The Flower Guide

Everyone needs some kind of flowers guide to make the most of their gardens, especially those who do not have time to garden every day. Flower gardening is all about the senses with color display. So what we plant and when?

The buzz seems to be gardening planting annuals or perennials. Some of these flowers give us textures, shapes and heights, while others just go crazy bloom throughout the season. Here is a basic guide flower for these two types of flowers that will help you design a spectacular bathroom color to your garden.

Annual Flower Guide:

Make every annual growth in one season. Seeds germinate in the spring, the plants bloom and grow throughout the season, and then die. You will have to plant each season, but the result is an instant color.

Also, if you make a mistake in your design with color or size, the bad effect will only last one year. Annual produce an infinite range of colors and sizes, and most are easy to plant and grow. They can be used for solid, cut the borders, in rock gardens, in mixed beds, containers and hanging baskets.

In fact, most of the year is great for the weekend gardener because they are versatile and not too demanding. For its glorious color, annuals are very cheap. You can begin within seedlings, or buy bedding plants from your nursery or garden center. Most annuals bloom during most of the growing season.

Here is a list of some of the major annual flowers that are easy to grow, colorful and spectacular show is worth every matching palette to the floor: 

Begonia - Grows 6 to 12 inches tall. Flowers are white, pink, red, rose and scarlet. 

Tricolor Chrysanthemum - Grows 2 to 3 feet. Flowers are white, yellow, gold, red, or maroon, with contrasting color bands on the base of the petals. (This chrysanthemum is different from the perennial chrysanthemum called the "garden mum"). 

Dahlia - Grows 1 to 6 feet. Flowers are every color except blue and green. 

Geranium - Grows up to 2 feet. Flowers are white, pink, scarlet, orangish-red, red, and salmon. 

Impatiens - Grows to 1½ feet. Flowers are white, pink, rose, scarlet, violet, salmon, and orange. 

Marigold - Grows 6 inches to 4 feet. Flowers are yellow, gold, orange white, near red, and mahogany. 

Zinnia - Grows 6 to 36 inches. Flowers are all colors except blue. 

Perennial Flower Guide: 

Basically, perennial plants live more than one growing season, year after year, return. When finished flowering perennials, foliage provides wonderful background texture, shape and color of your garden.

Perennial flowers can bloom for a short period of time and at certain times of the growing season. This makes it harder to plant only a limited number of perennial gardens and still get the desired effect of constant color. For this reason, the mixture of perennials annual flowers is the key to a beautiful garden continuous color.

Leave some favorite flowers always offering great color and depth to any garden, and grow everywhere:

Butterfly Weed - Shoot 1 ½ to 3 feet. The flowers are bright orange (great for attracting butterflies!) With nice sheaths covering the ground once flowering ends. Blooms all summer.

Chrysanthemum or “mum Garden" - Grows 1-4 feet. Flowers are all colors but blue Flowers in autumn.

Daylily - Grows 1 ½ to 3 ½ feet. Flowers are all colors except blue and white.

Flowers from late spring to autumn:

Felicia - Grows 1-2 feet are blue flowers- petals with yellow centers. Bloom early summer through fall.

Hosta - grows up to 3 feet. The flowers are white, lavender or pale purple, often with colorful foliage.

Flowers summer to autumn.

Peony - grows 2-4 feet flowers are white , pink, brown or red.

Flowers from late spring to early summer:

Shasta Daisy - Grows 1-4 feet. The flowers have white petals usually with a yellow center. Blooms all summer.  

With a little experience and planning, you can create a flower garden that blooms from one end to the other, from spring through fall. Bring together a few of these annual and perennial flowers for a wonderful mixed garden.

Flower Gardening

      

     It is very simple to start gardening flowers. It is not only cheap, but also full of fun and made ​​for several reasons, such as the decoration of the court, as a hobby or as a profession.

    Gradually growing flowers became popular. Day one can be brightened by flowers because they feel good, and can be a great hobby for many.

Also, you must make crucial decisions before you start.

     For example, you must decide whether you want annual living for a season and should be planted on an annual, or perennial that can survive the winter and return in the summer. So when it comes to buying and planting, you should have some information about what kind of flowers thrive in your climate and that these flowers need during sunny days. 

     You should make a decision on the type of appearance you would like to achieve before planting flowers. You may, for instance, combine the various heights, flower varieties and colors to come up with a "wild-plant style". In the end, your garden will have a meadow appearance. This can be very attractive. To get a "stepping stone style", you should consider planting short flowers in front of the garden and finish the back with the tallest flowers. This is also amazingly fine.

      Next important idea is how to find seeds for flower gardening. You can order them from the catalogues or purchase from a nursery of your choice. Several people prefer going to the nursery for the actual flowers and then proceed to transplanting them. What you should do after preparing your garden and buying the flowers is to arrange the flowers in the bed in a manner that will suit your arrangement. Also space the flowers properly.

