FrillFeed

Gardens to reduce stress may include zen principles such as simplicity (Kanso), austerity (koko), or naturalness (Shizen).  While zen gardens have come to refer to raked gardens of sand, these stress-reducing gardens are much different.  They often are similar to any other woodland or flower garden, only emphasizing certain design principles or colors.

Begonias are an easy houseplant for beginners, with a range of species and selections for the more advanced gardeners.  Some are grown for flowers, others for their foliage.  They come in a range of sizes, shapes, and habit, from upright to spreading.  Many tolerate low light, and they have few if any pests. 

Let’s deal first with the main need for begonias indoors, especially in buildings with forced air heat, that being to increase humidity levels around plants.  You can keep a misting bottle (as found in hardware or home stores) nearby and mist plants daily.  If this will harm walls or furniture, try a humidifier (this will help the air for you as well).  Placing plants on a tray of pebbles, and keeping this moist by watering the pebbles every day or two helps.  If plants are under lights, or some form of plant stand, you can place plastic over and around this to maintain higher humidity within the “tent.”  Many begonias will tolerate some dry air, but won’t thrive.             Keep plants watered, but not too wet.  If in doubt, don’t water.  Let soil dry between watering, then water thoroughly so water drains out the bottom of pots.  But don’t let plants sit in a saucer of water.  You can place water in a saucer under pots, letting the soil wick-up and absorb the water, just make sure to drain any left after an hour or two.  

Elatior begonias are another flowering type, being semi-tuberous and specially developed for long flowering indoors.  Angel wing have winged-shaped leaves, often with white or silver markings.  These two types, the angel wing and wax-leaf, have been crossed to make the Dragon Wing begonia.  They have the leaf shape of angel wing, but are green with no markings.               Another rather new and popular type, with solid green angel-shaped wings, is the Bolivian begonia, found growing naturally on the cliffs of Argentina.  These are great in hanging baskets or pots, reaching up to 2-feet across and covered in flowers all summer.  Popular examples are the bright orange Bonfire and scarlet red 'Santa Cruz Sunset'.

Houseplants drop leaves for many reasons, but most are related to improper attention or poor growing conditions. Often just giving vegetation the correct light and temperature, or controlling infestations, is all that is required to prevent future leaf drop.

Either too much or too little watering may cause leaf drop. A common problem is that whenever you see leaves bad or even fall off, you may well be tempted to think the plant is parched and needs more normal water. This might lead to overwatering sometimes more leaves dropping. Generate sure when watering, especially in northern climates in winter, to use heated water. Icy cold drinking water can chill the ground and injure roots of tropical plants, leading to root rots, leaves falling, and perhaps even deceased plants.

Extremely low moisture will cause sensitive plant life, such as gardenia, shed leaves although most common houseplants will not show leaf drop in response to low humidity only.
Fertility, or rather insufficient sufficient nutrients, can lead to leaf drop. With this, usually you will notice leaves lighter in color first, so you have a chance to correct this before leaves totally turn yellow and drop. Use a houseplant fertilizer, according to packaging directions, particularly while crops are growing or blooming.

Plants in pots that are too small may drop leaves. Why? Mainly because there may well not be enough root room to back up all the leaves the pink tries to form, so the oldest leaves drop off. Because the space for the roots is inadequate, the plant may well not have the ability to absorb enough drinking water and nutrients.

Some tea leaf drop occurs when vegetation are subjected to a major change in environment. Many of these changes occur when plant life grown outside for the summer are brought inside for the winter. Greenhouse-grown plants may drop leaves if located in dimly lit house conditions, when they've been grown in high light. Some vegetation just may require higher light to grow and maintain all their leaves. Leaf drop brought on by a change in environment should be momentary and non-life threatening (to the plants), new leaves forming that are tailored to the new site.

Chilling is one cause of leaf drop related to environment. Tropical plant life are sensitive to low, but above freezing, conditions. Plants on windowsills may be exposed to relaxing temperatures. Hot or chilly drafts may be a problem for some crops. The poinsettia is a prime example of a plant that drops leaves due to exposure to cold drafts of air.

Insects and diseases can cause leaf drop, but are less common as the previously listed triggers. Recently I a new variegated English ivy that was losing leaves. In closer inspection I found leaves infested with index mites. Washing plants well with mildly soapy drinking water is a good start, and often all that is needed, for infestations control.

Some leaf drop on houseplants is normal. Older plants should be expected to drop a leaf or two at times. This really is particularly the circumstance with plants that expand upright like umbrella herb or cane plant, burning off lower leaves as more recent ones form on the top. The only alternatives with this are to stake crops and live with this habit, to propagate new plants by air layering the canes, or to give away the flower and get a new more compact one.

Washing bird feeders, giving your houseplants proper water, and checking your inventory of seeds and supplies are a few of the gardening activities with this month.

It's midwinter, and birds have been browsing your feeder for a few months. Yet , unless you've recently been cleaning your feeder regularly, it can be making many of these rough outdoors birds sick. To decrease the spread of disease, empty and disinfect the feeder monthly with a solution of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water. Clean droppings off of the perching area and make sure your bird food isn't moldy. If you don't like to use bleach, a household medical disinfectant cleaning product such as Lysol works too, diluted half with water. Let to soak for 15 minutes, then rinse extensively.

