When putting together a flower design you want to display them to the their best advantage. Face it, flowers look best when they are combined with green foliage, get real that is the way they grow.

What do you do when a florist’s dozen arrive unexpectedly - try one of the following combinations: juniper with carnations; pieris (Pieris japonica) with roses; leucothoe or hybrid rhododendron with gladiolus. Any of these will look well with chrysanthemums. Since they are notable for their keeping qualities, it makes good sense to try them together, for such an arrangement should last several weeks. Not to be overlooked are ivy, pachysandra and large violet leaves. These all provide dark green color masses.

All of the hostas combine well with lilies. Perhaps this seems like too much stress on the addition of foliage, but it results in better contrast of color, texture and form. It can also be the starting point of a design pattern without which no arrangement will stand scrutiny, for the very word arrangement presupposes the word design.

There is little more to say about working with florists’ flowers that does not also pertain to garden flowers like the false aralia plant, especially with regard to arranging them. In both instances we deal with the same problems of suiting the arrangement to its surroundings, color wise and style wise. Scale and proportion of flowers to vase and the inter-relationship of flower sizes themselves must be carefully considered.

When we buy flowers we usually have a definite purpose in mind for them and select those which will complement a color scheme, provide exciting beauty or give the best effect for the least money. Six stems of chrysanthemums or four gladiolus stalks combined with foliage and presented dramatically will prove to be economical and pleasing to the eye. Three coral pink anthuriums, possibly in combination with a few ti leaves, will present an exotic appearance and keep longer than any other combination. For sheer beauty of form and color, lilies are my choice. Most of them are wonderfully fragrant and all have reasonably good keeping quality.

Roses, of course, are perennial favorites. A point to remember, however, is that they never do well in low containers since they prefer at least one-third of their stems in water. Usually, they arrive from the florist in a uniform stage of development. I sometimes keep half of them in a cool, dark place overnight, leaving the others under a light in a warmer spot. This coaxes some into opening and provides a variety of shapes for arranging.

Today’s carnations are grown in a great variety of color. They can hardly be called seasonal flowers for they are in the market at least 10 months of the year. Consequently, they remain in the medium price range, except for the red ones of Christmas. It is always with the greatest regret that I instinctively smell them and all too frequently find no scent!

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The felicitous grouping of plants is one of the signs of a gardener’s coming of age. It takes knowledge, thought, imagination and taste to assemble together plants which like the same soil, exposure and cultural conditions, which bloom at the right time to make the picture, and which look as though they belong together.

This is the time of year to be thinking about next year’s garden pictures, and it is a pleasant game to be playing. What our gardens need is originality and imagination. Too many of us take the easy way and follow the lead of others, and the result is an uninteresting and boring sameness of pattern.

If fresh ideas don’t flow readily, take a look at wild flower groupings, analyze them and find out what makes them charming. Is it foliage shape or texture, or flower color or quality? Is it harmony or contrast? Wild flower drifts are especially effective in helping us to widen our vision of color association and in giving us tips on new and exciting combinations. Reflect on the banks of blue gilias and collinsias in many shades of purple, on cerise penstemons growing with blue and purple penstemons, on lavender Iris macrosiphon growing in among wine-red Calochortus rubellus.

Self-sown plants bring the happiest accidents to my garden, creating effects I would never have dreamed of. One year, green-blue nigellas sprang up in a patch of crimson-scarlet Delphinium nudicaule. Another time some very bright pink ixias, apparently dropped by absent-minded gophers en route to their store houses, bloomed among the flower-laden branches of a lavender-blue ceanothus. And once Campanula rotundifolia came up in the arms of a Beatrix dianthus, some of whose blooms had reverted to the old sweet-william deep pink.