    The easiest in growing step is planting flowers . In case you have seeds just sprinkle them around the flower bed. If you want to plant transplants, prepare over the hole of the flower, remove the container and put the flower in the hole right side up. Cover the hole with loose soil and press down firmly. Water the flower to prevent discoloration.

    The good thing about the maintenance of the flower is that it is easier to plant  You can apply a little fertilizer in early spring. Press once the flowers begin to fade and always maintain good flowers and watered. To minimize the work for your next growing season flowers, eliminate all debris from your garden and spread on it the organic nutrients such as the compost or peat moss. 

    Do not forget to turn the soil so that it can blend well with fertilizers. Perform rake smoothing when finished but do not disturb the roots in the process, especially if you have perennials. 

     In fact, flower gardening is so easy. Simply make a decision on what you want to plant, plant and maintain it continuously through watering. You have a reason to smile about flower gardening. It is for certain becoming popular. For more information on Flower Garden Fun, see the resource box below.

Basic Requirements for Orchid Gardening

      There are many myths and how to grow orchids surrounding. One of the most common is that orchids are difficult to grow. This is a big mistake, it's true that there are species of orchids that can be very difficult to grow. Even highly experienced growers have problems keeping them alive. However, there are well over twenty thousand species of orchid and ten times as many hybrids, many of these are no more difficult to grow than your other garden and house plants.

      It may seem difficult at first, you will need to properly research how to successfully care for your orchid first and just like anything worthwhile it'll take you a little bit of effort but in the end I know you'll find it rewarding. So stick at it and before long you'll have mastered the basics of caring for your orchids.

     To get you started, I 've put together some basic information about the orchid garden and I hope you will find them interesting and useful.

Basic Requirements:

     The requirements for the orchid gardening is really not very different from any other home gardening or garden plant, water, light, fertilizer and air. If you can provide them in the right amounts, you 're almost there.

     There are of course a few other little extras that you can use to really get the most from your orchids including, humidity trays and grow light set-ups and many different potting mediums which I'll touch on, but for now we'll stick to the basics.
     Myth number two surrounding orchids is that they must be kept in a greenhouse. I believe this stems from the common belief that orchids are tropical plants only and so you must provide these conditions for them to thrive. Some species of orchids are found growing on all continents except Antarctica, and in almost all environments. Epiphytic orchids grow on trees, Lithophytes survive on rocks and terrestrial orchids are perfectly happy grown in the ground one species, Rhizanthella gardneri grows completely underground only appearing briefly for pollination to occur.

     My point is that with so much variety in the world of orchids you should not have too much trouble finding one that suits your growing conditions.

Water:

     With such a huge variety of orchid species around it makes it tough to give specific requirements suitable for all orchids so you should do your best to find out as much as you can about the species of your orchid too.
     In general orchids require watering well but only once every other week, they have highly adapted root systems which take in water very quickly and release it slowly over a long period of time making it easy to over water them if you're not careful. To be on the safe side let the roots of your orchids dry out almost completely before you water them again. Avoid letting the roots come into contact with standing water for any length of time or they will die off and damage the health of your orchid. For this reason it's important that potted orchids should have adequate drainage.

    How much water your orchid expects and how often should give you a good idea of what potting media will be best.

Light:

     When it comes to light orchids love lots of it, long periods of sunlight, 10 to 12 hours per day will help to see your orchids thrive. However, direct sunlight should be avoided, even a small amount can burn and damage leaves leaving unhealthy looking marks or blackened leaves.

     If you're growing your orchids indoors try placing it near but not too close to an eastern facing window to maximise the daylight exposure, if you're worried that the sun is too strong make use of frosted glass, net curtains or blinds to diffuse the light.

     If you're orchids are out doors in your garden you can make use of objects and structures to provide it with shading, you'll know where the best spots in your garden are for this.
Fertilizers:

     You're orchid will want fertilizing periodically as potting mediums provide little in the way of nutrients. Use a solution diluted more than you would for ordinary plants.

     You can buy specialist orchid fertilizer for which should provide more nutrients and trace minerals that your orchid needs to thrive.

     You should stick to periods of active growth when fertilizing so avoid feeding your orchid during the winter months and for a short time after repotting.

Air:

     While terrestrial orchids can be grown in soil or compost in the garden, the majority of species are epiphytic with aerial roots adapted to having plenty of airflow.

     If your orchid is mounted then this should not be much of a problem but if you're potting your orchid you need to provide it with a medium that allows plenty of air flow. This should go hand in hand with giving your orchids good drainage. 

     potting media is organic such as, coconut husk, sphagnum moss and cork bark and as such will gradually decay over time. As it decays it will compact reducing air flow and increasing water retention. It may also attract more pests who feed on decaying organic matter mostly non harmful to your orchid but you may not want them around still.

