Gladiolus or “Glads” are Bright Colors Popular Flowers

Gladiolus, or “glads” as they’re sometimes nicknamed are actually popular flowers. Their tall, brightly colored flower spikes are showy in the garden and last a long time when cut, opening gradually from the bottom of spike upwards. Since I prefer to make open, relaxed looking flower arrangements, I don’t grow glads for cutting. But I’ve grown them in a large flower border as vertical accents and in the center of a small round bed filled with a tumble of bright annuals. I can also visualize a fine gladiolus display with flowers growing in a bed by them-selves along a fence. You might also grow them in rows in the vegetable garden if your main goal is to have them for cut flowers. Glad come in all colors but blue, and sizes very from six foot spikes to the dwarf “baby glads”. Most baby varieties are hybrids of Gladiolus x colvilglads you can sometimes find that are less artificial looking. Try G. byzantinus, a two foot red flower. It is hardy to zone 5. 

How to Grow Gladiolus

Glads grow from corms. They’re planted in full sun and in rich soil that should, ideally be more sandy than heavy. You can start planting as soon as the danger of frost is over, then plant in succession every two weeks till midsummer for a longer season of bloom. You should plant glads in groups, digging some compost of 5-10-5 fertilizer into the soil, but add a little soil over it. The corms should not rest directly on the fertilizer. The corms should go about four inches deep, but you can plant tall varieties deeper if you like for better support. Staking, or mounding the stems with soil may also be necessary. I would plant no closer than six inches apart. I’d also sprinkle a little ore fertilizer around the plants after they come up and once again after picking. You should leave some foliage when you pick them so the plant can continue to grow and form new corms. Water plants deeply once a week during very dry spells. 

 

As soon as the first frost hits, dig the glad’s all up with a spading fork and cut the stems back to one inch. Dry the plants for a few weeks out of the sun, and then break off and discard the old corm, which will have exhausted itself. Any new corms or cormels (immature corms) should be saved and stored at 40 to 50degrees. Even gardeners in frost free areas dig up glad’s and store them for a few months in a cool spot; the period of cold dormancy makes them flower better the following season. If thrips are a problem grow only early planting and dig them up before the thrips become active. Put moth flake in the storage bags with the corms to keep thrips from wintering over; dusting the corms with a fungicide is a good idea.  

Dahlia is one of Plants with Endless Flower Classification

Dahlias are one of those plants with endless flower classifications, some are single, like daisies; some are like round balls; others are “Cactus-Flowered”, “Orchid-Flower” and “anemone-Flowered” or “peony-flowered” (why do flowers have to look like some other flower. The flowers can be as small as an inch across and as large as 12 inches if you’re growing exhibition size ones.  Heights range from one to seven feet. There’s a large range of colors, roughly the same as that of chrysanthemums. The thing I like about dahlias is their blooming period, which goes from midsummer to the first frost or a bit after. I use them to add some showy late bloom to perennial borders, but they’re also very effective grown in beds by themselves. They’re colorful and long lasting as cut flowers. 

How to Grow Dahlia

Grow dahlias in full sun or light shade in a soil rich in organic matter and nutrients, especially phosphorus and potassium. Moreover add some lime if your soil is very acid. Dahlias have tuberous roots that must be dug up and stored over the winter in zones where there’s frost, a chore that is not much of a bother once you get into the routine. 

I order new dahlia roots by mail and plant them about a week before the date of the last average frost, laying them horizontally in a hole six to eight inches deep. If you’re planting a tall variety, then put a five foot bamboo stake next to the root and stick it firmly into the ground. If you stake later on you run the risk of piercing the roots. The root should be covered with a few inches of soil; as the plant grows, the rest of the hole can be filled. When the stems become tall, tie them to the stakes if you want shorter, bushier plants, pinch them why they are ten to twelve inches tall. Pinching is less important with the short varieties. Deadhead the plants for more profuse bloom, and water them deeply during drought or they’ll not bloom.

Well, after the first few frosts gently dig up the roots with a digging fork, cutting the stems back to ta few inches. I’ve found that storing in a cool cellar (ideally 35 to 45 degrees) in a tray of peat is a good way to hold dahlia roots over the winter, but only I protect them against mice with some form of wire mesh. One year you’ll found nothing but trays of peat in spring; the mice had eaten every speck of the dahlias. When it is time to replant them in spring you can divide them to increase your stock. Notice that the buds (“eyes”) emerge from the base of the old stem. Slice through the stem vertically with a sharp knife, making sure that each piece of root has part of the stem attached and at least one eye. (Dahlias can also be propagated from stem cuttings). I’ve gotten a head start on the dahlia season by starting mine in pots indoors in a rich, light soil; the only problem is that pots large enough to hold the roots comfortably take up a lot of space.

