flower ink

sustainability here to stay

2008-02-19T10:45:00.002-05:00

According to the Natural Marketing Institute's LOHAS consumer trends database for 2007, consumers see sustainability as a long term thing. In fact, those who believe this outnumber those who don't, 2-to-1. That means consumers expect to see sustainable/eco-friendly products. And expect themselves and others to pick up eco-friendly practices. Those who "get there" and "do that" will be seen as the experts.
Read more about it here.

spend money to save money

2008-02-15T12:01:00.004-05:00

those rebate checks that are supposed to help jump-start the economy are in the mail. not yet, anyway, but they will be. every time you turn to a news station there are folks predicting what we will do with this windfall. the government's objective was for us to march down to the nearest store and spend it, and then some. the good angel sitting on our shoulders is telling us to pay down our debt. or, save it.

shall we spend it? or save it?

how about we spend some of it in order to save money over the course of time. let's say, over the course of a growing season. is it coincidence that the checks will arrive in the mail just when we are getting a great start to our gardens? it's perfect timing.

here are 10 ways to spend money in the garden to save money through the summer and beyond:

plant a vegetable garden and spend less in the grocery store
stretch your veggie garden season with row covers
plant a cutting flower garden and spend less for spontaneous hostess gifts
use soaker hoses and spend less on your water bill
use mulch and spend less on your water bill
plant a xeriscape garden and spend less on your water bill
plant a shade tree near your home to save cooling costs (ok, that'll take a couple years to kick in)
upgrade your hand tools so you don't have to re-purchase cheapo tools that continually break
buy a grill and patio furniture and enjoy your backyard and spend less on going out
buy perennials with three- or four-season beauty and spend less on seasonally changing your annuals

any other thoughts? i'm sure we can come up with something! happy spending!

if it's thursday...

2008-02-14T10:53:00.003-05:00

...then it must be houseplant watering day.

i live in a "garden level" condo (i.e. the rowhouse's basement) so my light levels are pretty dismal. don't get me wrong, i do have windows, but they are small and don't let in too much light.

i do manage to have a few houseplants, though. i position most of them under recessed lights that i leave on a good 14-15 hours each day. my african violets are in absolute heaven and flower constantly. my oldest african violet was a gift from my mom i think back in 1995, so it should be nearly 13 years old. i have had great success with an amaryllis positioned under my kitchen light.

i try to include other green things to enliven the space a bit - mostly philodendrons - and they seem to do ok in the low light. my 18 year old christmas cactus bides its time until it can go outside for the summer. poor thing, stuck inside all winter.

you're thinking, wow, her electric bill must be outlandish. not really, actually. and i'm making a point to swap out my indoor spot lights for compact fluorescent bulbs when they burn out.i replaced the spot light over my kitchen sink with a compact fluorescent and the light quality isn't as nice. i think it's because it's not a spot light, which is what i had lived with for four years. i haven't found a compact fluorescent indoor spot bulb yet, so if anyone knows of a brand, please let me know.

flour ink?

2008-02-13T19:35:00.003-05:00

i was inspired in the kitchen today. while making curried butternut squash soup i was thought "wow, i gotta remember to do this instead of that. i should share this" what about...flour ink to complement flower ink? i invite you to check out my postings and my life with food.

keeping up with it all

2008-02-12T17:35:00.000-05:00

i'm somewhat old-fashioned in that my to-do list is written in pencil. i keep my list in an 8.5 x 11-ish spiral notebook ( i make sure it's made with recycled paper), and each day before i settle in to work, i write my to-do list on a new page. i've been doing this for almost 3 years, so i have quite a few notebooks filled cover to cover. i can go on about how particular i can be with it, but that's a blog for another day.

for about three months now i've had "update blog" and "update web site" on my list, toward the end. i've been posting off and on - mostly off - since last spring, and my web site hasn't been updated since last august. i finally got down to it today. i even checked out my analytics for both the blog and web site, just so i have some idea if anyone's checking in (you are!).

and one thing led to another. i just spent probably 5 hours figuring out rss feeds, checking out gardening and garden retail blogs, separately the wheat from the chaff when it comes to relevance. i'm tellin' ya, there's a lot of stuff to read out there. good stuff. i'm not kidding, i could spend another 5 hours reading and surfing and surfing and reading.

i'd love to but i don't dare. oh sure, we've all wasted perfectly fine time - perfectly sunny, beach-worthy days - lost among the reeds of the web. but these rss feeds, they can waste some serious time. reminds me of the first time i ever baby sat. the little 4-year old was in bed within an hour and i had several hours left before the parents came home. video games were one of my options, and i spent the next 3 hours glued to super mario brothers. this was back in the late 80s, so there's no thought about ergonomic joy sticks. the next day, i felt as if i had a guitar string strung from wrist to elbow, and it was being plucked to no end. ouch.

i learned my lesson. i've stayed away from video games pretty much ever since. will i stay away from rss feeds? probably not. i'll just have to put down the joystick a little sooner.

can the "green" in green marketing be backfiring?

