Q. When is the best time to plant my lavender plants?
A. The hardy lavenders (such as “English” lavenders and the Lavandins) can be planted at anytime, but the best time would be in the spring as the soil temperature starts to rise. Planting in the height of summer is OK, but you do need to watch out that they get enough water until their root systems are established.

Q. What do I do with my Garden Ready Lavender Plug Plants when they arrive?
A. Unpack them promptly and stand them in some water. They are ready to plant out. If you receive the plugs in the winter we would recommend potting them up and allowing them to grow on in a cool, sheltered environment – an unheated greenhouse perhaps. Do not over water them. As the weather starts getting warmer in the spring the lavenders can be planted out.

Q. How long do lavender plants last for?
A. If you take care of them and give them a good prune each year, there is no reason why yourL.angustifolia (English lavender) orL.intermedia (Lavandin) will not last for years – some of ours in the fields are 24 years old!L.stoechas(French lavender) is more difficult to keep compact and healthy for a lot of years. These days, French lavenders are treated by many as annuals and replaced each year as many of the newer varieties are not comfortable with our cold winters, and the have a tendency to go straggly.

Q. How much water do lavenders need?
A. Lavenders are drought tolerant plants and once established in the garden, they do not need watering. Lavender in pots need careful watering all summer. In the winter they will need minimal watering. Over watering is the most common mistake – leading to root rot and the plant’s demise.

Q. How should I prune lavender?
A. Look within the heart of the plant and you should see small shoots on the side of stems. You should prune so these shoots are left below where you cut. You can prune with a pair of secateurs or with some shears. The shoots will push out to form the new greenery of the plant. Lavenders like a really good haircut so be very brave about it? Many people carefully snip off the old flowering stems. This is certainly not a hard enough prune if you are to avoid your lavender becoming woody and straggly.

Q. When should I prune lavender?
A. It will depend on the species. English lavender and lavandin should be pruned after they finish flowering – around late July to mid August. This allows plenty of time for the plant to recover and push out new shoots before the winter cold sets in. French lavenders, because they grow all summer, can be cut back in after their first flush of growth in spring.

When it comes to your flower garden design, it’s mostly your decision. Sure, it’s important to do a good job preparation of the soil and carefully matching plants to the site. If you ignore these imperatives, your results will likely be disappointing.

Get started with paper. Putting your design ideas on paper. This allows you to change your mind before digging.

Begin by drawing from the back forward. Use taller plants to give support your to your overall flower garden design.

Planting

Plant flowers where you can see them. Don’t forget about how the flowers will look when viewed through your windows from inside your house. Particularly consider the views from private outdoor spaces such as patios, decks, and terraces.

Perennials

Use perennials. Although they are more expensive than annuals, perennials are worth the additional money. They appear year after year, bigger and better. Choose carefully to get flowers that bloom during the entire growing season.

Use Bulbs

Plant bulbs. Bulbs, like perennials, will come back every year.

Using pots

Place some bright annuals in flower pots that can be moved. This ensures there will be no empty spaces in your garden. It also lets you enjoy your flower garden’s beauty and fragrance inside.

Add some color with annuals. These short lived beauties will add sparkle to your garden design. Fill in empty spaces with some annuals and you will have nearly continuous bloom.

Matching plant types to the sun

Break this rule at your own risk. Different plants require different amounts of light. Most contenders for flower gardens like full sun. Others require full or partial shade. Some plants may grow fine in the shade but flower better in full sun.

When it comes to your particular garden design be creative and use the internet to discover unique flower garden design.

Flower gardening has presently reached such an extent that there are corporations that pay for professional gardening services to change their garden every season in order to preserve a consistency in the color patterns. Flower gardening is demanding as it relies on good knowledge of soil peculiarities, plant species, fertilization and so much more. And in terms of occupation, some people take flower gardening as a hobby why others have made a profession out of it.

Flower gardening usually defines larger residences where many flowers are initially grown indoors so as to be then displayed outdoors. A fertile location with plenty of sunlight is the main condition for flowers to grow and bloom, and when artistically arranged the effect is more than rewarding. You can even try flower gardening in parallel with cultivating ornamental vegetables and herbs. The combination is perfectly fine and suitable.

Flowers usually appeal to people in a large number of ways, they improve the mood, they make us feel better at home and they become a source of positive energy. They delight senses and bring peace, harmony and tranquility wherever they grow. One or two flower beds may be enough to add color and beauty to your garden.

If you love nature and have a special attraction for flowers, then, flower gardening tips could be a more than lovely occupation. And although results take months and years sometimes, the actual cultivation process is rewarding in itself.

You just need some basic tools, good seeds, fertile soil and plenty of sun. Knowledge comes with experience and if you make mistakes at the beginning, flower gardening will get better with every season. Don’t take up this occupation unless you are patient and you feel positive towards nature. Gardening could be a gift you can discover at any point in your life.

If you have a friend with some roses, perhaps they’d be willing to give you a few stems so you can try to start some in this way. Floribunda roses grow well from cuttings, as do miniatures, but others don’t have as much success.

You’ll have to pick your roses carefully, though, because not all types of roses grow well from cuttings. It’s likely some expert gardeners have managed to do it even with the difficult varieties, like hybrid teas.

But if you still don’t know much about flower gardening, or you’re not very experienced, then you will find varieties that simply will not grow by this method. Floribundas and many others that are actually garden roses do much better, and miniature roses are usually grown this way.

You should do the rose pruning in early spring, taking three or four six-inch stems (or for miniatures, three-inch stems). With these flower gardening tips you can cut them on a slight diagonal, in the morning before the stresses of the day.

In the past, people knew how to grow roses with cuttings protected by Mason jars, and the practice still works well. So once you have your cuttings, take off the bottom leaves, with just a few at the top, and dip the stems into a rooting powder.

Then set them either into your garden soil or into containers of potting soil. At this point, place a Mason jar over each stem and water now and then over the next few weeks.

How to grow roses from cuttings might vary slightly in different regions, depending on the climate. For example, in a warmer location you might just skip the Mason jar altogether and root your stems in the soil of your garden outside.

In a cooler climate, you might want all the help you can get, with an indoor container and Mason jar, or with a heating pad under the container. You can probably find gardening tips from a local rose society or the internet to help you decide on your exact procedure.

If you succeed at starting a new rose plant from a cutting, then this may encourage you to go farther, and get into rose growing in a serious way.

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!

Find out for yourself the essentials on false aralia plant. Visit us for lots of free information at http://www.plant-care.com/aralia-elegantissima.html. You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.