Mythology Of Flowers

At that time of Victorian era, messages were popularly conveyed using flowers, with secret lovers sending seemingly innocent bouquets to each other to convey their feelings.

The language of flowers
Most of us understand what a rose means, but different types and colors carry different meanings

• Black: You are my obsession
• Champagne (ivory): You are tender and loving
• Orange: You are my secret love
• Pink: Brilliant complexion; glow of your smile; perfect happiness
• Red: Passionate love; I love you
• White: I am worthy of you; spiritual love; innocence and purity; secrecy and silence
• White and red: We are inseparable
• White and red mixed: Unity; Floral emblem of England
• White, dried: Death is preferable to loss of virtue
• Yellow: Friendship; Jealousy; I am not worthy
• Dark crimson: Mourning
• Thornless: Love at first sight

What do groups of roses mean?

• 1 blooming red rose: Love at first sight, or I still love you
• 1 rose, any colour: Gratitude or simplicity
• 2 roses: Mutual feelings
• 3 roses: I love you
• 7 roses: I’m infatuated with you
• 9 roses: We’ll be together forever
• 10 roses: You are perfect
• 11 roses: You are my treasured one
• 12 roses: Be mine
• 13 roses: Friends forever
• 15 roses: I’m truly sorry
• 24 roses: Forever yours
• 25 roses: Congratulations
• 50 roses: Unconditional love
• 99 roses: I will love you all the days of my life
• 108 roses: Will you marry me?
• 999 roses: I love you till the end of time

Other flowers

• Anemone: Forsaken
• Aster: Symbol of love
• Bluebell: Constancy
• Broom: Humility
• Carnation, pink: I’ll never forget you
• Carnation, red: My poor heart aches for you
• Carnation, striped: Refusal
• Chrysanthemum: Love
• Clover, four-leaved: Be mine
• Daffodil: Regard
• Daisy: Innocence, newborn, I share your sentiment
• Fern: Sincerity
• Forget-me-not: True love
• Gardenia: Ecstasy
• Geranium: You are childish
• Honeysuckle: Bonds of love
• Heather: Admiration
• Hyacinth: I am sorry, Please forgive me
• Ivy: Fidelity, friendship, marriage
• Jasmine: Grace

Roses Hybridization

The Roses you can learn the attributes of each hybrid.

Most roses are a combination of several different plants. The Patsy Cline rose bush is no different. Its mom or seed plant is an Angel Face, a Floribunda rose with dark green leaves, double blooms in a deep mauve color. Angel Face has a strong citrus scent, which complements the Double Delight.

Patsy Cline's dad or pollinator is a hybrid tea rose with light green leaves and is multi-branching. It has a strong spicy scent with red tipped petals and white centers in a large double bloom. Together, the Angel Face and Double Delight produced a spectacular bush that I think will be a great focal point under my kitchen window.

The next rose adding to my yard is a Sterling Silver. This rose is a bit more delicate, and temperamental, but is a must-have for any lavender loving gardener. This rose is also a hybrid tea rose. Its bloom is a light mauve or purple blend with an almost silver shine to its tips. Its scent is a cross of citrus, fruity and sweet talk about wow factor. Though beautiful, it is a touchy rose bush that will need extra TLC for the first two to three years, but it is totally worth the work once the plant settles in and becomes a fixture in our garden.

When selecting which rose to plant, there are many choices besides color. There are several different types of roses, and picking the right type will have a large impact on the maintenance requirements and health of the rose bush. Modern roses can be hybrid tea, floribunda or grandiflora. Hybrid tea roses are long stemmed, formal shrubs with vibrant colors. Floribunda roses have clusters of small flowers, and a shrublike appearance. Grandiflora roses are a cross between hybrid tea and floribunda the flowers are similar to the tea rose, but are smaller and clustered.

Flower Show With Attractive Slogans

Punjab Agricultural University Vice-Chancellor Dr Manjit Singh Kang inaugurated a flower show.

The Department of Floriculture and Landscaping, in collaboration with Estate Organisation and Department of Family Resource and Management, has organised the annual flower.

