Gardening Tips

Women adore getting flowers, most especially roses, as it is a symbol of love and affection. Price of roses vary from state to state and flower shop to flower shop. Regardless, it is an investment that you want to have last as long as possible. So here are some steps you can take to ensure they last.

1) If you have roses and greens wrapped and you want to arrange them in a vase, the first step is to get a bowl of warm water, and with a sharp knife slice the ends slantwise under water. You do it this way for two reasons. 1) Cutting slantwise ensures that the opening is big enough to draw water, as they drink a lot, and 2) cutting under water ensures that the cut end doesn’t get an air pocket blocking them from drinking.

2) For best results put them in a vase of warm water and a package of flower food and if possible refrigerate for 2 hours. You’ll want them to drink well. Note, if you don’t have flower food, you can use a spoon of sugar and a few drops of bleach. The bleach will kill bacteria in the water.

3) Before you place your roses in a vase, Take each rose stem and take off the leaves that may be below the water line, but don’t take them all off because the greens contribute to the overall look of the arrangement.

4) Now the next step goes against what most florists will tell you. If at all possible, if the thorns are not too big, I suggest you do not take them off. The reason for this is that it causes the rose stem to be wounded. This leaves them open to bacteria and they’ll wilt quicker. If you have to take some of them off then take your thumb, put it on the side of the thorn and pop it off. This is the least invasive way to get them off.

5) Change the water daily.

6) If an arrangement has arrived to you already made, then you need to change the water daily, feed them and do a fresh cut on the bottom. Check to see if any leaves are below the water line and remove.

Follow these simple steps and you’ll enjoy your roses much longer.

On another note; if you are allergic to flowers (or even if your not) it is nice to give yourself a floral motivational poster. You’ll still have a visual of flowers.

I hope this helps. Enjoy!

When most people think of hosepipes, they think of the standard garden hose: a long, green snake-like flexible pipe that can be used to take water from a garden tap and spray it out into the garden. However, hosepipes are more complicated than that.

To begin with, for the garden hose, there are all sorts of attachments you can add to make it do more useful things than just shooting a jet of water. You can add a sprayer, which acts as a kind of water gun, making it so your hose will only squirt water when you pull the trigger – essential if you want to focus on a specific area of your garden instead of just making all of it wet.

You can also attach a sprinkler to your hosepipe, which will spray small jets of water in all directions – good for leaving in the middle of some grass or other plants, so they all get watered.

The biggest problem with hosepipes, however, is that, come the summer, many places impose what is known as a ‘hosepipe ban’. This is an effort by water companies or governments to save water during the dry summer months, but it frustrates many gardeners by making it effectively illegal to water their gardens during the months that it is most needed – it is extremely frustrating to be kept from watering your plants during a drought. All kinds of sprinklers are generally included in hosepipe bans, too.

However, there is a simple way of getting around hosepipe bans, by buying something called a bowser. A bowser is basically a very large watering can with a hosepipe-like attachment for spraying the water on your garden. It has roughly the same effect as a hosepipe, but because it is technically closer to a normal watering can, it evades the ban – and the water companies are happy for you to do this, as bowsers waste far less water than just plugging a hose straight into the tap.

Summer flowers and bedding plants are a great way to instantly add color to your lawn. Summer flowers start appearing in garden centers in the early spring, but you should be careful to plant only after the danger of freezing weather has passed. Summer flowers produce the best results when purchased ready to plant rather than trying to grow them yourself from seeds. Selecting the right summer flowers for your area can be quite a task, especially if you are planting your first flower garden. Here are some suggestions as to which flowering plants may be right for your situation:

If your flowerbed is in direct sunlight for the majority of the day, you will want to choose a hardy, heat-resistant plant. Some of the better choices for full sun are marigolds, zinnias, petunias, and zinnia. Be careful to choose a variety of heat-resistant plants, as some of these full-sun varieties are prone to diseases, especially marigolds. You will want several types of flowers in your flowerbed not only for contrast and interest, but in the event that one variety does poorly or becomes diseased, you can simply pull the plants (roots and all) and cultivate your remaining varieties. Keep in mind that if any of your plants are diseased, you should pull them immediately to avoid spreading the disease to your other plants.

For areas that are in partial to full shade, consider impatiens, begonias, and vinca. All of these come in a variety of colors and grow quite well in shady areas. In choosing the colors for your flowering plants, remember that red colors make the plant seem closer and larger, while blue will give the illusion of smallness and distance. Planting a single color of flowers will draw more attention to your flowerbed, but if you want several colors make sure the flowers compliment one another. Purple goes well with pink and white will blend in nicely with any other color. Also, red goes very well with violet as odd as this may seem.

The most important thing you can do to ensure beautiful summer flowers is to prepare your flowerbed appropriately before planting. Till the soil thoroughly and remove any weeds, roots and all. Fertilize your flowerbed before planting and for the first month after planting flowers, water every other day so that the roots of the plants will be properly nourished. Use mulch as a covering in your flowerbed to preserve moisture and do not over-feed your flowers. Use fertilizer exactly as directed on the package and avoid getting the fertilizer directly on the parts of the plant that are above the ground.