garden!

• Hosta, ‘Dawn’s Early Light’: Bright yellow foliage can be just as exciting as flowers and leaves last longer. Heavily textured leaves emerge as gold in spring and change to chartreuse in the summer -- an excellent way to brighten up a shady area.

• Clematis, 'Guernsey Cream': Pale yellow petals combine with a dark, yellow center for a subtle appearance. Blooms cover a compact, 6-8 foot vining plant in late spring/early summer.

• 'Golden Bowl' tree peony: The incredible flowers point to why tree peonies became the favorites of the Greek gods and Japanese emperors. ‘Golden Bowl’ is a royal expression of golden-yellow with its paper-like petals and fluffy, gold-red anthers. Its blooms are the "event" of the mid-spring garden.

Cute Flower Costumes

Flower Costumes give you a variety of choices in both style and size. Create yourself an easy flower costume using these instructions.

What you'll need:
• Colored poster board
• Scissors
• Stapler or hot glue
• Turtleneck of solid dark color
• Leggings of solid dark color
• Green poster board
• Pencil (to draw the pattern with)
• Safety pins

How to make it:
1. Cut two strips of poster board several inches wide to go around child's face, lengthwise under chin/over top of head. After measuring this, lay out flat.
2. Cut out petal shapes out of poster board, leaving a small square shape at bottom of petal for attaching to the poster board strip that will go around the head.
3. Staple or hot glue this square end to the strip, and "bend" the petal at the point where the petal leaves the strip - this will make the petals "stand up" around the child's head."
4. Staple the petals in between the two layers of flower rings, making sure to start partway up on both sides, so as to have petals going around sides of face and top of head, but not under the chin. Staple or glue the ring after this to ensure sturdiness.
5. Place it on the child's head, measure, but don't staple the ends until time to wear.

Flower Body:
1. Simply use turtle neck and leggings of solid dark color for the body of the flower.
2. Cut out leaves the same way you did the flower petals, and safety pin to the shoulders of the turtle neck.

Organic Flower Power

Organic flowers are grown sustainably. They are raised without harmful pesticides and toxic fertilizers. Conventionally raised flowers are heavily sprayed with pesticides and toxic fertilizers contributing to water and soil pollution. Not to mention harmful to the workers that harvest them and potentially harmful to those who receive them. Choose organic when possible for the sustainable choice.

"Organic flowers address the core purpose of organic production: to enrich the earth,"
"The market introduction of organic flowers is important because it is safer for farm workers and is good for the environment. Organic floral production encourages healthy stewardship of the earth."

To grow an organic flower garden, avoid using any pesticides, fungicides, weed killers or insecticides, and concentrate on improving the quality of the soil using organic matter. Grow flowers organically with advice from an experienced horticulturist.

Northwest Flower & Garden Show

"Garden shows are traditionally attended by an older demographic, and we looked at how we could involve the next generation". 2009 marked the 20-year anniversary of The Northwest Flower and Garden Show, a perennial favorite among the city's green thumbs.

This year, there will be a strong emphasis on sustainable gardening. There will be a variety of plant nurseries, including some of unvisited, like the fabled Fancy Fronds fern nursery. Plus, Fergus frigging Garrett will be speaking in part of that the giant topiary squirrels dotted around the place.

There will be over 200 nurseries and other exhibitors displaying their wares – and selling them, right then and there. I’ll be looking for unusual ferns, more winter-flowering shrubs, and anything drought-tolerant.

Outside the show gardens were masterpieces in their works. Being able to work with and be around such beautiful things really brings out the joy that is the annual flower and garden show

Flowers in Glass Houses

Feel like the unrelenting grimness of winter is never going to end?
Then this could be the picture to sow a little cheer in your heart and make your thoughts turn to a (hopefully) more colorful season to come.

Surrounded by a sea of brightly hued pansies, a nursery worker makes final checks before the plants are delivered to garden centre’s and put on sale to brighten up our gardens and lives.

Four million of the pretty flowers - worth around £200,000 - are grown in massive glasshouses at the Roundhouse Nurseries in Pagham, West Sussex.

Hundreds of thousands of violas and primroses are also grown there, making for a total of 120,000 sq meters of glasshouse - or an area the size of 14 football pitches.

A botanical illustrator depicts a South American plant can be grown in the winter garden glasshouse successfully. "Flowers always seem to make people smile, even when the weather is lousy and everyone is rushing to get out of the rain or cold."