An arrangement of fresh flowers will brighten any room, bringing the beauty of nature indoors. Cutting fresh flowers that you have grown yourself is one of the delights of gardening, but whether you are choosing your own garden flowers or buying cut flowers, you will want to give them the best care possible.

When cutting flowers from your garden, do so early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Cool them quickly by placing them in a bucket of water left in a cool place for an hour or so. This is especially important in hot summer weather.

Make sure your vases are perfectly clean. Also, clean water is essential for cut flowers. You can change the water in the vase daily or use a floral preservative.
To prepare the flowers, cut off a couple of inches of stem with a sharp knife and be sure to remove any leaves that would fall below the water level in the vase.

When creating an arrangement from your garden, remember that foliage goes nicely with flowers - try some eucalyptus or nandina. Both last quite a while.

Summer Evening Design Workshop
-Thursday August 11, 6:30-8:30 pm

Sunflower Topiary:  Tuscan style!

Let us teach you the mechanics of floral design, behind the scenes with our finest floral designers. You will assemble your own sunflower topiary in a terra cotta pot and saucer, with foliage and ribbon trim. Give as a gift created by your newfound talent or enjoy your arrangement during a Tuscan summer dinner party with friends.  Fee for class is $30, which includes materials. 

Call The Flower Shop to make your reservations as space is limited.

When the word 'xeriscape' is mentioned, many people think of cactus and sand (as in the picture above) - or rock gardens with a few lonely plants scattered about. Mind you, both cactus gardens and rock gardens can be be quite attractive. But many people think that those are what xeriscaping involves. That is a false impression. You can have a landscape that is fully planted, colorful - and water-conserving. Nor do you necessarily have to have only drought-tolerant plants. The idea is to reduce overall water use by grouping plants with similar needs together - so you can have one area that uses more water than the environment naturally provides and another area where you need no extra water at all.

Advantages of Xeriscape

• Water saving: Using native and other drought-tolerant plants can significantly reduce water use.
• Money saving: Reducing water use can lower your water bill. Xeriscaping can also reduce maintenance costs - while adding to the beauty and value of your property.
• Time saving: Xeriscape landscaping can significantly reduce the time you spend watering, fertilizing and mowing. (Buy a hammock - you'll have more time to use it.)
• No worries: It's nice to be able to go on vacation for a few weeks and know your plants will still be alive when you return.

A Bit of History:

Early in 1981, the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC) and Denver Water formed a cooperative task force on water conservation. Nancy Leavitt, an Environmental Planner for Denver Water, created the word Xeriscape during a group brainstorming session. The task force came up with the original definition of Xeriscape as "Water Conservation Through Creative Landscaping" and the seven simple principles by early 1982.

The seven principles are:

• Planning and Design for water conservation and beauty from the start.
• Create Practical Turf Areas of manageable sizes and shape, and appropriate grasses.
• Select Low Water Requiring Plants and group plants of similar water needs together. Then experiment to determine how much and how often to water the plants.
• Use Soil Amendments as needed by the site and the type of plants used (we recommend using Master Nursery Black Forest Organic Compost for most situations).
• Use Mulches, such as Forest Bark (which ever size chip you prefer), to reduce evaporation and to keep the soil cool.
• Irrigate Efficiently with properly designed systems - and by applying the right amount of water at the right time.
• Maintain the Landscape Properly by mowing, weeding, pruning and fertilizing properly.

If you've just moved in to a new place and want a whole new landscape, consider xeriscape. We'd advise you, in that situation, to hire a professional landscaper to help you design the landscape - and to do the hard work for you. Doing a whole landscape at once is too much for most individuals. But you can use the 'bit by bit' approach or a simple substitution approach, and move your landscape gradually to xeriscape.

Maybe you have a problem area where it's difficult to keep your plants growing well, or an area that is difficult to irrigate. Perhaps you have an area of lawn that is difficult to mow or keep green. These are the types of areas to look at as candidates for starting a xeriscape landscape.

One of the major things to look at when xeriscaping is, "Can I get rid of some of that lawn?" Out of all the things we grow in our yards, turf is probably the biggest overall water-user. If you live in an area with a homeowner's association that requires you to have a certain percentage of lawn, at least make your long-term plans to get the lawn down to the minimal acceptable percentage (or try to get the rule changed).

When planning a xeriscaped area, keep in mind that curves are more natural (and easier to mow around) than sharp angles. Also look at the soil type, the amount of sun or shade, the elevation and ease of access.

Do you have some plants that do well in that area, even if neglected? Those may be good candidates for xeriscaping in that particular micro-climate in your yard. Remove, or move, plants that are not doing well, and amend the soil before planting any new plants. Then mulch, and mulch, and mulch some more.

Keep in mind that even native and 'adapted' plants for our area will need extra water when first planted, until established. Once established, however, they will need much less maintenance than other areas.

We predict that, once you start, you may well continue until your whole yard (or as much as possible) is xeriscaped. You can then lie in your hammock, sipping a cool drink on those hot summer days, and watch your neighbors sweating over their vast expanses of turf.