Edimentals is a new term for growing flowers and vegetables together. Gardens today are often too small to have a separate ‘veg patch.’
10.06.2024 - 13:23 / balconygardenweb.com / Ralph Astley
Most flowers are filled with grace and beauty, but even in the world of blooms, some are undisputed champions. Our exclusive pageant for the Prettiest Flowers handpicks aren’t just stunners but come with oodles of personality.
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Botanical Name: Salpiglossis sinuata
Salpiglossis translates to ‘trumpet’ and ‘tongue’ in Greek, suggesting their uncanny appearance. Commonly called the Painted Tongue, this annual heirloom flower from Chile produces scalloped velvety flowers in a host of Kodachrome hues. Emerging in shades of reds, purples, and yellows, its petals bear marbled patterns with deep, light-colored centers.
This trumpet-shaped flowering nightshade thrives in cool summers with full sun. Tall plants may need staking, and deadheading spent flowers ensures recurring blooms.
Botanical Name: Orchidaceae
With over 28,000 different species, it’s hard not to produce the most spectacular sights! In fact, during the Victorian era, the wealthy were afflicted with Orchid Fever—an insatiable obsession with possessing exotic varieties of orchids from across the world, that too for exorbitant prices!
Emerging in every imaginable color and pattern, orchid flowers are monosymmetrical, with both halves of the bloom mirroring each other. They appear with three petals, one of which forms a pouty lip. This flower is peculiar as both male and female parts fuse into a column.
Botanical Name: Colchicum autumnale
In autumn, they produce bouquets of cup-like blooms in shades of patterned pink, purple, white, and lavender. They typically blossom long after their leaves have died back, giving them the nickname “naked ladies.”
Plant these beauties in summer to truly enjoy their blooms in fall. While possessing medicinal properties, this
Edimentals is a new term for growing flowers and vegetables together. Gardens today are often too small to have a separate ‘veg patch.’
For the first time in decades I heard a cuckoo just the other day, its pealing “Wuck-Koo” ringing out so loudly nearby that I felt a quick, sharp jolt of joy at being so closely in its presence. Once a common sound, the distinctive call of this fleeting seasonal migrant from tropical Africa is traditionally believed to signal the arrival of spring. But as is true of so many other once-common species of birds, its numbers, which are down by an estimated 27 per cent since the early 1970s, have been in slow but steady decline for decades.
Looking to step up your flower gardening game? We’ve tapped into the tasteful toolbelt of Hannah Rose Rivers Muller, master florist farmer and author of Designing With Dried Flowers, who shares her selects for stylish yet practical farm gear that she personally uses while busy harvesting at Full Belly Farm. Well known for pioneering the Northern California field-to-vase movement, Hannah is no stranger to getting her hands dirty and knowing the type of quality gear needed when working in a fast-pace seasonally driven industry.
Image: Hampton Court Flower Festival. Credit: RHS
Raised garden beds are an excellent choice for gardeners looking to enhance their growing space. The best raised garden beds offer benefits, such as improved soil conditions, better pest control, and easier maintenance. Our expertise at Savvy Gardening stems from years of hands-on gardening in raised beds and thorough research, ensuring that our recommendations are practical and reliable. We’ve narrowed our favorites to a list of six. We meticulously evaluated various factors, including durability, material quality,
This year Chelsea Flower Show was full of interesting trees and shrubs with lots of dreamy woodland-edge planting in dappled light underneath leafy canopies. Native trees such as hawthorns, hazels and silver birch were the favoured choices in many of the show gardens, with a mixture of native and non-native ornamental plants selected for resilience and sustainability. In Ula Maria’s Forest Bathing Garden, white foxgloves, cow parsley and other umbellifers like Baltic parsley (Cenolophium denudatum) and valerian (Valeriana officinalis) were mixed with the simple shade-loving grass Melica altissima ‘Alba’ while Tom Stuart-Smith showcased intricate tapestries of interesting foliage in different shapes and textures. In other gardens, orange was a popular colour in many shades, from deep rusty orange irises to pale orange geums, especially in Ann Marie-Powell’s exuberant Octavia Hill Garden. As always, the Grand Pavilion is the ideal place to discover new and interesting plants showcased by some of the country’s leading nurseries.
The beauty of the brightly-hued daisy-like cosmos flower is undisputed, but is there something more to it? What sets this blossom apart in the far-reaching world of blooms? Read on to find out the meaning of the Cosmos flower and why everyone should grow it!
Jasmit Singh Rangr, a Berkeley-based architect, founder of Rangr Studio, and a lecturer in architecture at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, is technically responsible for building his family’s stylish, minimal, cost-conscious home near the Grizzly Peak summit in the Berkeley Hills. But the behind-the-scenes mastermind who made it possible is his wife, Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, a nonprofit, public interest environmental law firm. Anyone familiar with the area’s cutthroat real estate market won’t be surprised to hear that the search for a vacant, buildable lot in one of the most coveted neighborhoods in the West required Dillen to use all of the skills that make her a great lawyer: creativity, a knack for analysis and research, perseverance, and the art of persuasion.
There’s no question that people love Trader Joe’s, and while you might be popping in for the current end-cap display of Ube Mochi Pancake & Waffle Mix or Pizza Party Potato Chips, I’m taking full advantage of the springtime buffet of blooms. For me, there is no greater pleasure (or budget-friendly flower shopping) than building your own bouquets out of TJ’s flowers and fillers. Whether you’re looking to make an arrangement for someone you love, or just to add a little splash of seasonal style to your tabletop, here are a few tips and tricks to take your springtime stems to the next level.
When and How to Fertilize Cosmos Flowers
Welcome to an exploration of flowers that start with the letter “B”. From the stunning Begonia to the vibrant Bluebell, this list covers a wide range of flowers, each with its own unique charm.
Hey GPODers! Today we’re taking a different look at a garden, an up-close perspective of the flowers Sarah Oneil grows in her Minnesota garden.