Studying plants show that annuals, bulbs, as well as some clean air plants do their own perpetuating are invaluable in bringing unexpected color contrasts or harmonies to the garden. Brilliant-colored plants like the brilliant blue Agathea aethiopica is lovely with cherry-red helianthemums, and the lesser of the two dingle grasses, Briza minor, at one season brought fairiness to a group of volunteer lobelias in light, bright blue and white. And anyone who lets his babianas and sparaxis seed themselves knows what startling results ensue when exceptional shades show up in the scilla colony or come out of a blazing plant of blue lithospermum Heavenly Blue. Anagalis, in blue and in tomato-red, Linaria maroccana in yellow, purple, mauve and lilac, all are splendid companion pieces, and the linaria is particularly valuable because of its spike-shaped flower heads.

Nature doesn’t have to do it all. We can take things into our own hands and create our own pictures, and there are annuals suitable for this purpose in every garden on the West Coast. Use the grace and sweetness of Papaver heterophylla and see how much appeal its bendy bud stems and its tangerine, maroon-blotched flowers will add. Put the deep, rich magnolia purple of old honesty behind blue and blue-purple April flowering cinerarias, and be sure not to side-step the dusty mauves, gray-purples and ashes-of-roses of tall annual nicotines. The advantage of using annuals for purposeful plantings is that the seed sowing or the transplanting can be con-trolled to make the blossoming come to pass at the appointed time.

Flowers are a breathless way to fit out your table’s centerpiece with, or place in a vase so that the intoxicating perfume can fill with room. They are also fantastical to add some color to your garden and there are some types of flowers that are compatible with vegetable gardens.

To make the most of these flowers you can take ones that are known to look good in the various seasons. This way you can have a garden or even a ground decorate that is filled with the various flowers from spring, summer, fall and even wintertime ground flowers.

The best way to prefer the right types of flowers for a fee garden will be to look at the versatile annuals. These flowers are divided into Leash varieties like sensible annuals, Doubting Thomas Hardy annuals and half doughty annuals. You can also plant biennials and some exotic flowers nitrogen your garden.

The doughty annuals are great plants to have for winter seasonal types of flowers. In this variety you can find flowers like Viola, pansy, foxglove, madwort and others. The sensitive annuals are good when you want a howler of colors during the summer months. These flowers include morning glory, petunias, impatiens, begonias and world amaranth.

You can unify a few alien types of flowers with your usual garden flowers also. Lobster Claws and parrots hooter flowers will look good when they are interracial in with Gladioli and delphiniums. These peak mixes are great to place in corners where you want to have a go of color. To heighten the effect of these types of flowers you can select a vase that will bring out the superb color of these flowers.

We all love how roses look and smell, like different colors of roses and each will represent in different events. These beautiful flowers are known to look great with other types of flowers too. For example you can have baby’s breath, carnations, tulips, and daffodils mixed in with red and white roses. You can even plant low ontogenesis rose bush-league and surround them with a rug of pansies.

As you see the many dissimilar types of flowers that we see in our gardens look beautiful because their many dark glasses seem to run into each other complementing and bringing out the vivid coloring. These are not the only types of flowers that we can have in our homes you can have other types of flowers in our home by choice. Today you will see many unlike types of flowers that can be used.

These types of flowers can be real flowers that have been dried and arranged in dissimilar landscape painting pictures. Silk flowers that have been fertilized with efflorescence of life scents so that they look and smell like the real flowers are also used.

With all of these types of flowers both real and man made you may be at a departure for choice. There is no need to occupy as all of these ground choices are first-class to have in your homes.
Visit flowers for further information.

The poinsettia brings a cheerful touch to homes in the winter. Native to Mexico, where it blooms in the wild and in gardens at Christmas time, the poinsettia is also known as the “Christmas Star” for its star-like shape. An important symbol of Navidad, the poinsettia plays a leading role in a Mexican Christmas legend similar to “The Little Drummer Boy.”

Americans often give poinsettias as gifts and use them to decorate their own homes. In fact, poinsettias sell more than any other plant at U.S. supermarkets. While the poinsettia is native to Mexico, most of the world’s poinsettias originated from California growers. In the United States, National Poinsettia Day, December 12, honors the namesake of this pretty plant, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico who introduced them here in 1828, Joel Poinsett.