2008-02-11T15:33:00.000-05:00

a report from Getty Images thinks the "green" in green marketing may indeed be wearing out it's welcome. by "green" i mean the actual color green, not the "eco-friendly" or "money" aspect of it. here's a quote from Getty Image's second MAP Report (what Makes A Picture):

“Expect the future to be any color but green because right now everybody uses green (and darker shades are predominant). The environment comes in all colors, and visual clichés do not compel interest. Expect to see a backlash on all familiar environmental iconography. Innovators will embrace the mucky, the messy, the colorful.”

Getty's MAP report had some other interesting "green" revelations, and you can find a link to the report on the Environmental Leader web site.

eco-options for valentine's day

2008-02-07T07:15:00.000-05:00

sustainability and organic are the latest buzz in gardening, and in everything else, for that matter. i wrote an article for today's Boston Globe Style Section to help the eco-sensitive find alternatives that would sit well with their conscious. check it out:
Love Me, Love the Earth

major point: organic & sustainably grown & fairly traded items are out there - yes, even for flowers - if you look for them. if more of us ask, they'll begin to be found more easily.

a try at video!

2008-02-01T17:22:00.000-05:00

it's been a long time since i've posted - my apologies! i've been up to a whole lot of good stuff. i won't bother you with it all now. but i do want to share a video my friend cindy and i made! it's our attempt at creating a fun and interesting video about plants. "plants unscripted." i hope you like it!

Greetings from Holland!

2007-08-20T12:16:00.000-04:00

I had the great good fortune to have been invited by Plant Publicity Holland to visit their delightful country. Specifically, I was invited to attend Plantarium, an annual trade show for Holland's perennial sector (www.plantarium.nl), and tour a few garden centers and nurseries. I am happy to report I have arrived safely and have one successful day of touring under my belt already!

The day started off at the Flora Holland flower auction. I have the stats and figures somewhere in my hotel room, but I do believe they have a 55% share of the flower auction market. If that's for Holland alone or for the world wide market I would have to check. But still, that's a lot of the market, and it's a lot of flowers. They have separate auction halls for potted plants and cut flowers. The logistics are truly amazing. The flow of flower carts is quite rhythmic, and how the cart pushers don't run into each other, I just don't know. Like birds flying in formation. Anyway, here's a photo of the carts flowing in and out of the distribution hall.

After the auction, we traveled to two large garden centers. They can be best described as "destination" home & garden centers. Some quick trends I noted:
-espeliered trees are big here. The choices ranged from small "starter" fruit trees complete with at least one full-sized apple or pear hanging from a branch (!) to large 3-inch caliper deciduous trees like maple. I also noted espeliers used in public spaces, separating shops from public walkways along canals. Fall is the perfect time to plant trees, and an espelier with a fruit hanging from it is a great way to show "hey, look what you can get from this!"
-long colorful plant tags matching the fruit and the size and shape of the container. take a look at this plant tag and tell me you can resist these kids' smiling faces. of course you'll have fun with this fruit bush! the tag practically guarentees it!

-black and white (and grey and silver) are in! other colors too, but i was surprised at how much display space was dedicated to b&w themes.
-asian designs are in, too. and i was reminded that the Summer Olympics are coming up next summer. Start thinking about how you might be able to incorporate China and all of Asia in a display. And look at all the terrific material you have to work with!

The tours were enlightening not just about how the garden centers run their businesses, but also how consumers use these stores. They stores had cafes with really great food and great coffee. The cafes actually had patrons for lunch on a Monday afternoon! And folks were shopping for home decor and plants, coordinating one with the other. It was nice to see how this store fit seamlessly into the lives of their shoppers.

Well, that's it for now! I think I may be having a problem posting photos - looks like they are in reverse order and I'm not sure why. I'll try to get it right tomorrow!

tags & brochures just a snapshot in time

2007-07-19T07:19:00.000-04:00

Listen up, gardeners and garden pros, you both might find this interesting. Yesterday at the MFGA/MNLA Summer Meeting I attended a talk by Lois Berg Stack, a horticulture professor and extension specialist up in Maine. She was giving a run-down of about 2 dozen annuals from her trial gardens that she thought were terrific plants. Her intro slide had a close-up of two annuals intermingled - ageratum and another lesser-known plant. What a pretty and serene combinbation.

