Thursday, 27 December 2007

The Beauty Of Roses

Roses are probably one of the most prized flowers in a garden. There are so many types of roses that one could plant acres and acres of them and each rosebush could bear a different type of flower. The beauty and the fragrance of roses have been celebrated for many centuries, and they still hold a high stature in flower gardening today.

You have several choices to make if you are considering planting and growing roses. Firstly , you want to consider the climate in the area where you live. Roses grow the best in climates where temperatures never get too extreme either way, and they prefer soil that drains well. Rosebushes are thirsty plants too, and she welcomes fairly long rainy seasons. If you live in an area which is hot and dry most of the time, try to find roses that have been bred to better withstand this type of dry climate. Rose breeders are constantly doing research to create hardier plants; roses that can withstand very cold or very hot climates.

Once you've found the type of rose that grows best in your area, then you will want to decide on color, scent, size, etc. There are some roses that have been bred with a focus on beauty, and they may not have strong scent as some others roses. Other types of roses give off such a strong scent that they can saturate your entire yard with their sweet rose fragrance. It is just a matter of preference, but most rose gardeners try to find something somewhere in the middle.

The beauty of roses is that you have so many colors from which to choose from that you are guaranteed to find exactly what you are looking for. The right choice of rose will accentuate your yard and home in a beautiful way that one can only imagine.

Saturday, 1 September 2007

abelia

Abelia is a genus of about 15-30 species and many hybrids in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae, in the part of that family split off by some authors in the segregate family Linnaeaceae. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group considers Linnaeaceae to encompass such genera as Linnaea, Abelia, Dipelta, Kolkwitzia, and Zabelia.

Abelias are shrubs from 1-6 m tall, native to eastern Asia (Japan west to the Himalaya) and southern North America (Mexico); the species from warm climates are evergreen, and colder climate species deciduous. The leaves are opposite or in whorls of three, ovate, glossy, dark green, 1.5-8 cm long, turning purplish-bronze to red in autumn in the deciduous species. The flowers appear in the upper leaf axils and stem ends, 1-8 together in a short cyme; they are pendulous, white to pink, bell-shaped with a five-lobed corolla, 1-5 cm long, and usually scented. Flowering continues over a long and continuous late spring to fall period

Monday, 6 August 2007

Sod

Sod or turf is grass and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots, or a piece of this material.The term sod may be used to mean turf grown and cut specifically for the establishment of lawns. However, in British English such material is more usually known as turf, and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricultural senses (for example for turf when ploughed), or avoided altogether, due to the alternative offensive meaning of the word "sod". Sod (or turf) for lawns is grown on specialist farms. It is usually grown locally to avoid long transport and drying out and heat buildup of the product. It is sold to landscapers, home builders or home owners who use it to establish a lawn quickly and avoid soil erosion. The farms that produce this grass may have many varieties of grass grown in one location to best suit the consumer's use and preference of appearance. It is usually harvested 10 to 18 months after planting. On the farm it undergoes fertilization, frequent watering, frequent mowing and subsequent vacuuming to remove the clippings. It is harvested using specialized equipment, precision cut to standardized sizes. Sod is typically harvested in small square slabs, rolled rectangles, or large 4-foot wide rolls. Some large sod farms may export internationally. Because of the product's short life after harvest, the sod may be washed clean of the soil down to the bare roots (or sprigs) which makes shipping lighter and cheaper. Sod can be used to repair a small area of lawn that has died.

Shrub

A large number of plants can be either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience. Small, low shrubs such as lavender, periwinkle and thyme are often termed subshrubs.An area of cultivated shrubs in a park or garden is known as a shrubbery. When clipped as topiary, shrubs generally have dense foliage and many small leafy branches growing close together. Many shrubs respond well to renewal pruning, in which hard cutting back to a 'stool' results in long new stems known as "canes". Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their structure and character.Shrubs in common garden practice are generally broad-leaved plants, though some smaller conifers such as Mountain Pine and Common Juniper are also shrubby in structure. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen.

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance.A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to 6 m; some authors set a minimum of 10 cm trunk diameter (30 cm girth).Woody plants that do not meet these definitions by having multiple stems and/or small size, are called shrubs. Compared with most other plants, trees are long-lived, some of them getting to be several thousand years old and growing to up to 115 m (375 ft) high.Trees are an important component of the natural landscape because of their prevention of erosion and the provision of a specific weather-sheltered ecosystem in and under their foliage. Trees have also been found to play an important role in producing oxygen and reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as well as moderating ground temperatures. They are also significant elements in landscaping and agriculture, both for their aesthetic appeal and their orchard crops (such as apples). Wood from trees is a common building material. Trees also play an intimate role in many of the world's mythologies.

Flower

Various flower colors and shapes

A flower, also known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called angiosperms). The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds. The process begins with pollination, is followed by fertilization, leading to the formation and dispersal of the seeds. For the higher plants, seeds are the next generation, and serve as the primary means by which individuals of a species are dispersed across the landscape. The grouping of flowers on a plant are called the inflorescence.In addition to serving as the reproductive organs of flowering plants, flowers have long been admired and used by humans, mainly to beautify their environment but also as a source of food.

Vegetable

The term "vegetable" generally means the edible parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific however, therefore the usage is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation.Generally speaking, a herbaceous plant or plant part which is regularly eaten as unsweetened or salted food by humans is considered to be a vegetable. Mushrooms, though belonging to the biological kingdom Fungi, are also generally considered to be vegetables, at least in the retail industry.Nuts, seeds, grains, herbs, spices and culinary fruits are usually not considered to be vegetables, even though all of them are edible parts of plants.In general, vegetables are regarded by cooks as being suitable for savory or salted dishes, rather than sweet dishes, although there are many exceptions, such as pumpkin pie.Some vegetables, such as carrots, bell peppers (or Capsicum as they are known in Australia) and celery, are eaten either raw or cooked; while others, such as potato, are traditionally eaten only when cooked.