You may even be planning to purchase a few of these plants on your next trip to the nursery. Or perhaps you live in a warm, Southern California region where you are enjoying the winter blooms in your garden. If you are bringing potted poinsettias into your home for the holidays, here are some tips for their care:

• Remove any foil or plastic that is surrounding the pot. Proper drainage is vital. Instead, place the potted poinsettia in a festive container (or simply on a saucer).
• Keep your poinsettia away from cold and drafty places as well as away from heat sources such a heater vent or fireplace.
• Do place your poinsettias where they can soak up lots of sunlight.
• Water only when your plant’s soil is dry. After watering, wait about 15 minutes and then empty the saucer under the poinsettia of any water
so that the water doesn’t rot the roots.
• Check frequently for insect infestation, and if any insects are detected, spray with an organic insecticidal soap. Common poinsettia pests are spider mites, mealy bugs, aphids and whiteflies.

Since potted poinsettias are difficult to maintain, most are thrown away. If you’re not going to keep yours, add it to the compost heap. However, if you have several and want to try getting them to bloom next season, here’s what you’ll need to do.

In late March, cut the plants back. Continue watering regularly. Begin applying a balanced fertilizer (once every two weeks). When night temperatures are no longer dropping much below 55° F, the poinsettias can go outside in their containers. Don’t plant these in the ground. Prune during the summer months. Come September, when night temperatures begin to drop, bring the poinsettias indoors again.

Around the first of October when the days grow darker, use artificial lighting if needed to provide daylong light. However, the poinsettia needs its beauty sleep at night, so as soon as the sun goes down, cover each plant with a box that blocks out all light, and the uncover at dawn (we told you this wouldn’t be easy!). Finally, around the beginning of December when the bracts begin to color, get ready to enjoy the fiery red Christmas stars again!

If you want enchanting flowering plants for shade, you cannot beat growing fuchsias. Whether in individual pots, window boxes, or hanging baskets, lady’s ear drops, as fuchsias an sometimes called, are gorgeous plants noted for their grace and splendor. There are hundreds of varieties, single and double, in rose, purple, and white shades, and in both upright and hanging types. Fuchsias are particularly popular in California, where the summers are cool and the winters sufficiently moderate; but they make handsome container plants in other climates too.

Except for the hanging types, fuchsias are by nature upright shrubby growers, fine as specimen plants for containers. Under proper conditions, some attain considerable size. The dark purple-and-red Reiter’s Giant grows to five feet or more, and the single red Mephisto is even taller. Alice Hoffman, a semi-double white and pink, is a dwarf, to two feet, as is the three-foot Camellia, a double white and red.

Tree Types
Tree, or standard, fuchsias are always greatly admired. These are simply the usual fuchsias trained to tree form. With patience, you can develop your own, starting with a four- to five-inch cutting kept tied to a strong four- to five-foot stake. At the desired height of two, three, or four feet, the single stalk can be pinched back and allowed to branch. In the meantime, do not remove all leaves from the stem, because they are needed to manufacture food.

Good varieties to train to tree form include the purple-and-red Muriel, the red-and-white Storm King, the double lavender-and-red Gypsy Queen, and the all-white Flying Cloud. Tree fuchsias lend themselves to the simplicity of modern architecture; the large specimens are always attractive on the terraces and patios of contemporary ranch houses. On the other hand, they are also handsome with houses and gardens of traditional design.

For Hanging Baskets
Many gardeners believe that the best way to appreciate fuchsias is in hanging baskets, because their exquisite blooms are seen at or above eye level. They are most decorative for patios, entrances, lath houses, and on walls and tree trunks. They can be suspended in redwood slat boxes and in glazed or plastic containers. In moss-lined wire baskets, they require more water because the roots dry out more quickly.