Ageratum flowers, she pointed out, will become a tousled browning mess before you can put your camera away, and the other annual will peter out after a few days and really isn't worth its time in the garden. This picture-perfect slide is just a snapshot in time, she said.

Tags and brochures and point-of-purchase materials are wonderful ways to communicate how lovely plants will be in the garden. But those photos are truly just "snapshots in time." Many people coming through the garden center will see the pretty tag, and maybe if they are lucky will see the symbol for sun or shade. Impressed with what the photos promise, they'll place the plants on their carts and take off for home.

The tags will never ever show fading blooms or leaves overcome by powdery mildew or the results of planting full-sun plants in full shade. Nor can we ever expect to see a disclaimer at the bottom of the tag reading "this is only a depiction of the plant when grown under optimum condition by gardening professionals."

So, what are we to do?

Breeders are doing their part by breeding plants that will better resist powdery mildew or be better self-cleaning (meaning, those pesky spent flowers just fall off or otherwise disappear), and the like. Better performing plants have a better chance of actually looking like those beautiful photos.

For those of you making the plant purchases, aim for results like those in the pretty photos. But don't knock yourself if or when it doesn't happen. And your not completely gullible anyway, you realize some marketer is trying to lure you in.

And for those providing the plants - well, you tell me what should be done. I think it boils down to providing the best and most complete information possible. But how can we communicate this to the folks buying the plants?

Any suggestions from either side of the cash register?

MFGA "Love My Garden" Contest

2007-07-17T10:29:00.000-04:00

with all the time and effort you put into your flower gardens, you might as well reap some rewards, right?

the Massachusetts Flower Growers Association is holding its 2nd annual "Love My Garden" contest for Massachusetts residents. The top winner in each of 4 regional districts will receive a $500 gift certificate good at local independent retail garden centers and farm stands. last year more than 100 entries were submitted from 75 communities, with $1500 in gift certificates awarded.

want to enter? you need only submit two 4x6 color photos of their home flower garden and a completed contest entry form, which must be received by Sept. 1, 2007. gardens will be judged on flower and plant variety (they love a mix of both annuals and perennials!), design, overall appeal, seasonal color, and the planting of the flower garden.

you can pick up entry forms at any MFGA member indie garden center or farm stand, or go online to access the form and read all the fine-print details, like being 18 years old and older and so forth.

get gardening and good luck!

water smart!

2007-07-16T10:39:00.000-04:00

A notice recently came across my desk about irrigation. July is apparently Smart Irrigation Month. What a good month for it! It's hot and sticky and dry dry dry. Homeowners have their sprinklers on their lawns and gardens, hoping to keep everything green and growing.

Here are a few "smart" watering tips from the Irrigation Association:

Water only when needed: Saturate root zones and let the soil dry. Watering too much and too frequently results in shallow roots, weed growth, disease and fungus.
Consider low-volume drip irrigation for plant beds: Drip allows water to slowly seep into the soil, minimizing runoff and putting moisture at the root zone where plants can use it.
Water at the optimum time: Water when the sun is low or down, winds are calm and temperatures are cool, between evening and early morning to reduce evaporation. You can lose as much as 30% of water to evaporation by watering in mid-day.

For more watering tips, visit the Irrigation Association and click on "Fast Tips."

time flies in the garden

2007-06-05T10:49:00.000-04:00

you spend some time in the garden and, lo and behold, a month has gone by since my last posting. i've been doing other things, too, but mainly weeding, preparing the garden, and watering. and more weeding. and shopping for plants. and gardening for my parents. here are a few things of note:
-the plants at garden retail look pretty good. even in wal-mart and home depot, surprise surprise. my one shopping experience at wal-mart (with my mom) was ok. a rainy dreary day and everything was wet, and the outside check-out wasn't open, which meant carting wet plants through the store and onto the regular check-out. the cashier didn't appreciate that.
-mulch: i see more and more people purchasing it, so that means they know all the benefits of mulch. however, what's with the colored mulches? i got some for my parents - the first time ever in 50+ years - and my only choices were the big thick wood chunks and a red-colored and black-colored pine-bark mulch. my hands were stained. i just don't think it is necessary to add coloring.
-more on mulch: i LOVE buckwheat hull mulch. it has such a classic, finished look to it. really creates some nice texture to the ground and plants really do jump out against that background. it's not cheap - i paid $17.50 per standard-sized bag (2 cu.ft. i believe), and i got 3 bags. that put a nice 2-inch or so dressing over my 10x20ft veggie garden. i could use another bag. my veggie garden's first year - 3 summers ago - i put down 5 bags worth, and last year I didn't really have to put down any additional mulch (you're right, i didn't turn my soil over the beginning of the second year!). anyway, i highly recommend it if you can find it.
-i spoke with someone the other day about her hydrangea paniculata. her husband had cut down the "bunch of sticks" in early spring because he thought they were dead. they now have a small bush growing with no hope for flowers this year. and i told them don't worry, i bet the garden center has more that will indeed bloom this summer, so why not just replace it? i don't think some gardeners consider that as an option - replacing plants. they'll try to nurse plants back to health meanwhile they have an unsuitable plant in their yard or home. i think of that Lay's potato chip ad - "eat all you want, we'll make more."
-more people need to experience rhubarb!! i have 4 huge plants and i am trying desparately to share it with folks. many people my age never had it. crazy. it's fabulous, especially made into a sauce and spooned over vanilla ice cream. yum.
-marigolds are my go-to annual. i edged my tomato plot with 18 plants this year. i like the safari bolero i think it is, 3 different colors. they did really well for me the last two years, they really fill the gaps well. and they always remind me of the movie monsoon wedding.
that's it for now! if you don't hear from me i'm out watering the garden...

