Freesia bulbs are a native to South Africa and are perennial bulb flowers from the Iris family (Iridaceae). They are very easy to grow and have a light sweet fragrance. This is a great cutting flower for flower arrangements.
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♥ Create – Grow – Inspire ♥
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Create – Grow – Be Inspired!
Red Blossoms on Crown of Thorns
Orange Nasturtium Bloom
Yellow Succulent Bloom- (This succulent got a little beat up by hail two weeks ago)
Green-Lime Succulent Blooms
Blue Blooms on Rosemary
Violet Color on the Lilac Vine
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MAKING BOOKMARK GIFTS
-from your garden flowers, herbs or leaves-
From the Garden to a Bookmark
1. Grow some great flowers, herbs or choose leaves from your garden.
2. Press the flower petals, leaves or herbs in-between newspaper in a heavy book, or a flower press for a week. Plant clippings should be completely dried out before going on to the next step.
3. Use Cardstock paper to create a bookmark. Add the pressed flowers around the bookmark paper. I used a tiny bit of glue-stick to tack the petals in place.
4. Laminate them (I went to Kinko’s and used their machine).
5. Cut bookmark out from lamination leaving a little plastic space (a few centimeters) between the paper and the cut edge of the lamination.
6. Use Photos, stickers, quotes or even decorative paper to create the bookmark.
The sunflower petals in this photo were seeds that I gave to a friend in July because we share the same birthday. She planted the seeds on her patio in containers and they grew beautifully. She then created a bouquet from the flowers and gave me that bouquet on Thanksgiving Day. A month later I dried the petals from that bouquet and used them to make bookmarks and gave one to her for Christmas.
This sunflower went from seed gift to flower gift to bookmark gift, now that’s recycling!
* Valentine’s Day is coming up and I bet some red bookmarks with dried flowers would look great!
Sunflower Bouquet
This was truly THE GARDEN GIFT THAT KEPT ON GIVING! 
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Create – Grow – Inspire
Saving and Drying the Flower Pedals
If you are looking for a nice upright flowering and drought tolerant plant to put into a container, this one is a gem! My pig planter pictured here is potted with a “Crown of Thorns” plant, botanical name: Euphorbia splendens. I purchased this pig planter in Old Town San Diego at a pottery shop filled with mexican pottery and ceramics.
The Euphorbia splendens plant is very low maintenance and mine flowers most of the year. The variety of colors range from coral, red, and pink to yellow and white. It’s also a great plant for propagating when it gets too large, just cut off the extended stalk and allow it to dry for a few days, then add rooting hormone to the end of the stalk and plant in cactus mix. This a good potted plant and also a great landscaping plant.
* Origin: Madagascar
* Temperatures: Ideally 62° to 85° degrees Farenheit, but tolerates cooler temperatures in the winter. It hailed three times in San Diego last week and it still looks o.k!
* Water – Once per week and keep dry between watering.
* Negatives – This plant has a milky sap that is a skin and eye irritant. Wear Gloves!
– Follow this link to another wordpress photography blog titled “Decent Exposure” for an amazing photo of this flowering euphorbia.
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Create – Grow – Inspire
Narcissus In Full Bloom 1/25/2010
Every January I plant Paperwhite Bulbs indoors and by forcing the blooms I have beautiful fragrant flowers to bring in the New Year. I started this about 10 years ago to entice my kids into the pleasures of indoor gardening. We loved to watch the amazing process of an ugly onion looking bulb turn into a color burst of green stalks shooting up into the air and delivering silky white heavenly scented flowers. My children thought the best part of the project was using marbles for the foundational base, it also added beauty to the clear vase as we awaited the flowers to grow.
Narcissus- Macro Lens
It only takes a few weeks for the blooms to emerge and by then the marbles are almost completely covered by roots and the visual focus moves from the marbles to the white trumpeted flowers with a soft yellow center. We all look forward to this little tradition we share each year and even though my kids are teenagers they still show appreciation for blooming bulbs indoors. I have to admit that the flowers this year are so pungent that it did not mix well with the smell of our dinner tonight. I think I will move them into the living room!
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Create – Grow – Be Inspired!
Antique Marble Collection and Narcissus Bulbs
Setting bulbs on marbles to create a foundation for the roots to grow around.
Add some water to the bottom part of the bulbs and they are ready to grow.
San Diego had a day full of rain today and as I went out to the garden to get some carrots I noticed that there was a first bloom from my San Pedro Cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi). I watched a documentary on T.V. a few weeks ago about Peruvian religious customs where the San Pedro cactus has been used for 3,000 years as a hallucinogen for religious divination and other healing methods.