For basket planting, you will like the double magenta-and-carmine Anna, the single red-and-white Claret Cup, and also the semi-double purple-and-red Muriel, mentioned for tree-training. Among the most brilliant varieties are the double, bright red Marinka; the nearly orange Aurora Superba; the carmine-rose and orange-red San Francisco; and the rose-purple-and-pink Amapola. It is more effective to grow but one variety in a container.

Espaliers and Pyramids
In planters or raised beds of containers, fuchsias can be trained into interesting espalier forms against a wall or fence where the space may be too narrow for other plants. Though not difficult, the espalier plant requires time and patience. First make a trellis of wood or wire. Five to seven tiers are customary. Then train your plant as it grows, pinching growth frequently to induce branching and to avoid bare stems. Varieties to espalier include the red-and-scarlet Falling Stars, the blue-and-rose Coquette, and the red-and-white Dr. John Gallwey.

Fuchsias can also be trained into pyramids in the manner of formal English ivy plants. Since the young fuchsia shoots tend to break easily, it takes patience and a steady hand to tie them properly to the form. Fully grown plants are delightful in a formal setting, and a pair for an entranceway are distinctive indeed.

Fuchsias are tender woody plants that do best under cool, humid conditions. They are especially successful in coastal areas, where fog and humidity prevail, though some varieties, as the single all-red Mephisto and the red-and-white Mme. Cornelissen, will thrive in hot, dry inland regions. They are great favorites because they bloom in shade, not the heavy shade of low-branching trees, but high, open shade and that found on the north side of a building. In dense shade, plants get leggy and flower sparingly. In hot, direct sunshine, however, they dry out and the leaves burn. In hot climates, lath houses provide ideal conditions. Windy locations should be avoided because of the delicate flowers and brittle branches.

When growing fuchsias, moisture is essential. Plants show dryness by wilting. In containers, they usually need water every day and sometimes more often, particularly in the summer. Good drainage is important. In the bottom of the container provide sufficient rough material such as broken flower pots, pebbles, or cinders to insure free passage of water.

Do not allow pots to stand in water, and in hot weather sprinkle the foliage to remove dust and increase humidity. Fuchsias require an acidic soil. The mixture should be rich in organic matter. A good combination consists of one part good garden loam, one part leaf mold or peat moss, and either one part old manure or a small amount in dehydrated form.

Containers should be large enough to allow for full development of plants during the summer growing season. A small plant needs a six-inch pot; if two or three are grown together, use a ten- or twelve-inch pot. Starting with young plants is preferable, although large specimens are satisfactory if they are healthy and vigorous.

When fuchsias are wintered in containers and are not treated as annuals, you can enrich the growing medium the first year by scooping a few inches of soil from the top and replacing it with a fresh mixture. The next year, take plants out of containers in early spring, cut back the tops and some of the roots and repot in fresh soil in the same container. Drastically cutting back branches in the spring, before growth commences, will make plants branch well.

Increasing Your Supply
When you want to increase your collection, take three-inch cuttings from the tender spring growth, dip the ends in a hormone powder and insert the lower inch of each stem in a mixture of half leaf mold and half sand. Protect the cuttings from sun and either spray them lightly from time to time or cover with polyethylene plastic to prevent their drying out. When roots have formed, transfer the plants to small pots in a mixture of light loam and leaf mold. Cuttings can also be taken in late summer or early fall for small plants that are easier to winter.

Fuchsias require regular feeding through the growing season. Give liquid fertilizer once a month, following directions on the package. Fish emulsion, applied monthly, will give especially good results.

During the winter, store plants at 45 to 50 degrees to keep them dormant. Water sparingly, just enough to prevent wood from shrivelling. Outdoors, hardy fuchsias will survive to 25 degrees, but where hardiness is questionable, it is safer to winter plants in a greenhouse, cool room, shed, or in a cold frame. During this period, cover the roots with a layer of peat moss.

Insects likely to attack fuchsias include aphids, red spiders, white flies, thrips, mealy bugs, and leaf hoppers. Use a safe insecticide from your local gardening supplier, and apply regularly, especially before an infestation is heavy, will keep these enemies under control.