Flower arrangements depicting diverse topics like global warming, nature, love, world peace, denouncing female foeticide, promoting literacy, pride and passion were displayed by participants with attractive slogans such as

• The earth laughs in flowers
• The rising sun of literacy
• Save our tigers
• Poor to cry as inflation is high
• Small angels on earth

“The number of plants in flower throughout the garden is very good considering the winter experience this year”

“Lots of plants are in tight bud but not expanding due to the frosty nights and I would expect that, because plants are held in check now, they will burst into flower when temperatures start to rise.”

Floral Designer's Flower Design

Floral designers are who creates arrangements for celebrities and fashion labels using flowers. Floral design is the art of using plant materials and flowers to create a pleasing and balanced composition. Evidence of refined floristry is found as far back as the culture of Ancient Egypt.

Bella Meyer’s foray into floral design began a decade ago, when she made a wedding canopy for a friend. Since then, she has dabbled with the subject, but earlier this year she made it official and opened Fleurs Bella, a store in the East Village. “The colors and textures of flowers were more exciting than anything else,” she said.

Ms. Meyer, below, who is the granddaughter of the artist Marc Chagall, now does everything from making simple floral arrangements to creating entire environments for events, for clients like the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Her favorite flower changes with the seasons; currently she is enamored of the Yves Piaget rose, she said, because “it looks a bit like a peony and has the most extraordinary smell.”

Flower Exhibition in India

An annual two-day flower exhibition, titled "Colors of Spring" was held here to encourage flower-exhibitors to showcase their wares and also spread awareness among the people.

Uttarakhand state's (state located in the northern part of India) Horticulture Department organized the event in the premises of Raj Bhawan.

Visitors said they were awestruck by the large variety of flowers showcased at the unique exhibition.

"There are so many varieties of flowers that I have seen for the first time. There are so many varieties of cactus, too,"

Around 250 varieties of flowers were exhibited in various categories of cut and potted flowers.

"There are so many species of flowers showcased here. This time the local flowers of the Himalayan region are also showcased in the event."

The exhibition would be the perfect medium to showcase not only the flowers but also other horticultural adjuncts like fertilizers, which would be useful for the farmers.

"This year the exhibition has got better, as besides flowers, the exhibition showcases things like manure, fertilizers and medicines for plants, which are useful for the farmers.

Various companies have showcased these products over here. It is beneficial for the farmers as they will be seeing many techniques and equipments in this exhibition."

Exquisite varieties of flowers like carnations, lilies, chrysanthemums, gladioli, gerberas and Indian red roses which are in high demand in domestic as well as in European markets are produced in the state.

Flower Fragrance Garden

Although gardening for fragrance contributes significantly to the scent and ambiance of one’s home. The majority only grow flowers for visual beauty. However, it makes sense to have a well done fragrant garden in a home.

Fragrant gardens are usually located in domestic premises although some hotels and restaurants with a garden setting have them too. They can be set up closer to the house, preferably near the window. “This allows one to enjoy the scent whether they are inside or outside their house. It is important to note that all fragrant plants attract insects, hence families with a history of allergies should reposition their gardens away from the house.”

Although flowers usually contain an aromatic scent, not all plants and flowers emit a sweet scent. “Despite the fact that there are several groups or plants endowed with pleasing fragrances, only 10 groups in the flower world contain the ideal fragrance. Leaf fragrances are possessed by only four groups. The most famous of all the fragrant flowers is perhaps the rose group.

However, it should be noted that hybridization in the quest for brighter and bigger blooms has sapped many flowers of their scents; the price of this “improvement” has been made at the expense of the fragrance. This is why old fashioned plants such as wild roses, violets and common lilac are sought after by fragrance-loving gardeners, hence when building the garden, ensure to look out for these and also to put the growth rate at different seasons into consideration.”

Corpse Flower Sounds Delightful

This gloomily named 'Corpse Flower,' which made an appearance at the Lawn and Garden Show, is very rare.

In fact it grows in the wild only on the island of Sumatra.

Still, it is the superstar of the plant kingdom, dwarfing all of its relatives and taking the title of heaviest flower in the world.

But it earned its name for a much more nose-worthy characteristic.
"So, it's not only the largest flower in the world, it's the flower that produces the worst stench in the world. I was talking to a guy in Brooklyn that had one bloom and he described the flower as making a fly vomit,"

"Corpse flower" blooms smell of rotting flesh, warm up by breaking down salicylic acid, or by tracking the sun's movement.