     Degraded potting mix should be changed as soon as possible, depending on the mix once every year or two, but be aware that the shock of re-potting may mean your orchid doesn't flower for a year or so afterwards. You can minimise the stress on your plant by avoiding damage to roots and stems when removing it from the pot. 

    However orchid gardening is fun and rewarding and is quite accessible to anyone to get fantastic results. Good luck and have fun!

10 Fall Flowers for Fall Gardening

     

     When autumn falls, everything feels cold, bleak, and dead. However, you can still change the dull atmosphere in your home by creating an autumn garden that will add pulchritude to the autumn blur. There are plants that you can put in your garden in the fall. A wide variety of colorful flowers will brighten your garden and induce life and color. The only thing to do is have the perfect flowers to plant in your fall garden. Below are some top fall flower favorites of garden planters in an autumn garden.

• Michaelmas Daisies: 

     When michaelmas daisies starts to bloom, this tells people that fall is on its way. The name suits the flower since it was named from the Mass of St. Michael or Michaelmas which falls on the 29th of September. This is a type of aster which is also called as the New York aster. Michaelmas daisies are combinations of blues and purples but this pretty autumn flower also comes with whites, mauves, pinks and lavenders. The typical blues and purples is superbly beautiful during low autumnal sun. If you want this lilac-blue flower to cover your ground, better cut this back hardly in early spring or autumn.

• Caryopteris:

     Blue Flowers fans will surely love this kind of plant, which is commonly called Caryopteris Blue Mist Shrub or Bluebeard . This woody perennial with aromatic foliage and blue flowers. This can be a perfect flower garden, it does not need much maintenance. Its feathery flowers are grouped on the foliage . The bluebeard need exposure to full sun or partial shade.

• Chelone:

     The Chelone or the turtlehead is a perennial flower that has a white, purple or, pink flower. Its nickname was coined to its flower that seems to resemble a turtle head. The weather resistant flower blooms from the short terminal of spikes that grows dense in its rounded stem. This fall flower blooms perfectly autumn and hates to have an extreme and dry environment. This means that this sturdy two-lipped flower tolerates boggy areas. It is perfect for damp and moist soil. Also perfect for those who live waterside. 

• Chrysanthemum:

     More commonly known as Hardy garden mums, chrysanthemums are used as beds and borders in gardens and used as cut flowers. Hardy mums' showy flowers comes in varieties of color such as lavender, orange, yellow, red or white. This is a favorite in the garden of fall flowers because it blooms at its peak during the fall season. Mums grow well in the fertile soil of the partial exposure of sun, but grows best in full sun.

• Eupatorium:

     This perennial plant's common name is Joe Pye Weed which is coined from a Native American herbalist. The multiple flowers of Eupatorium are usually mauve or old rose that is composed of five to eight florets and bracts that cluster in the plant. It has been well-liked by hummingbirds because of its tubular corolla of each floret. Joe Pye Weeds grows best in a moist soil with a full sun exposure. Make your garden a mini paradise with the butterflies and birds attracted to your Eupatoriom and your ornamental solar fountain.

• Helenium:

     The Sneezeweed or Helenium is a perennial plant that grows best in August or September. It grows for four to five feet tall with two inch yellow daisy-like flower. Instead of sneezing, this beautiful fall flower will make you smile when you see bunch of autumn yellow flowers sway and beam in your fall garden.

• Helianthus:

     The flashy flowers of this Helianthus makes your garden a paradise by inviting birds in your fall garden. Grows three to six feet tall with bobbing three-inch yellow or white flower, Helianthus grows well in a moderate moisture soil with a full exposure to sun.

• Heliopsis:

     Clumps of Heliopsis that grow in your fall garden would be bliss. This is the most beautiful fraud in your garden, as it looks more like a sunflower, however, smaller. Because of its appearance, Heliopsios sunflower got its nickname false sunflower.
This perennial beauty blooms yellow flowers and grows well in autumn.

• Sedum:

     Another botanical name of Sedum is Autumn Joy. From its name, you can be sure it would be a joy to have this butterfly-attracting pink wonder. The Autumn Joy or commonly called as Stonecrop is a perennial flower that blooms best in fall. Its luscious stem and leaves can withstand rain and drought seasons. It grows broccoli-like like flowers that usually comes in pink but has also a copper variant that is perfect for the autumn feel.

• Golden Fleece:

     The Golden Fleece ends the list but it is not the least. Their showy seed heads that splays densely upwards appears like a bouquet of yellow flowers that attracts butterfliess. Seeds auto Golden Fleece, so if you want to prevent it to prevail in your garden, you should deadhead it. It can grow in partial shade or full sun, even in a moderately fertile soil.

     Now, if you want to have the autumn garden you want, you better have flowers in the list. Even in the autumn season, you can still create a colorful and wonderful garden if you know how to choose the perfect flowers. You do not have to be conscious about the clashing of colors in your garden as fall flowers are usually red, white, purple, orange and yellow. Make yourself delightful with your fall garden's magnificent variants of fall flowers.