tech talk: mobile tv

2007-05-03T15:35:00.000-04:00

according to a center for media research brief, mobile tv is hot with under 35 males, the typical 'early adopters' of new technologies. who's going to be purchasing lawn tractors and power tools and building decks and all the trappings for their newly purchased first homes? that's right, men under 35. and here's another nice statistic from the report: "Approximately 71 percent of the respondents said that "cost of service" was a top consideration in selecting a Mobile TV service. However, 67 percent of respondents who are interested in subscribing to Mobile TV also said that they would be willing to watch sponsored advertisements in return for free subscriptions."

want to get the word out about your yard-related product? look into mobile tv and you'll hit your target market.

read the research brief: here

on the "horticulture industry"

2007-04-30T15:36:00.001-04:00

i've been cruising around some gardening blogs just to see what's out there. under one blog's "manifesto" was listed a suspicion of the "horticultural industry." i've been saying horticulture industry for many years now because well, that's what it is. i'm not going to address the bloggers' "suspicions" about the hort industry - i just want to add a few comments about why something as quaint and relaxing and decorative and recreational as gardening can be said to be an industry.

i gave a brief "welcome to spring" lecture to a group of folks who are in the mental health field a few weeks ago. i was talking with the woman in charge of the institute's seminar series about who i could expect to show up and she mentioned the possiblity of some "consumers" coming in. it took me a second to realize in her line of work consumers aren't gardeners but people receiving mental health services. they may be gardeners, too, actually, but gardeners dealing with some mental health issues.

that got me thinking about the blogger's mention of "horticulture industry." industry, producer, vendor, consumer - it's all the language of business. it may strike some as shocking that mental health is an industry, but it is. and so it may strike others as odd that behind the scenes of gardening there is "industry" going on - people harvesting and selling peat moss; people making pots; people exploring jungles or grasslands for new flowers; people breeding plants to make new and better or different plants; and people growing these plants and selling these plants to gardeners.

maybe what ruffles some feathers is the realization that many of the plants sold today started life in a big "manufacturing plant" -type greenhouse. thanks to henry ford, plants are one of a billion things that can be produced more efficiently and more economically if grown in assembly-line fashion. i'm not going to be elitist about how plants are grown (what goes into them, i'm a little more concerned about). if assembly-line production brings more affordable plants to the folks who might not garden otherwise, then great. hopefully that hanging basket of petunias on the front porch will lead the gardener to explore some more about the gardening world and the really cool things it holds. if not, it's still doing some good by beautifying a home, making the homeowner happy when they see the blooms, encouraging neighbors to think about flowers, and so on and so on. those are all great things and potential starting points for other great gardening possibilities.

Giving Some "Ink" to Flowers

2007-04-25T12:42:00.000-04:00

flowers. i love 'em. i'm not what you would call a 'plant nut,' though. i'm a generalist - i know what looks good, i know what does well where, and if i don't know all the varieties of salvia or remember the optimum night-time temps for dendrobiums, that's just fine. i know the right questions to ask and where to go for the info. really, that's half the battle right there.

like it says over in my profile, i'll be posting bits of info that i think are interesting for the whole gardening community - from the folks who are developing the plants, growing the plants, and selling the plants, to the folks who are buying and using the plants. it's my attempt to connect the ends of the daisy chain. i'm giving some "ink" to flowers - the entire realm of horticulture, if i can be so bold - so that "gardening" will continue to be a relevant, important, fun, educational (keep adding your own positive adjectives here) activity in our lives.

with that said, i invite you to keep reading future posts. and please, if you have anything to share, let me know.

i'll warn you right now, i may throw in the ocassional post about my beloved red sox, discuss some outdoor grilling adventures, and other mismatched topics, but i'll try to keep that to a minimum.