If your indoor fig (Ficus) tree is beginning to drop leaves, it could be credited to your watering timetable. This includes the common Benjamin fig and plastic plant. Don't over drinking water, and don't allow vegetable stand in a saucer of water for a long length of time or its roots may be damaged. However, don't let soil dry out completely either. Try to keep the soil evenly humid, watering thoroughly and then allowing the extra water to drain. Delay until the dirt dries out slightly to the touch before sprinkling again.

If your houseplants are growing tall and leggy, they probably need some supplemental light. Employ lights to help pay for short days. You can use fluorescent pipes, or most any place lamp. Best are those listed as "full spectrum" or "daylight" or similar wording. I like to use light fixtures that clamp onto a furniture or similar extending surface. Place the lights four to six inches above the tops of the plants, and keep them on for about sixteen hours a day by using a timer sold at hardware or home stores.

African violets make great houseplants and will flower in the wintertime if given supplemental light as noted above for leggy houseplants. To propagate new plants, take a loose tea leaf cutting, dip the trim end in a rooting hormone powder, and stay the cutting in a pot filled with vermiculite or sand. Cover the pot with a cut clear plastic bag and keep the soil wet. In a few several weeks you'll have new plant life.

It's time to draw out the seed-starting equipment. Take inventory of plastic trays, pots, and six-packs from past years and eliminate any that are broke. Reduce risk of disease by soaking them in a solution of 12 % bleach and drinking water, or half-strength household medical disinfectant, then air dry.

Perform a germination test on stored seeds to see how viable they are. Place 10 or 20 seeds between two linens of moist paper hand towel and tuck into a loosely tied plastic tote. Put in place a warm area, and check every few days. If perhaps germination is less than 80 percent, consider purchasing new seeds of the plant.

CARING FOR CUT TULIPS 

Also though the outdoor scenery may be bleak right now, the greenhouse industry has found a method to bring spring into our homes. And that's by lying to tulips and other spring and coil flowers into blooming early on indoors. When properly maintained, cut tulips will stay fresh in a container of water for eight to ten days.

The cut tulips you will find at your florist shop, local greenhouse, and supermarket earnings season are "forced" tulips which were expanded in greenhouses in america or as far away as the Netherlands. Growers have used special temperature treatments to confuse the organic clocks of the blossoms and force them to bloom over a different routine than they will if cultivated outdoors. It allows them to produce flowers of uniform height and quality for sale during winter months. This is similar to the method you can use at home with potted tulips, inserting them at around 45 degrees (F) in land for at least 12 to 12 weeks before bringing back into friendliness.

For long-lasting tulips, buy ones very "tight" or unopened, with buds still green and just demonstrating some color. Recut the stems when you get them home. Lay the arrangement on its wrapping newspaper or newspaper, or higher a sink, and slice the stems diagonally by using a sharp knife or scissors, removing about one-half inches of stem.

Place the stems directly in the vase, or if keeping for a time just in drinking water, recut the stems before inserting in the last vase. Many recommend slicing stems under water or under electricity, so no air enters the comes to block this particular ships there. Make sure the vase is clean before using.

Fill the flower vase with lukewarm water, not ice cold, which is taken up better by the stems. Use a floral preservative-- a powder-like mixture of plant food and bacteria inhibitors-- available at all floral shops, and often coming with the bouquet you buy in stores.

Although a lot of people assume that adding a splash of carbonated lemon-lime softdrink, a teaspoon of sugar, a penny, or even a lttle bit of bleach to this particular will help extend the life of the blossoms, none of such folk remedies are as effective as commercial cut flower food. While some admit a preservative is unnecessary for cut tulips, research released in 2012 (Kumar while others, Journal of Applied Horticulture) showed that any of 10 different preservatives stored flowers longer than if just in water.

The general guideline for organizing flowers would be that the bouquet should be about one and one-half times the elevation of the vase. Tulip glasses work well in large, straight vases, although they can be arranged in admirer condition in a low, wide bowl. Intended for the latter you should have to keep the flowers set up, anchoring with a florist "frog" or block of florist foam, these placed to the bottom of the vase to support the arrangement. Don't combine tulips with cut daffodils, as these exude a sap that clogs the water uptake of other flowers.

Make sure and check the water level daily, as tulips use much water, and for longest life an specific want the vase to be dried out. Place the bouquet out of direct sun, and away from heating vents or drafts. Top off the water level daily to keep the arrangement fresh, and replace every 3 to 4 days or mainly because it becomes cloudy.

A great interesting fact about tulip glasses is that they carry on and grow after being lower, up to an inches or even more. They are "phototropic", bending on the light, so rotate containers daily to keep stems more erect.

Want to buy some cut tulips for Valentines day, but not sure about the colour? Then consider these facts from a research study published completely on color preferences (by Yue and Behe in the HortScience journal). Both women and men select a red or dureté color most often then, and then a peach or pink color. This makes sense, since red is considered a color to express love. Yellow was your least chosen color then, as well as overall through the yr.

Of buyers of trim flowers through the 12 months, 70 percent were girls and 30 percent men. Women bought 44 percent of cut flowers for themselves, 56 percent for gifts with only six percent bought on Valentines day Day. Only 6 percent of purchases by men of cut flowers through the year were for themselves, 96 percent bought for gifts, with 3 percent with their annual purchases on Valentine's.

Whilst cut tulips are a lower cost flower surprise for Valentine's Day supplying, and make great products through the winter and into spring too, you may find tulips selected and planted in pots. If buying these, similar to the cut tulips, buy with buds still unopened, and keep in cooler conditions for longest life. As most tulips aren't perennial, they likely won't rebloom in future years if planted outdoors in springtime.