Tag Archives: Flowers

What Does Your Valentine’s Bouquet Say About You?

Valentine's Day
Flowers, News, Tips, , , ,

Canada Blooms provides tips for selecting the right floral arrangement for your loved one

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, which means it’s time to start thinking about how you will celebrate with your special someone.

Flowers are one of the most romantic gifts that someone can receive, and one of the most popular gifts to give on Valentine’s Day. Whether you are looking to impress a new friend, let your crush know how you feel or spoil the person who has had your heart for years, flowers allow you to express your own unique message of love or friendship.

“Picking the right bouquet is all about personal preference and knowing what kind of message you want to send,” says Jennifer Harvey, professional florist. “There are so many different colours, fragrances and styles to choose from, creating the perfect bouquet for your partner or friend can be really exciting!”

The right bouquet is worth a thousand words, and experts at Canada Blooms have created a list of tips to help you pick the perfect flowers for your Valentine’s Day bouquet.

Here is the meaning behind popular flowers and what they say about you and your relationship:

Roses: For decades roses have been branded as a symbol of love and the most popular flower to give on Valentine’s Day. Roses send a romantic message and are used to symbolize passion and romance. Roses are the perfect gift to send to a long-time lover or significant other!

Calla Lily: Calla lilies are a refined flower, associated with elegance, beauty, purity and faith, and can symbolize the strength of a couple’s love. This is a fantastic gift for that first Valentine’s Day with your partner to show them the love and affection you have for your relationship!

Carnations: Carnations have been known to symbolize fascination and affection. Carnations ruffle-like design makes their appearance bold and feminine. This is a fantastic choice for those in new relationships or close friends because it sends a message of intrigue and admiration to your partner.

Tulips: Tulips possess a beautiful, simple appearance that can be customized with colour to best suit your partners’ personality. They convey a message of elegance, simplicity, and comfort and align with this year’s floral trends by creating a minimalistic and aesthetically pleasing appearance. Tulips are a great gift for a close friend or loved one that will be sure to brighten up their day!

Lilies: Lilies are beautiful, versatile and pair well with other flowers such as roses. They are remarkable flowers that have a breathtaking fragrance that will leave your partner feeling loved and comforted. Lilies are perfect if you don’t want to buy a bouquet full of roses  — by mixing lilies and roses you can create a great alterative to show both a message of love and passion, while still being playful and fun!

Assorted: An assorted bouquet can offer a message of care and affection and gives you the opportunity to incorporate different flowers to showcase your personality. Use multiple bright, vibrant colours to symbolize fun, excitement and hope, or utilize warm, neutral tones to show elegance, compassion and comfort. An assorted bouquet is the best way to impress a new date while still getting to know your partner and relationship!

Once you pick the right flowers, use this year’s floral trends to help you piece together the finishing touches of your bouquet. The current forecast for floral trends predicts that neutrals and warm tones will be all the rage this year.

Going beyond colour, minimalistic styling and strong floral fragrances are also predicted to be a popular trend this year.

“When picking the right arrangement for your partner, make sure you are catering to the message that you want to convey,” says Jennifer. “Keeping up-to-date on floral trends allows you to draw inspiration and incorporate personal taste to express your affection and create the perfect bouquet.”

Valentine’s Day is about showcasing your love and picking the right bouquet can help you express your emotions and affection to your loved one in a thoughtful and simplistic way.

Co-located with the National Home Show, Canada Blooms takes place March 13th to March 22nd, 2020, at the Enercare Centre at Exhibition Place in Toronto. For more information or for tickets, please visit canadablooms.com. Follow Canada Blooms on Twitter @CanadaBlooms and Like it on Facebook.

— By Courtney DeCaire, Enterprise Canada

 

Christmas Cactus Care

Christmas Cactus
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Did you know the Christmas Cactus (Schlumberga x buckleyi,) is originally from the tropical rain forests in Southeast Brazil? They lived in the treetops, branch hollows and decayed leaves above the ground. So not the hot, dry conditions of the desert as the word ‘cactus’ might make us think.

Christmas cactus grow better when they are “pot bound”, or when the container and root system are about the same size. They should also have organic, humus-rich soil. They require bright, indirect light or filtered light and enough moister that potting material does not dry out, but don’t over water. Rainwater or snow melted to room temperature is the best to prevent mineral and salt buildups.

So, enjoy the beautiful plant, keep it in bright window light (with partial sun, too much can burn the leaves) and water it moderately over the holidays. The cactus requires frequent and thorough watering, during its active growth in spring and summer, keeping the soil slightly moist. Allow Christmas cactus moisture levels to drop and dry out some between watering intervals, but never completely, and never let the plant sit in water, as this will lead to root and stem rot.

