Green Your Garden

Heidi Munger Gustafson may be from a cold area of Michigan but she knows tropical beauty when she sees it.

Gustafson was one of hundreds of visitors who came to the McKee Botanical Garden on Saturday for the fifth annual Water Lily Celebration.

“We have water lilies in Michigan but they’re not as majestic as these,” said Gustafson, who was in town visiting her dad, Lou Munger, for Father’s Day. “This is just a tropical paradise.”

McKee volunteer Suzan Phillips was giving tours of the 18-acre water gardens, which are filled with one of largest collection of water lilies in the United States. The garden’s 150 lilies — more than 40 different varieties — were on display during the day-long event, both in the ponds as well as containers along the garden’s winding paths.

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There are enormous amount of styles of outdoor furniture available nowadays, and if you are trying to pick furniture that will be suitable for your patio, balcony or garden can be an intimidating task.

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It’s all about design, according to Sonia Uyterhoeven, the gardener for public education at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Choosing and positioning plants with an eye to symmetry, repetition, color, plant shape and size can turn ordinary window boxes into stunners.

Even a mostly green window box with herbs and other edibles can look beautiful if you mix plants with different foliage and shades of green. For a dash of color, add an edible flower or flowering herb.

Here are some of Uyterhoeven’s tips.

Design: Common, inexpensive annuals like petunias and coleus are fine for window boxes. But limit yourself to a few varieties and pay attention to the color of the foliage and flowers.

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An Amorphophallus titanum, also known as a "corpse flower," is growing several inches a day and preparing to make a rare bloom — revealing not only its velvety maroon interior but its even more notorious smell.

According to officials at The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, there have only been 50 documented blooms of the corpse flower in the United States. A different corpse flower bloomed at The Huntington in 1999 — the first ever in California — and again in 2002.

The flower preparing to make its blooming debut this week was propagated by a seed from the 1999 bloom — earning it the affectionate nickname "Son of Stinky." It now stands about 4 feet tall.

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The Internet provides great opportunities for furniture designers and sellers to provide excellent deals on the perfect modern garden furniture to match your needs, and if you are unsure of the type of modern outdoor furniture you want you will find plenty of inspiration, from cheap & chic plastic to top quality European synthetic rattan.

Materials Used for Outdoor Furniture

European synthetic rattan is one of the newest materials used in the creation of modern outdoor furniture. Rattan is the name used to describe about 600 species of palms in Africa, Asia and Australasia. Unlike their tall cousins, these palms are vine-like and bend easily; making them the perfect solution to creating wicker and other outdoor furniture. European synthetic rattan is created to be a nearly perfect match to natural rattan without cutting these magnificent plants from the underbrush of the rainforests.

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The first thing with which you will need to do is make sure that you have a detailed how to build a shed plan. By learning how to build a shed all should be a lot easier to follow in the long run. This will ensure that your shed is built correctly.

A well built shed can last of the 30-40 pleasant years with the correct wood treatment and maintenance. If you do not have an effective, reliable how to build a shed plan, then you could find your shed collapsed and dangerous at the bottom of your garden.

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Everything you ever wanted to know about planting now for early spring colour - from which way is up to plastic pot finessing.

1 Prepare well Remove weeds and incorporate lots of compost or other organic matter when planting bulbs. On heavy soils, dig in horticultural grit. Bulbs grown in pots need good drainage so put plenty of crocks in the bottom and use a well-drained compost. For my pots I use two parts John Innes No 2 with one part horticultural grit. Specialised bulb composts are expensive and only necessary in pots with poor drainage.

2 Time it right Garden centres sell bulbs for autumn planting from the end of July and want them out of the way by September to make room for Christmas-tree baubles. August is far too early to plant spring-flowering bulbs. October is the best time for daffodils; November for tulips.

3 Big, fat and firm When buying bulbs, reject any that are soft or showing signs of mould. Small bulbs may not flower in their first year.

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If you are looking for ideas for outdoor spaces I’m sure that Andy Sturgeon portofolio will give you some inspiration. “Andy Sturgeon Garden Design has emerged as a leading design practice earning a reputation for creating stylish modern gardens that are a fusion of contemporary design and natural materials. Planting often features heavily and ranges from striking architectural schemes through to soft, naturalistic styles. Lighting, sculpture and furniture are frequently integral to the design.” - Via - Desire to Inspire

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