Orange County flowery Season

Orange County is a county in Southern California. The trails in Orange County’s wild hills cut through walls of green, still mostly as unreadable as a Sphinx. But here and there, eyes of blue, white, yellow and red wink from the brush, and experts say it’s just a taste of what’s to come: an explosion of wildflowers unseen here in years.

A series of powerful storms set the stage for what likely will be a showy spring, both in Orange County’s wild lands and in the interior deserts.

The rains saturated the soil, raising groundwater levels and ending three years of below-average rainfall. Like clockwork, they were followed by sunny skies a recipe for a riot of a flower season.

Park rangers and flower experts in Orange County are already reporting a few early risers. Popcorn flower is popping, along with red maids, gooseberries and wild hyacinth.
At the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park near Barbara’s Lake, the seed pods of wild cucumber have swollen to the size of baseballs. Near the Nix Nature Center, standard favorites helped along by irrigation include bush monkey flower and wild morning glory.

It’s still a little early, so finding the subtle blooms requires a bit of hunting. Hidden behind hillside brush, for instance, was a fiery-looking prickly pear cactus-flower.

On a list of California sunflower, mulefat, branching phacelia and golden yarrow, among others. Many flowers were small or well-concealed enough to be easily missed. Willow flowers, called catkins, were downright tiny.

Snow Flowers Blooms

The cold winter has delayed the flowering of spring plants by up to a month, according to a count of blooms in National Trust gardens.

The chilly weather has bucked the trend seen in recent years of warmer, wetter winters which usually result in plants blooming earlier.

Experts predict the delay will lead to plants all flowering at once, heralding spring's arrival in a riot of color.

According to spring watchers at the National Trust and the Royal Horticultural Society a later blooming than usual will mean a simultaneous flowering of all our wealth of daffs, hyacinths, narcissi, camellias and primroses. Even now the green probes of the daffodils are rising, the spear tips of an army just below the icy horizon.

Anglesey Abbey's flower count found 217 different plants in bloom, including 180 of the 240 snowdrop varieties the garden contains.

Excluding Anglesey's huge snowdrop collection, the highest number of flowers recorded was at Killerton in Devon, where 172 varieties were in bloom, up from 85 last year.

Overall there was a 7.5% decrease in the numbers recorded in Devon and Cornwall compared with 2009.

Black Flower Hybridization

Hybridizers literally have been working for centuries to develop black varieties of common and popular flowers.

In 1850, the public became excited about the search because of the novel "Black Tulip" by French author Alexander Dumas, who also gave us "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers." Although the book was published in France, its popularity spread to English issues, and hybridizers redoubled their efforts.

The problem is because of the way we perceive colors; no truly black variety of a flower is likely to be developed.

Frans Roozen, the technical director of the International Flower Bulb Center in Hillegom, the Netherlands, tells us: "To be truly black, the color would have to be absolutely devoid of any hues or overtones of other colors. In nature this only happens with death. No living leaf or flower is truly black."

In a sort of never-say-never attitude, hybridizers have persisted. The catalogs this spring have listings for a variety of plants that are nearly black and, if planted with some contrasting plants, probably would appear black to the viewer.

Breck's (bulbs direct from Holland) offers 'Black Stockings,' a new reblooming day-lily; 'Black Knight' canna, which has smoky foliage with bright red blooms; or 'Landini Lily,' a nearly black Asiatic lily.

Select Seeds sells a new dark chocolate plant called 'Black Varnish.' If you want a small flower, they have a viola, 'Bowles Black.' Also available is a variety of baby-blue eyes called 'Penny Black,' which has a white scalloped edging.

White Flower Farm offers 'Black Magic' coleus, an ornamental sweet potato, 'Blackie,' and a deep Siberian iris called 'Black- Flowered.'

Daffodil Days

The American Cancer Society has announced the launch of its annual daffodil sale. For $10, donors receive a bouquet of 10 fresh daffodil blossoms.

