You may have a green thumb when it comes to gardening outdoors, only to find significant browning in that proud digit when you turn your attention to houseplant care. The information below won’t take all the difficulty out of houseplant care, but it will get you going in the right direction. [ read more ]
Source: landscaping.about.com
When most people close up shop in their garden for the winter, I’m still holding out for three of my favorite plants to bloom.When rains pelt the earth, I know my camellias, hellebores and winter hazel will perk up and cheer me. [ read more ]
Source: www.sfgate.com
At this time of year, apple lovers are biting into fruit that has been stored since the fall harvest. But those who grow certain heirloom varieties are finding that some classics are ready for harvest now. [ read more ]
Source: www.sfgate.com
Many sources with information on houseplants say that rosemary is among the culinary herbs that can be grown outdoors in summer and brought in during winter, and is “the best to grow indoors year-round,” says garden expert Barbara Pleasant. A rosemary topiary (tree-shaped) or a plant pruned into a Christmas-tree shape is a popular gift for cooks and gardeners during the holidays. [ read more ]
Source: www.tennessean.com
Work to clear soil contaminated with arsenic and lead in 100 gardens in Seaton Carew will begin in the spring. Hartlepool Council said the work to clean-up the gardens would cost £4m. [ read more ]
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk
Nearly £500,000 of lottery funding has been awarded to an organic gardening project in Plymouth. The idea of Digging It is to transform two acres of waste ground in the Stoke area at the same time as encouraging people to eat what they sow. [ read more ]
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
COPENHAGEN — A Danish biotech company has developed a genetically modified flower that could help detect land mines and it hopes to have a prototype ready for use within a few years.”We are really excited about this, even though it’s early days. It has considerable potential,” Simon Oestergaard, chief executive of developing company Aresa Biodetection, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. [ read more ]
Source: www.wired.com
Rows and rows of rose cuttings fill a vast warehouse in Alem Gena, a small town about 30km from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. They are being grown into small plants ready to be sold on. Ethioplants is owned by Dutch flower grower Felix Steeghs who moved here in September.[ read more ]
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk
The salient features and unique advanced facilities at the Dubai Flower Centre (DFC) were showcased to an international audience at the International Horti Fair that was held from Oct. 31 - Nov. 03, 2006 at the RAI International Exhibition and Congress Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. [ read more ]
Source: www.albawaba.com
Located in the heart of Kabul, Flower Street is different at Christmas from any other time of year, transformed into a festive place full of trees decked with multicolored tinsel garlands and lights. “After the Taliban, we started to make Christmas trees because lots of foreigners are around, and they are asking for them,” [ read more ]
Source: http://news.yahoo.com
Whether you’re just getting into gardening, trying to streamline your gardening activities, or wanting to have a landscape and plants reflective of the times, being aware of the latest gardening trends can help.This past year Chris Beytes, the editor of a professional growers magazine, described several specific trends which reflect four main traits of new gardeners and their gardening. For starters, we are no longer gardening as in past generations, nor will kids today garden as we do. Related to this is the fact that many are actually decorating instead of gardening. [ read more ]
Source: http://pss.uvm.edu
Most people don’t eat flowers. But they are an important source of food security because of the income they bring to thousands of people — most of them women — in developing countries.And yet flowers have not, until recently, been held to the same ecological or health standards that pertain to edible agricultural products. US and European regulations on chemical residues for flowers, for example, are less stringent than for food. Moreover supermarkets, where cut flowers and bouquets prepared in the country of origin are increasingly being sold, have exacting cosmetic standards and cannot afford to sell flowers damaged by pests. All these factors raise the potential risk of exposure for workers. [ read more ]
Source: www.fao.org
The worldwide floriculture industry demands a diverse range of cut flower and foliage products, with the unusual and the exotic always attracting the attention of this fashion-driven industry. On the world market, Australia’s export potential lies in its unique native flora, a rich resource of valuable new flower products waiting to be fully developed and marketed to the world. Domestic consumers are also increasingly seeking out native flowers.Many native flowers and foliages now being grown commercially were initially mostly bush-picked to first establish market acceptance. Today in NSW most are grown in beds or rows in commercial plantations along the coastal strip where there are suitable growing conditions and good transport links to major domestic and export markets. [ read more ]
source: www.ricecrc.org
A beautiful 18 ½ foot tall Douglas-fir tree from Pennsylvania will be the Official White House Christmas Tree this season.
The Blue Room Christmas Tree will be officially presented to First Lady Laura Bush by Francis, Margaret and Chris Botek of Crystal Spring Tree Farm in Lehighton, Pa. The Boteks earned this honor by winning the National Christmas Tree Association’s (NCTA) national Christmas Tree contest held in August 2006 in Portland, Ore., and becoming Grand Champions.
Christmas SPIRIT Foundation Delivers Holiday Cheer to Troops and Military Families .
Christmas Tree growers will donate more than 11,000 Christmas Trees to U.S. troops and their families this holiday season. The Trees for Troops Program, sponsored by the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, kicked off on Nov. 14, 2006, with the collection of trees in Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Ind. These trees will be shipped overseas to Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East and sailors in the 5th fleet in the Gulf.