Posted by admin on September 18, 2012
These top 5 gardens in California are all public gardens we highly recommend visiting. Garden locations include Walnut Creek, Woodside, La Cañada Flintridge, Santa Barbara, and Sonoma.
- The Ruth Bancroft Garden is located at 1552 Bancroft Road, in Walnut Creek, CA. The garden features three acres of succulents with beautiful pathways and garden beds. It is a water conserving garden, growing aloe, agave, yucca, echeveria, and many other interesting plants.
- Ganna Walska Lotusland is located at 695 Ashley Rd in Santa Barbara, CA. The gardens feature outstanding collections of exotic plants throughout the botanical garden, growing on 37 acres.
- Filoli is a historic country estate located at 86 Cañada Road in Woodside, California. Filoli shows the golden age of United States garden design, with 16 acres of English gardens, a 36,000 square foot house, a Gentlemen’s Heritage Orchard, and a winding trail.
- Descanso Gardens is located at 1418 Descanso Drive in La Cañada Flintridge, CA. Descanso Gardens features 160 acres of gardens, winding paths, shady areas, woodlands, and chaparral. Descanso Gardens offers outstanding tours.
- Cornerstone Gardens is located at 23570 Arnold Dr. in Sonoma, CA. The gardens are designed to showcase new garden designs from various leading landscape architects. Guests can walk through and enjoy the gardens at their own pace.
For traveling outside of California to other gardens in the United States, Travel Towards has a helpful article here about best gardens to visit. If you like Orchids like we do, here is an excellent resource where to buy Orchids online.
Posted by admin on September 11, 2012
Why grow roses? Growing roses can be a spectacular hobby as there are so many varieties to choose from. Roses bloom year after year, and can brighten any garden.
Here are 5 tips we’ve learned over the years to help you choose the perfect rose for your garden.
- Rose categories: Primarily, the rose categories selected from are bush roses and climber roses. Bush roses are grown in a shrub or bush shape, while climber roses can grow up a doorway, fence, or other structure.
- Rose height: It is important to choose the right height rose for the garden. Some roses are a couple of feet high while others can be ten feel tall! Some roses work well in one spot and not in another.
- Flower size: Some roses have many small flowers while others may have huge flowers. Of course, in between these there are many sizes to choose from. If you go to a local rose garden or garden center, you can start to get a feel which size rose flower you prefer.
- Rose flower style: There are more primitive simple rose flowers and others which have more complex flowers. It can be very helpful to select the style of rose flower you will enjoy most. We like both.
- Number of flowers: Some roses have a low bud count while others can have dozens of buds on a stem. Decide if you’d like a light or heavy show of flowers.
Here are 10 great tips from our experience to help you grow roses well in your garden:
- Sun for roses: Most varieties of roses prefer full sun in the garden. If a garden is in a hot location, light shade may be necessary to keep the roses from overheating.
- Watering roses: Roses like to be especially watered regularly during the spring through fall growing period.
- Fertilizing roses: Rose fertilizer is best to use for about 6 to 8 weeks during the spring through fall growing period. This Bayer rose concentrate works well.
- Cleaning spent flowers: Spent rose flowers should be pruned, or removed by hand to prevent seed from setting. Seeds can take away energy from the rose plant and slow growth.
- Protect your hands: Use specialty rose gloves anytime you garden with roses. They will protect your hands. This Magid pair
is our favorite.
- Prune roses: Prune roses sometime between midwinter through early spring before new growth starts. Prune rose structure by cutting out old and weak branches and stems. Get the right pair of rose pruners which will last long term and save your hands from getting stuck by thorns. This Fiskars pair of pruners
is our favorite.
- Have reference ready: Get the best rose book for reference in the garden. This rose book is our favorite.
- Shrub roses: If growing a rose shrub, trim sides and height to keep shape each year.
- Climbing roses: If growing a rose as a climber, secure rose stems each year so that it is well supported for the coming year of growth.
- Choose the right roses: Finally, choose the right roses. Our favorite three roses to grow in California are Abraham Darby, Cecile Brunner, and Lady Banks. These roses grow and flower well. Learn more about Abraham Darby
, Cecile Brunner
, and Lady Banks
.
Posted by admin on August 30, 2012
Orchids are quite the spectacular plant to grow. Here are 5 reasons to grow orchids.
1. Most orchids bloom for at least two weeks, and more often orchids bloom for two to three months at a time.
2. Some orchids have tiny flowers the size of a fingernail, while there are also orchids with flowers up to the size of a dinner plate.
3. Some orchids are so fragrant that you can smell them across the room.
4. Some orchids rebloom six months after their last bloom, other orchids may continue reblooming for up to a year at a time, while other orchids bloom once per year.
5. Not only are there tens of thousands of species and hundreds of thousands of hybrid varieties, but there are orchids from all around the world.
Posted by admin on August 21, 2012
We highly recommend growing your own food at home if you feel you would like to have a successful home produce garden. Having organic food from your own front or back yard can be an easy, spectacular, abundant, money saving pleasure. The research has already been done for you and we’re sharing that with you in this article.
What is the way to create a spectacular garden which produces at home with ease? Well, you need to create a natural habitat made up of edible plants as your own amazing ecosystem. In your own garden, you can grow things like carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, celery, spring onions, swiss chard, parsnips, baby spinach, and so many more.
What are the benefits of growing your own fruits and vegetables? There are so many benefits! Setting up your own home garden can help you harvest food every day of the year, provide organic fruits and vegetables, let you collect your own seeds, help you grow food so that if you want you can sell the excess, and let you have super tasty produce.
This system provides the steps and horticulture techniques to make this process fast and easy. There are videos, an instruction manual/step-by-step project plan, and even a membership to ensure you succeed. Happy gardening, and enjoy having an easy garden that makes the neighbors jealous!
Posted by admin on August 10, 2012
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