San Pedro Cactus Exotic Flower Bloom- January 2010
This flower that bloomed today was about 9 inches in diameter and had a very light and sweet flower scent (only detectable by inserting my nose into the flower!). The San Pedro is a columnar cactus that can reach up to 15 feet tall. It has grown very well in my San Diego cactus garden situated on a hill with great drainage and very little watering. The San Pedro also grows well in containers with a cactus mix type of soil. The flower bloom only lasts a few days and is so beautiful juxtaposed to the thorny cactus it bursted out from.
San Pedro Cactus in a San Diego Cactus Garden- Echinopsis Pachanoi
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Create – Grow – Enjoy
san pedro hiding in the background
I read on another WordPress blog about using Nasturtium leaves and flowers to make sandwiches. Since I have so much growing in my garden I thought ”why not?”. I used some whole grain bread, mayo (I am a big fan of mayo and I use a lot!), grey poupon, swiss cheese, local and fresh tomato slices, avocado, my herb seasoned sea salt, nasturtium leaves and flowers. I think it was definitely the prettiest sandwich I have ever made with the bright orange flowers poking out of the sides. Now my Nasturtium plants can feed my bearded dragons and my lunch cravings too.
Nasturtium Sandwich
It turned out tasting pretty good, but not fantastic. Nasturtium leaves are very peppery tasting and it was a good contrast next to the swiss cheese, but there was a very “green/grassy” taste to it. The last few days I’ve used some of the leaves and flowers to brighten up my dinner salads where I think the peppery taste is a better fit. The flowers are a nice colorful addition to a winter-time meal.
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* Create – Grow – Inspire *
Eating Nasturtium
Pretty Flower Sandwich
Remember I planted Nasturtium “here and there” in my garden in December? Here is a photo I took this morning of the “Spitfire” Nasturtium from Renee’s Garden Seeds blooming away on this sunny Saturday morning in January. I love the color orange when it’s in a natural setting surrounded by green foliage. Have a great weekend!
Orange Nasturtium "Spitfire"
Nasturtium is one of my favorite flowers to plant around the garden. This is the all around easy, fun and yummy flower. They never let me down, always poking up out of the soil just weeks after planting them, growing rapidly and bursting into these awesome yellow and orange flowers that are edible! Nasturtium are my favorites mostly because I make cupcakes for special occasions and this flower makes a perfect cupcake topping. The peppery flavor of Nasturtium complements salads and pairs well when infused in vinegar. When I had a backyard rabbit, she loved eating the nasturtium in low-lying planters and that’s how I started planting them “Here and There”.
****************** Nasturtium Facts: ******************
* A super fun botanical name. Also known as “Trapaeolum Majus”. It is considered a flower and a vegetable.
Nasturtium Seeds
* Native annual flower to Central and South America.
* Great for growing in containers, or trellised as a climbing flower.
* Plant in a hanging basket for a trailing down effect.
* Homeopathic uses: for sore throats chew on Nasturtium leaves.
* Use as a companion plant in-between vegetables to deter pests such as white fly and aphids.
* Actually grows better in poor and sandy soil.
* Plant seeds 1/2 Inch deep and 10″ apart in a sunny or partial shade area.
* The leaves and the flowers can be used to season vinegar, decorate cupcakes and desserts, or toss in salads.
* Germination occurs in only 14 days- this a rewarding and fast grower.
* A perfect flower/vegetable for the beginning gardener.
Nadia's First Nasturtium Bloom
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Create – Grow – Have Fun
“The Nasturtium Fairy image link”
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Quail Flower Barn
Poinsettias (Euphorbia Pulcherrima) from the Paul Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, CA supply 70% of all poinsettias in the United States and 50% world-wide. The Ecke Family started breeding poinsettias in greenhouses for wholesale over 75 years ago. This photo was taken at the Quail Flower Barn located a half mile North of the San Diego Botanic Garden and sells Ecke poinsettias along with other flowers all year-long. Stop in to say hello to the owner Cheryl, she is a great source of information on the flower industry and its history in Encinitas. For tourists and locals alike, the Quail Flower Barn established in 1973 is an eclectic location to take photos against its backdrop of rustic brick walls, custom wood doors and antique farming equipment.
Poinsettia plants are natives of Southern Mexico where they can grow up to 12 feet tall in the wild and were used for centuries to decorate churches in December when they bloom. They come in a wide variety of colors and are distinguished with names such as “Jingle Bells” and “Candy Cane”. Poinsettias enjoy temperatures between 60-70 degrees and are part of the Euphorbia genus which is actually a tropical tree. The yellow center of the plant is actually the flower and the large red petals are the leaves.
* Poinsettia plants are not toxic. I saw the famous floral designer/consultant Rene Van Rems literally eat a leaf on stage at the San Diego Horticulture Society meeting tonight to disprove the myth. He was quite a funny speaker and it was well worth going to the meeting tonight to see his talent expressed in his floral and plant displays. I have included a link to his web site for the floral enthusiasts.
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