| Florists queue up for new cultivated flower
Wellington - A gentian is a decorative plant with vivid blue flowers. Gentian violet is an equally vivid dye widely used as an antiseptic, especially for the treatment of burns. Not necessarily any more. Scientists in New Zealand have cultivated a hot pink gentian which is exciting florists in Europe, the United States and Japan, where it is prized for flower arrangements. And they have promising trials of red and purple gentians. Flowerzone, an Auckland-based flower exporter, says it cannot meet the demand for the new gentians because supplies are limited to those available from a small commercial trial run by scientists at the Crop and Food Research organisation in Palmerston North. .
Thai Orchid
Located in Queens Court on West Bay Road, the Thai Orchid offers both authentic Thai cuisine and sushi. The restaurant is open every day for lunch and dinner and also offers a take out service.
The team at Thai Orchid have mastered the small touches which when combined make a big difference. From the ornate swans and roses, carved from vegetables - found with the appetizers - to the intricate flower patterns in the dessert source, everything oozes charm and precision. Menu
The menu is extensive, both for the sushi and Thai dishes, offering a very wide range of choice with something to suit all tastes. The Thai Orchid also has an impressive vegetarian menu, again for both Thai dishes and sushi. The menu also highlights those sushi dishes that contain cooked ingredients, perfect for those who are not keen on the idea of raw fish.
Ah, you shouldn't have
For others, like the Flower Connection on Henderson Drive in Jacksonville, it's even bigger. The shop has to hire five or more extra employees just to handle the influx of orders on the holiday. "Two or three days ahead of time you just know this is where you're going to be," said Becky Bender, a Flower Connection employee. "But it's fun. If you don't like what you do it would be hard, but we're looking forward to it." They spend the days leading up to Valentine's Day preparing the orders for "sweet splendor" and "poetic" bouquets. Each bouquet features various types of flowers, including tulips, the "decoration of love," red roses, the "I love you flower," ferns, representing sincerity, and other assorted flowers. But despite the shop's yearly themed bouquets - last year featured the "Romeo" and "Juliet" bouquets - red and pink roses still reign supreme.
Planting garden is for the birds
Let me start with a couple of basics. If you have a yard, you have yard work.However, if you call it gardening, it sounds like a labor of love rather than work. Watching my wife Blanche for nearly 24 years, I do know that gardening is therapeutic. I read a quote somewhere that says “you can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt."Gardening is one of America's favorite pastimes, and it's a healthy hobby. But it's also a way to help protect your part of the environment – your yard.Gardeners who establish a backyard wildlife habitat provide a natural environment for a variety of birds, butterflies, mammals and other animals.Spring arrived on March 21. Earth Day is April 22. What better way to celebrate spring and Earth Day than to go to one of our three Plant and Flower Festivals. Each of the State Farmers Markets in Columbia, Florence and Greenville has a spring festival.
|
