Asian Tulips | Beautiful Flower For Your Life !

We’re talking about exhibition variety chrysanthemums (also called football and spider mums), those nine-to-twelve-inch-wide flowers you mainly see in florist arrangements, or at chrysanthemum shows.

McLeod grows 250 chrysanthemums, representing 61 varieties. He’s a species of gardener with a strong passion for one group of plants. But why chrysanthemums?

“Partly, when I was a kid, these are the flowers I remember. And there’s not too much blooming this late (in autumn), and they last for two months in their pots,” he says.

McLeod grew up in Scotland, and speaks with the enchanting music of his birth country. Tall and ruddy, with white hair, he looks like he just stepped off the heather moors.

A retired math professor, he was looking for a useful project. He lives near Courtyard Village retirement community and drove past it often. A lightbulb went off–he would offer to teach others how to propagate and nurture chrysanthemums.

“Growing chrysanthemums means messing with things nine months a year. I was thinking of this as an activity,” he says. “Some of the residents were keen gardeners before they moved here.”

You take cuttings from the mother plants in March, and from that time until fall flowering there are many tasks. He pictured sharing the process with interested seniors as a fun way to bring them together.

In October 2008 McLeod took chrysanthemums in full bloom to the residence to see if anyone was interested.

“There was more enthusiasm than I expected,” he says. He held a meeting in December, and in February 2009 fifteen residents launched the project. A core group of eight remain, and I met with three of the women and McLeod at Courtyard Village to learn more.

“We call it a club,” says Pat Hershey. She not only grows the chrysanthemums but shares them with her neighbors, and also photographs them.

“We were not that well acquainted at first–180 people live here. Robin brought in big pots and we’d sit around the table and take cuttings,” Hershey adds.

Cuttings dipped in rooting hormone are set in seed trays filled with damp sterile potting soil. The trays are covered with plastic domes that stand about seven inches tall, like mini-greenhouses. It takes a month for roots to develop. McLeod keeps his trays in the basement, while the women use their windowsills.

It’s tempting to lift the dome and check the cuttings.

“I couldn’t help but look at them all the time and peek,” Helen Cooper admitted. “I’d take the lid off and water them a little.”

“I learned to leave them alone,” says Hershey.

Jasmine Fiore, aged 28, was a young hot model for Playboy magazine. She was brutally murdered last week on Wednesday the 15th August 2009 and ever since then news of her death has flooded the internet.

Her body was found fully naked in a dumpster last Wednesday. Police after performing an autospy discovered that she had been strangled to death and then placed in the dumpster. The main suspect was her ex husband, Ryan Jenkins, aged 32. Ryan allegedly fled the country quickly to Toronto in Canada.

It is rumored that he was arrested and detained by local police at Toronto Airport shortly after arriving as an arrest warrant was issued by the authorities of Orange County, California however these rumors have neither been confirmed nor denied.

Jasmine Fiore was a former playboy model appearing in several issues, however she never posed fully nude for the men’s magazine owned by millionaire Hugh Heffner. She wore a variety of different outfits and costumes including brunette wigs and red panties.

Ryan Jenkins, aged 32, was famous for being on the VH1 hit show “Megan wants a millionaire” which was cancelled due to the events of the past week. Apparently after winning the show Ryan Jenkins asked VH1’s show producer’s to have his $250,000 prize money paid to him in cash. We believe this so that he could make a quick get away and have less chance of being traced.

Morphological characteristics
Perennial grass roots, flowers, high 0.6-2m. Bulb nearly spherical, diameter approximately 5cm. Second, lower leaf length, oblong-elliptic lanceolate ovoid upper leaves. Petals orange spots on both sides with the nectar, quilted tassel, deep orange anther July 6 ~ flowering. Endemic to China.

distribution
Originated from China’s hubei province, guizhou, jiangxi province. Distributed in hubei province, guizhou, jiangxi, was born at 700-1000m.

Breeding cultivation
Xi rich humus, soil, and deep well drained soils. Overwatered perishable. Hardy. 3 years should be in potted flower POTS, open the viola basin should be buried in the cold, cold fertilizsr. Sow or planting bulbs. Small points,

use
Applicable to potted flower, HuaJing arrangement, etc.

INDIANAPOLIS – Hyacinth bulbs are “on vase” once again, and showing both roots and shoots after less than 48 hours.

And thus another gardening year is off and running here at May Dreams Gardens.

I pulled the bulbs out of the refrigerator on January 1st, where they had been chilling since mid-October in a plain brown paper bag, and placed them on the vases filled with water.

And now on January 3rd – roots and shoots.

Forcing hyacinths to bloom using hyacinth vases is one of the easiest and most rewarding activities for any gardener in the winter time. It’s almost as effortless as growing dandelions or chickweed.

I highly recommend it, I encourage it. I could not imagine a gardening year that didn’t start off with it. I must have hyacinths on vase in January.

What? You didn’t buy any hyacinths bulbs this past fall? You don’t own a hyacinth vase? Well, you are in luck! I saw some hyacinth vase kits with a vase and a pre-chilled bulb for sale just the other day at one of our big box stores, right next to the marked down amaryllis bulbs. Surely there is a store near you that also has them! Go today and check. Get one, get two.

I, dear readers, have spent the morning and early afternoon teaching His Bertness to bake. Paul Prudhomme’s Honey Bread, if I may add the details. And I may, correct? Because you want to know all the details of my ever-so-exciting small town life. Right? What a resounding and enthusiastic chorus of ayes. I’m pleased. I’m impressed. Absolutely.

Now, to really play the part of the small town baker, I should be wearing a fetching frock like Simplicity 2838, copyright 1948. It’s a wrap dress – yep, decades before DVF – and it looks quite comfy. Perhaps not as comfortable as the yoga capris and top I am wearing as I write this post, but then, really, what is?

And please allow me to step up to the podium to extend a thank you to Shannon, she of the well-groomed fingernails and the blog I can’t stop reading, Hungry Zombie Couture. Shannon wrote a fabulous post about some patterns she purchased at The Blue Gardenia. I know you’ll want to see what she bought. Excellent taste has she. She has my vote for the best-dressed teacher in Canada. Absolutely.

And don’t forget to stop by and check out our once-a-year sale. The skinny:  Buy 3 or more items, get 33% off. Sale prices are good now, this minute, through midnight PST Thursday, January 7. All payments must be in my eager paws by January 9, 2010. As always, TBG takes American Express, Discover, Mastercard, Visa, Paypal, non-rubber checks and cold, hard cash.