Re-potting should be done once a year in a little larger pot with clean organic soil, preferably in the spring. When new growth starts in the spring add a diluted solution of houseplant fertilizer every two to three weeks until the new growth has finished (around mid summer).

If you would like your Christmas cactus to bloom again, around mid-September or October you are going to have to start paying attention to temperature and light. Keep the plant at cool nighttime temperatures (10-12˚C) and then warmer daytime (around 15˚C) and you should see buds by December. The plant needs continuous, uninterrupted darkness for 12-14 hours (that means no artificial light at all) and bright to medium window exposure for the remaining hours. But, if the plant is in a room where the lights are even turned on for a short period of time, the flowers might not come. This is why you might see a cactus with blooms on only one part of it.

When you start to see buds, the plant can then remain in the window for display and watering you increase. Remember to keep the soil moist but not soggy.

Photo: World Of Succulents

 

 

 

Canada Blooms 2019 Plant of The Year

Electric Love Weigela from VanBelle
Flowers, News, , , ,

Canada Blooms is pleased to announce its 2019 Plant of the Year – Electric Love™ Weigela from the Bloomin’ Easy® Date Night™ series from Van Belle Nursery.

The new Date Night™ Electric Love™ Weigela’s shockingly vibrant red bell-shaped flowers cover dark foliage for a unique look and rich contrast (it’s the first red-flowered, dark leaved weigela on the market). It’s a product of the world’s leading Weigela breeding program and an excellent performer in the landscape. Electric Love is compact and showy, you can easily plant it along a walkway, in mixed garden beds or as the star of a decorative patio pot. And because it’s easy to grow, you don’t need to know a thing about gardening to succeed season after season!

“Electric Love offers deep red flowers that cover very dark foliage, which is quite different than what you’ll find in garden centers today,” says Brand Manager, DeVonne Friesen. Electric Love will look great on the shelf and amazing in the landscape.”

Bloomin’ Easy® brings improved, easy-to-grow plants to the time-strapped homeowner. This line offers three simple steps to success: plant, water, and relax. It is easy for garden enthusiasts who are busy but who appreciate the value of a beautifully landscaped yard. The Electric Love Weigela and all Bloomin’ Easy® plants are resilient, colourful and low maintenance, perfect for both the novice and expert alike.

Hardiness: Zone 4, can handle temperatures down to -34 Celsius or -30 Fahrenheit
Likes: Full to part sun, or 4-6 hours of sun per day
Mature Size: 1-2′ tall and 2-3′ wide, low and mounding

For more information please contact Kevin Cramer at Van Belle
Kevin@vanbelle.com or call 1-888-826-2355

Read the Van Bell Nursery Press Release

Watch the video:

Plant Profile: Bobo® Hydrangea from Proven Winners

Bobo Hydrangea from Proven Winners
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The Bobo® dwarf panicle hydrangea has been turning heads since it was first discovered in trial gardens in Belgium years ago! This variety is exceptionally floriferous with a compact frame that is smothered with large, lacy, white coned shaped blooms every summer. Held upright on strong stems, enjoy these large flowers as they continue to grow and lengthen as they bloom. The flowers age to a lovely soft pink and will be a nice addition to a vase on your table indoors too.

Bobo is hardy in zones 3-8 and will do best in full to part sun. Since it can take temperatures down to -40°C we know it will enjoy life far north! Expect it to reach a height and width of 2 ½ to 3 feet (just under a meter). Bobo hydrangea is adaptable to many soils with only moderate moisture needed, and will bloom each summer regardless of climate, soil, pH or pruning.

For more information on this hydrangea, and to find a store near you, please visit www.provenwinners.com.

Bobo Hydrangea from Proven Winners

Bobo Hydrangea from Proven Winner

 

Plant At A Glance: SUNFINITY SUNFLOWER

Sunfinity Sunflowers
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Make your garden come to life with Sunfinity Sunflowers that thrive and bloom continuously all season long. Sunfinity Sunflowers have lots of blooms that can be cut and used indoors, with no mess and without damaging the outdoor plant. The outdoor plant will continue to bloom long after traditional sunflowers have bloomed and died.

Nearly a decade of effort by Syngeta Flowers has led to the creation of Sunfinity, the sunflower that revolutionizes the home garden experience. Sunfinity started with a desire to give the home gardener a more colorful, longer-lasting sunflower. Traditional sunflowers are either small potted plants or cut flowers with only one stem, a single flower head, and blooms lasting for only 7–10 days. Sunfinity was cultivated to have many stems with a multitude of blooms and season-long performance, making it truly unique and different from every other sunflower.

