| Spring flower flings, at home and abroad
With spring officially here, we can look forward to fresh flowers and cherry blossoms. While you could stay home and admire the change in season, why not celebrate the end of winter with a fun springtime holiday? We've found a handful of terrific packages at home and abroad, good for departures through mid-May. Pick between flower-filled air-land combos to London, Amsterdam or Tokyo, from just $739, or stay close to home and visit D.C. for the Cherry Blossom Festival, where four-star hotel deals now start from a mere $319/night! London's Chelsea Flower Show for $849
Every May, London hosts the world-famous Chelsea Flower Show, showcasing fabulous gardens and vibrant horticultural displays that set the latest in garden design trends. This year, you can admire this extravaganza in its full glory — for under $1,000! Virgin Vacations offers a six-night air-land combo priced at a sweet $849.
Garden club gears up for flower show
FALLBROOK ---- Final preparations are underway for Fallbrook Garden Club's 76th annual standard flower show, "Rainbow of Color," set for April 28 and 29 at the Fallbrook Community Center. The show will be open to the public from 2 to 6 p.m. April 28 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m April 29.Entries in floral design, education and youth categories are by reservation or invitation, but the horticulture division is open to anyone and exhibitors need not be members of a garden club to enter. Any cut specimen, container plant, fruit, nut or vegetable is eligible for entry as long as it is fresh (no dried materials), clean, pest free and was grown by the exhibitor. .
Before ordering flowers, stop and think
Cupid has his petal to the metal. Come Feb. 14, as many as 200 million stems of roses (as well as tens of millions of other lush buds) will have found their way to grateful sweethearts throughout the world. But not all Valentine's Day flowers are created equal. Some of these precious stems will be lavishly augmented; others will come plainly dressed. Some will be short; others will be long. Some are planted in a vase, others unarranged. Some will appear opulently blossomed, others tightly budded. And some will arrive perfect, while others, unfortunately, will be bruised and battered. For many flower senders, ordering Valentine's Day stems is a crapshoot, the luck of the draw that their intended gets something really special. Senders pick up the phone or click a mouse and hope for the best.
Roses are red, but salesmen are blue!
While most Chinese people busily prepare to return home for Lunar New Year, 25-year-old Wang Zhigang mopes despondently in his flower shop with a bad case of the blues. Wang runs a small flower outlet near the China Agricultural University in Beijing. As Valentine's Day draws near, the flower shop owner's spirits are down around his bootlaces. And his problem is not a broken heart. "Usually Valentine's Day is the busiest time of the year, but this year Spring Festival is ruining it," said Wang. According to this year's Chinese lunar calendar, Spring Festival falls on Feb. 18, just 4 days after Valentine's Day. The concentration of the dates has had a huge impact on the flower business. "I will be lucky if I can sell half as many flowers this year as I did in 2006," Wang Zhigang sighed.
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