| Great gardens come without help
If you leave everything to the landscaper, you'll get the same plants and flowers everybody else does. Contractors, and even many designers, don't like to take risks with plant selection. Plus they don't want to spend any more time than is necessary to get your lawn planted. They'll reuse the same palette of widely available plants for every job - leaving a unsettling mark of similarity on every one.When you pay thousands of dollars to have your garden redone or to have a new one created from scratch, you want it to be unique. You want it to reflect the colors and plants you love. So even though you didn't install it, you'll want your fingerprints on every nook and cranny. And if you've gardened in the past, chances are you have some strong opinions on what you want to see for the next decade.Plants make the garden, so be prepared before you start the project.
Flower with roots in Persian culture
Nelumbo nucifera, known more readily as lotus, has long been revered for its large pink and white flowers. It is domiciled in the Middle East, Asia, India, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, New Guinea and Australia. This ancient plant is one of the first plants in the Gymnosperm. It was growing in the northern Hemisphere in various low and watery regions around 135 million years ago. Petrified seeds were discovered during oil exploration in China and the lotus has been cultivated there since the 12th century BC. It is distributed throughout China, which boasts of over 100 different cultivars. For the Chinese, the flower has held untold appreciation for poets, artists, scholars and the population as a whole for thousands of years.
Recycle this Valentine's Day
On Valentine's Day, we will show our affection by exchanging 200 million stems of flowers, 180 million cards and 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. Now, that's a lot of love! But then I started wondering: What happens to all those cards, flowers and boxes? Surely Cupid wants us to think about the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) as well as all those Xs and Os. .
Roses and Thistles: Send back the principal's bouquet, too?
A thistle to school districts that refuse to accept flower deliveries on Valentine's Day. According to a story by the Register's Ken Fuson last week, some have resorted to the ban.
It's hard to see how even a truckload of fresh flowers could be that disruptive, given all the other disruptions (dismissals for pep rallies and in-service training, to name two) that are tolerated. Besides, as one florist pointed out, schools are only too happy to receive florists' yearbook advertising and other financial support.
Cupid's couriers
Regarding the previous item, a rose to Indianola High School students who talked Principal John Monroe into changing his mind on flower deliveries this week.
Florists will be asked to make a donation to the student council, and council members agreed to handle the deliveries during their breaks.
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