Filed under: Gardening,Trees — admin @ 3:20 pm
It is said that during the 7th century, an evangelistic monk traveled to Germany to spread God’s word. He offered a tree to the first village he came to, explaining that its triangular shape represented God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
This first ‘Christmas Tree’ was decorated with small, white candles.
In 1610, people began to add tinsel to the traditional decoration. When the concept of Christmas trees spread to England, they began to decorate it with glass beads and snowflakes.
By the 1800′s, America was introduced to this festive custom. However, it wasn’t until the years after WWII that that real lighted Christmas trees, by then either with candles or electricity, developed into a universal tradition in the United States.
Even before electricity, Christmas was associated with light and guidance, and thus candles were a popular way to decorate during the holidays. There were holders designed specifically to cling to the branches of a Christmas tree, and for a few precious minutes, the family or town Christmas tree could be lit up with many little flames of hope.
Today’s electric lights stem from Edward Johnson’s 1882 Christmas tree. He was a colleague of Thomas Edison, and decided to put this wonderful invention to use for festive purposes.
After his small rotating tree lit up by red, white, and blue electric bulbs, the idea began to develop into what we have today.
Ornaments: At one point in time, all ornaments had to be crafted with glass, or otherwise made from edible objects. Europeans originally marketed glass ornaments to be hung on a Christmas tree or wreath.
Christmas trees were strung with cranberries, popcorn, or gingerbread during the pioneer days of our culture, when material possessions were an encumbrance. With the invention of injection mold plastics in America, more affordable and durable ornaments became available.
Candy Cane: A German choir director used to give straight, mint sticks to his students when they behaved well.
Sometime during its development as a Christmas tradition, the candy cane took a curve-and was thereafter shaped like a shepard staff, representing the guidance of Christ over his flock.
I am an editor for a site called OrnamentSpace.com, so many finest quality hand painted christmas ornaments can be found on it and each one of them is unique, no two are exactly the same.
Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com
Filed under: Plants — admin @ 1:23 pm
Garden perennials are popular with many gardeners, though there is a danger that the new gardener will over plant them as they wait for those already planted to mature. The secret with perennials is patience, and if you want something to add color to your garden while you wait, then plant some annuals for the first year until the perennials really show their true colors.
A perennial needs at least a year before it flowers properly and that is when some gardeners get impatient. In year two, although you get some show of flowers, you will still not be impressed and might start to wonder why you chose perennials.Â
That feeling totally changes, however, with the explosion of color in year three. That is when you will start to regret the extra plants you put in because the first ones did not seem to be doing anything.
Once your perennials are established it will seem very easy just to sit back and admire your work, but you will have no time for that. Perennials do not last for ever, and the definition of the term is one that lasts for more than two years.
As some die away you will have to remove and replace them with fresh plants. You can even move them about the garden since perennials are ideal for replanting. In fact many gardeners have a space set aside for starting off new garden perennials in a variety of colors that they can use later for filling in gaps as plants die. This avoids them having to wait until the plants mature.
It is not easy to fill an empty space in a row of flowers if you have to wait two or three years for a plant to flower, and a small personal nursery area is a good idea and quite common with gardeners experienced in growing perennials. Others fill spaces with annuals, but they never quite look as though they belong.
Growing perennials takes experience. Perhaps not so much the growing, but the planning and envisaging what your garden will look like in three years time. It is not easy to space your plants correctly since they will spread out a great deal more than you think as they mature, and some such as asters, can continue to bloom when others have died out.
The overall plan of a garden should take several aspects of the plant into consideration, such as height, spread, color, whether it prefers shade or direct sunlight, and how long they flower for.
As mentioned, the aster can bloom past September into the fall, and you don’t want to plant asters together with summer blooms that die off in August. You will then be left with some asters all on their own and, while asters are lovely plants, it might not be as you planned it.Â
Perennials can bloom right through from April to November, sometimes even later depending on the climate and the weather conditions.
Let’s face it, there are more to perennials than most people think, and they include plants as diverse as rhubarb, daffodils, and other bulbs, corms and rhizomes, lilac and even dandelions and daisies.Â
You also have the soft, fleshy stemmed herbaceous perennials such as the peony. These have fragrant flowers, the smell of which varies between varieties and come in reds, pinks and whites.
The beautiful blue cornflower, also known as bachelor’s buttons because they were once worn by bachelors when they went courting, are excellent flowers for cutting, and the lovely flower belies the foliage that can get quite ugly as it ages. For this reason cornflower is best grown among other flowers with sufficient foliage to hide that of the cornflower.
Lobelia plants can be either annuals or perennials, and the delicate purple lobelia is very attractive. Although most people generally regard lobelia as being a purple plant, there are over 350 species of lobelia, and the short-lived perennial lobelia cardinalis has red flowers that appear in the summer through to the fall.Â
The lobelia siphilitica (Azure Sage), on the other hand, does not appear till the fall and has delicate deep blue flowers. These plants prefer to be planted in clumps where they show their colors to best advantage.
The geranium is another garden perennial that looks good in borders, beside ponds or even as ground cover. The true geranium is a hardy perennial with a fabulous range of red to blue colors that love well drained soil and shady conditions. There are over 300 species, and new hybrids coming along all the time.
In summary, garden perennials have to be understood, and once the gardener new to them gets past the first two or three years then he or she will be hooked. They provide a riot of color to any garden, large or small, and are able to be easily moved and transplanted to suit your particular planning needs.
Â
Want to find top qualitity perennials for your garden then visit http://www.mygardencenteronline.com . There you will find a full range of Aster, Black Eyed Susan, Clematis, Dianthus, Geranium, Peony and alot more other types of garden perennials.
Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com