As the first flower of spring, the daffodil is a symbol of hope. To the American Cancer Society, it represents the hope we all share for a future where cancer is no longer a life-threatening disease. You can provide hope to all people affected by the disease by participating in the American Cancer Society Daffodil Days.
To raise awareness and funds to help fight cancer, simply ask your Wilkes University Daffodil Days coordinators for more information. And don't forget to encourage your friends, family members, and coworkers to get involved in Daffodil Days too.

Daffodil Days is the perfect way to fight back. Giving flowers can do more than put a smile on someone’s face: It can help the fight against cancer and bring hope to patients and survivors.

Chelsea Flower Show Tour

Hosting very special tours to the Chelsea Flower Show in London, England since 1998. This year is no exception as it brings together some of the best gardens as decided by past tour guests. Gardens perfect in May to complement the glorious spring color and exceptional exhibits that are the Chelsea Flower Show. For those into Floral Design, delight at all the floral designs and the new Wedding Category.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the ultimate event in the gardening year. It sets the latest gardening trends, features the newest and most desirable gardening products and creates an explosion of colors and scents so leave your gardening gloves at home and travel to one of the loveliest places on earth to be inspired and celebrate gardening.

Organic and Eco-friendly Florists

Like florists all over the country, Terra Bella Flowers in Greenwood spent this week wrangling red roses.

Long-stemmed beauties from Ecuador stood in bins on the floor while arrangers' fingers flew to assemble bouquets for Valentine's Day this weekend.

Unlike most florists, Terra Bella's roses come with a string of credentials. They are certified by Veriflora, Flor Ecuador, Fair Labor Practices and the Flower Label Program. They are "eco-roses" not quite organic, but grown with fewer pesticides than your average flower.

Some of her flowers are certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, just like organic milk or broccoli. It's a growing market, with sales more than doubling to $42 million between 2005 and 2008, according to the Organic Trade Association.

But it remains a narrow slice of the $6.6 billion in U.S. retail florist sales, and many eco-friendly flower growers cannot afford the organic label.

Florists like Feveyear who want to avoid flowers grown with artificial fertilizers and pesticides use other labels like Veriflora that set limits on chemicals, largely to ensure that farm workers are treated well.

Eco-friendly florists also build relationships with local growers, whose farms they can visit and who share details about their growing practices

Lunar New Year Blossoming Flowers

Then wrap up all of the lucky leftovers to kick-start the Chinese New Year.

The custom doesn’t precisely replicate how it is done in China, but it incorporates several traditions practiced by thousands of people in The City in anticipation of the Lunar New Year.

Properly ringing in the Lunar New Year requires a few home decorating touches. One of the most important is an array of blossoming flowers - the buds symbolize hopes and dreams for the New Year.

But rather than just going down to the flower stand for this essential item, consider heading to the San Francisco Botanical Garden's 11th annual Lunar New Year Flower Mart. Aside from the flowers and other plants that will be for sale, there will also be several performances, including the traditional Chinese lion dance that kicks off the event in the morning as well as performances by students attending San Francisco's "immersion" elementary schools.

Tuning Flower Fragrances

Shakespeare famously wrote, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” With all due respect to the Bard, University of Florida researchers may have to disagree: no matter what you call a flower, its scent can be changed.

A team at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has uncovered some of the genes that control the complex mixture of chemicals that comprise a flower’s scent, opening new ways of “turning up” and “tuning” a flower’s aromatic compounds to produce desired fragrances.

“For a long time, breeders have mostly focused on how flowers look, their size, color and how long blooms last,” said David Clark, a professor of environmental horticulture. “But scent has gotten left behind. Go to a florist and try to smell the flowers. You probably won’t get what you expect.”

Over the years, Clark says, breeders have selected flowering plants that produce bigger, more attractive flowers with long vase lives; but in doing so, they may have been inadvertently selecting plants that were willing to devote less to producing fragrance.

That may change. For example, a customer may someday be able to walk into a florist and select from scented or unscented varieties of the same flower.

In work published in the issue of The Plant Journal and the February issue of Phytochemistry, the researchers describe how various genes in petunias help regulate the amount of the 13 major aromatic compounds in that flower’s fragrance.
The work will help researchers control the levels of these compounds, adjusting a flower’s fragrance while also producing more or less of it.

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."