All about flowers and gifts

Flower has power to speak the universal language of gratitude, love, peace, harmony and brotherhood. Flowers appeal to all our senses and brighten up our hearts and lives. While you don’t find right words to express your feelings, use flowers to express your unsaid feelings.

Shopping flowers on line is not only easy, but interesting and fun. Many florist companies provide not only reputable service, but other resources of interest.
One of the major advantages of on line flower store is that you don’t need leave comfort of your home as you can easily access them through just few clicks. All you need is a computer and the Internet connection to access the website. You can easily order flowers on line and they will place your order at the preferred place and time. The ease and comfort of shopping flowers on line makes it an obvious choice for customers.
On line floral shopping offers consumers the ease of logging onto their computers and clicking to a site that accepts secured credit card transactions immediately. The time saving feature of Internet shopping will continue to be at the top of the list for online shoppers. Delivery options are another important feature that Internet shopping offers customers. Whether it is in the US or abroad, floral deliveries are possible as long as there are roads and vehicles. The expansion of delivery flower services continues to broaden as more and more countries open their streets for international commerce. Flower arrangements and potted plants are not the only things offered on many web sites that specialize in floristry gift items.

We introduce FlowerStore.com – very good choose to order flowers on line.

Get Well Flowers- offers the best selection of quality products you’ll find anywhere. Flowers by occasion, Gift Baskets -  fruit, wine, gourmet, chocolate and candy, spa and beauty, coffee, teas and etc, including Kosher Gift Baskets.

There are a great choose of plants – Bonsai, Flowering Plants, green and silk plants.

by News-Leader.com

Chrysanthemums (mums) are one of the most popular fall perennials for the garden, a horticulture specialist with the University of Missouri Extension says. "There are scores of different cultivars of garden chrysanthemums from which to choose," horticulture specialist Patrick Byers said. "Each year, new cultivars with improved growth habits, flower color and garden performance are added," said Byers. A relative newcomer has been the Belgium or European garden chrysanthemums. These cultivars are known for their spectacular size and display of color. "Although individual flowers are smaller on these new varieties, they are borne in profusion making for quite a show in the garden," said Byers. Garden chrysanthemums are available in the spring as rooted cuttings established in small containers or during the fall as large, mature plants in or near full bloom. With most cultivars, spring-planted mums should be pinched at regular intervals every three to four weeks to promote bush, compact growth and more flowers. With most cultivars, the last pinch should be made no later than mid- to late July. "Fall is the most popular time to plant because of the instant color. Planting soils should be well-drained and moderately fertile. Both spring and fall are suitable for planting mums," said Byers.

by C. Colston Burrell

Stock is appreciated for its cool, distinctive colors and exceptional fragrance in cool season gardens. In mild winter regions, it’s grown as a winter/early-spring annual for bloom before the weather gets torrid. In maritime or cool mountain climates, it makes a good flower for late spring or summer flowering. A biennial treated as an annual, it’s a native of the Mediterranean coast and a member of the mustard family.

Description of stock: Most stock varieties have become well-bred doubles, an upgrade from their wild, single nature. Modern varieties vary in height from 12 to 30 inches, but they’re all rather stiff columns surrounded by flowers. The flowers are pink, white, red, rose, purple, and lavender in color.

Growing stock: Stock is at its best in the cool, humid weather of foggy, coastal areas, even though some varieties are more heat-tolerant for a longer flowering season elsewhere. Stock will tolerate light frost and is useful for winter bloom in mild climates. Elsewhere, plant as early in the spring as ground can be worked. Moist, well-drained soil high in organic matter is preferred. Stock should be planted in full sun. Space them 8 to 15 inches apart, depending on the size of the variety.

Propagating stock: Start new plants from seeds. For winter use in mild climates, sow stock in the fall. In other places, sow seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks prior to when ground can be worked outdoors. Seeds germinate in 7 to 10 days at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Don’t cover the seeds; they need light to germinate. A percentage of seedlings are singles. Doubles are usually the most vigorous seedlings and are lighter in color than the singles.

Uses for stock: Stock is relatively precise in appearance, best suited to formal beds where it can be lined up like soldiers. Plant them where the fragrance reaches passersby — near walks, by doorsteps, and close to heavily frequented places. They’re also adaptable to containers, especially if you combine them with informal flowers to break up the rigidity. They’re also superb cut flowers, with the scent pervading an entire room.

Stock related species: Matthiola bicornis has a particularly strong scent at night; the daytime flowers are unexceptional, so plant them discreetly.

Stock related varieties: Trysomic Seven Week stock is the earliest bloomer. It is more tolerant of heat, offering a complete range of stock colors. It grows 15 inches high. Dwarf Stockpot has separate colors of Red, Purple, Rose, White, or all together in a mix. It grows 8 to 10 inches tall. Brompton mixed are double, in red, rose, and white. Evening Scented is white and pale pink and highly fragrant.

Scientific name of stock: Matthiola incana

Vegetarians and people who keep healthy life-style can expand the diet due to not only beautiful, but also nutritious flower which grow in the garden.
Everybody knows that it is possible to prepare good salad from dandelions and to make tasty jam from rose petals. But in the world there is a huge set of flowers, petals, leaves and stalks which use for preparation of various dishes already during many centuries.

Rose

   For certain, rose is the most known and favorite flower in the world. There are thousand grades and hybrids of this beautiful and fragrant flower. Its culinary properties depend on various factors, including a sort of ground and temperature. Therefore, before to consume in food the flowers grown up in various climatic conditions, it is recommended to try their petals.
You can cut off bottom part of a petal if it is bitterfish or to eat only top part.
There are a lot of dishes seasoned with rose petals. Try to put them in salad together with crushed nuts and cheese. The petals of red roses can be added in favorite sauce to give colors and taste. And still the petals of roses cut by strips; it is possible to strew spaghetti. Roses also introduce special taste in ice-cream and drinks.  

Pumpkin flowers

  There are facts that aboriginals used pumpkins flowers like food in XVI century in Northern and South America. It is necessary to remove prickly leaves before cooking pumpkin flowers.Some gourmets eat also pestles of flowers. Mix pumpkin flowers with olive oil, fresh corn and the pumpkin and you get pleasant taste in snack and soups. But especially popular are considered roasted flowers with a small amount of onions, garlic and addition of various seasonings.
It is possible to fill also flowers with a mix from cheese, an onions and spices, to dip them into weight from the shaken eggs, then roll them dried crust breadcrumbs and fry in oil. The taste is unforgettable! So is written in culinary books.

Pansies

    Pansies (Viola wittrockiana) have special dark spots on petals. Pansies are a version of a violet three-colored (Viola tricolor), having violet, white and yellow colors. The wild flowers also are edible, but not in lots as that it is possible to be poisoned.
These flowers give to dishes the special taste and decorate vegetable and fruit salads. For this purpose it is possible to use whole flower, decorating a dish directly ahead of submission on a table (already after in a dish are added sauce and seasonings).
One more edible flower from sort Viola is a Viola odorata which perfectly fits to desserts and drinks. All other violets are not used in cookery.

Day-lily

   This plant is sort of Hemerocallis.  it has long  thin stalk with set of leaves at the basis. There are about 15 sorts of this flower which is widespread moderate-warm areas of Southeast Asia. Most sorts of day-lily are cultivated as ornamental plants. The color of flowers of this plant varies from yellow up to red. Day-lily uses for cooking as seasoning to food.
You can stew a flower a little bit and table as vegetables. If you mix day-lily petals with vegetables and roast it you would get original vegetable ragout. Decorate the dish with whole flower.