In order to achieve these unique characteristics, we took the best attributes of two species and created what plant breeders call an interspecific hybrid.

Throughout the season, you can cut Sunfinity sunflower stems and bring them into your home to enjoy. They leave no messy pollen on your tables and will keep for 7 days or more in tap water.

University of Guelph’s Rodger Tschanz and his team are growing over 400 Sunfinity Sunflowers for Canada Blooms, come see them this March and then look for them in your local greenhouse and nursery centres this spring.

Staging the Toronto Flower Show at Canada Blooms

Toronto Flower Show Set Up
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Staging the Toronto Flower Show at Canada Blooms….Otherwise known as an Exercise in Madness

When do we begin planning for the next show? We start before the current show is even set up! By June of the prior year, we are in full swing – drawing up construction plans and nagging others for information so we can develop a floor plan.

Schedule writers from Horticulture and Design, Youth, Special Exhibits, Lighting consultants, and plant suppliers are but a few of the people with whom we interact, always staying in touch with Terry Caddo, General Manager of Canada Blooms, and diligently monitoring the budget throughout the whole process.

Once we receive the flower show schedule, we get together over the summer months to review the schedule for the upcoming show and to assess the sets that we have in inventory and how they can be best utilized. We collaborate on the layout of the show – changing the plan from the previous year – to enhance the displays of course, but also to entice the general public to walk through and marvel at the creativity and colours.

Firstly, we revisit the budget figures. With those in mind, and from a review of current inventory of sets, we commence designing new and replacing old sets and finding odd things like chandeliers or the Hula Hoops used in 2015 (which took a summer of many of us scouring stores). We are forever on the lookout for ideas and drive all over looking for props for use. This can take quite some time when we are looking for a specific type of item – and ones that will fit within our budget!

We work all summer to meet the deadline of September in order to have everything planned to allow the contractor/builder time to construct, paint, repair, or replace sets. The inventory is stored in a large warehouse at Landscape Ontario in Milton. In October, existing sets are pulled out to be inspected, repaired and painted with new colours. All the new construction begins.

In early March, everything that has been designated for us is transported to site. As always, there are a few glitches, but the team pulls together. We are usually on site for at least 5-6 days ahead of time before the wonderful designs, created by the members of the Garden Club of Toronto, International designers from around the world and local Horticultural Societies, are put in place. Keeping warm during this period is a challenge and sleep for us is a luxury!

However, when the Canada Blooms Festival is ready to open, we are delighted that we have this wonderful opportunity to be able to help pull the Toronto Flower Show together. In spite of the challenges, the end result is very rewarding.

Celia Roberts and Lil Taggart, Co-chairs, Staging for the TFS

Floral Design From Fluerishes by JuJu

Deisgn by JuJu
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Spring time is always an exciting time of year, full of possibilities and potential: What flowers to plant in the garden? In what arrangement? And what colours? And, what theme should one choose? The latter is particularly fun, in keeping with the Canada Blooms 2018 theme of “Let’s Go To The Movies”!

So, for this festival, Floral Designer Justine De Bouvier, of Fleurishes by JuJu, thought to shake things up a bit and give Hollywood, and the visitors of the Canada Blooms Show, something to remember! Being a floral artist, Justine naturally selected Salvador Dalí’s, “Un Chien Andalou”, as her guiding design theme for this show! When there are no limits to the imagination, there will be no limits to the possibilities of floral design!

In designing her unexpected and stunning floral arrangements, Justine adheres to the following skeleton of principles, irrespective of whether it is for the garden or a container arrangement:

• Ensure the colours follow a harmonious colour scheme, such as, designing with a complementary colour scheme – that is, colours located directly opposite each other on the colour spectrum, as blue and yellow are

• Provide visual interest by varying the texture of the botanicals selected for the garden or container arrangement – contrasting textures create visual interest

• Play with space by varying the height of the flowers used in the garden or container arrangements – to move and carry the eye around the design

• Incorporate or use unexpected design elements or vessels

• Step back and look at the garden or container arrangement as a whole and, add or subtract anything that affects the overall harmonious flow of the arrangement.

Beyond these basic principles, anything is possible! Drop in to one of Justine’s demos at the show to learn how to apply these principles and elevate your botanical designs to a whole new level. Alternately, stop by our booth (number H349) to see, firsthand, our principles of botanical design. Hope to see you there!

~ Photo: A Floral Arrangement inspired by Dalí Atomicus, by Justine De Bouvier, of Fleurishes by JuJu