 Source: Charismatic Planet

Winter Aconite “Eranthis Hyemalis” Flower

This bulb send ups three to eight inch stems in the later winter or very early spring, with flowers that are little, bright yellow rosettes, like large buttercups; the leaves are ruff like collar just under the blossoms. Winter aconites are a welcome sight, and the snow does nothing to discourage them. They look best plant din large drifts and will help add to the effect each year by self-sowing. They do fine in rock gardens but won’t hold their own very well if planted in grass .They grow from strange twig like tubers and are hardy to Zone 4.

How to Grow Winter Aconite 

Normally it is grown in winter aconites in full sun or light shade such as that cast by deciduous trees and shrubs. The soil need not be very fertile, but it must be well drained. The plants need moisture in spring and early summer, and then they go dormant. The best time to plant in late summer if possible, two to three inches deep and about four inches apart. Soak the tubers in water overnight before planting.

Herbs and Perfumery

Of course, one of the outstanding characteristics of herbs is what might be termed their nasal quality. The perfumes and aromas exuded by their leaves and flowers on a warm sunny day give and garden a fourth dimension, and one of the charms of the Greek and Italian hillsides is the pungently aromatic fragrance given off by the herbs and shrubs. Some herbs have scented flowers which can be smelt before the plant is seen; the apothecary’s rose, Rosa gallica officinalis, is an example. Others such as rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) have leaves with a strong, sneeze inducing odour; yet others have flowers or leaves which need to be rubbed in the fingers before the aroma can be enjoyed such as lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), or ginger mint (Mentha x gentilis variegate). 

Culinary herb garden with bronze fennel, rosemary, tarragon and chives among other plants. Throughout the ages the most extensive use of herbs has been in cooking and for flavoring food.

Moreover perfumery is probably an even more ancient art than dyeing; it is a more obvious constituent of a plant so would have been experimented with earlier to disguise bad smells if nothing else, such as those of rotting meat and decaying vegetation. Fresh flowers are fine for scenting the air but their life is finite, and to preserve their perfume, it was found that a mixture of flower petals, collected when they were at exactly the right stage in their development, then carefully dried or part-dried and mixed with an ingredient which fixed the perfume, such as orris root (Iris germanica florentina) would continue to give off fragrance for months and even years. Such a mixture we now know as potpourri, from the French potpourri to rot, not a very accurate name, since the ingredients are preserved rather than allowed to decay. 

·        Dyer’s green weed a dye herb producing a good strong yellow was used by both the ancient Greeks and Romans. Its flower heads and seeds were also once used to treat rheumatism and dropsy, and as a purgative.  

Eventually there can be discovery that scented oil could be extracted from those flowers or leaves which were perfumed. Enfleurage is one method of doing this, by making a kind of sandwich with purified fat forming the “bread” and the flower petals the contents of the sandwich. Distillation is another in which flowers are boiled in water, and the essential oil given off in the steam is collected and condensed by cooling. Extraction with alcohol is a third method, when the solvent trickles over the plant material is collected and then distilled to leave the oil as a solid material. Fragrant herbs playa great part in what has come to be called aromatherapy, in which essential fragrant oils from herbs are rubbed on to the skin. The different fragrances are thought to have an improving effect on a variety of physical and emotional problems. 

Now that herbs have invaded several parts of our lives, and not least our gardens how much of this is just a fashionable phase, and how much will remain as a permanent and essential ingredient of everyday living? Since herbs do so much for the flavor of food and its digestion, have such profound use in medicine, both for humans and animals, and have so much utilitarian value domestically in the home, and in the garden, it seems most unlikely that they will ever fall into such disuse again. The countries of the Third World in particular need them desperately for medical purposes, as the synthesized drugs are so expensive. Another pointer to their continued and increasing use is the recent interest in holistic medicine; the philosophy of which can have such far reaching effects that the entire way of life of modern civilization may be completely altered by the time the twenty first century is going on. 

·     It was once thought that plants that looked like the symptoms of an illness could be used to cure it. Lungwort, for example was recommended for lung conditions because people believed its white spotted leaves bore a resemblance to diseased lungs. Source: Charismatic Planet