Spring Plants Every Garden Needs!

The early days of spring are a tricky time for many casual gardeners. On the one hand, the weather is nice enough to get outside and start working on your flower beds. On the other, you may have concerns about what to plant and when to plant it in case of cold weather or excess rain. To help you plan your spring gardening without fear, here are some popular spring flowers that are ideal to start planting right away. With just a little work and preparation, you will be enjoying beautiful spring flowers and be the pride of your neighborhood.

1- Pansies

Ignore those people who say pansies are short-lived. They are a colorful, eye-catching addition to your garden of spring flowers so don’t skip planting them. Pansies come in a variety of colors, including all shades of pink, purple, yellow, blue and white. Pansies also prefer being planted in cold weather, so you can plant them in early spring without fear. The ideal conditions for pansies to grow are window boxes and containers.

Scientific Name: Viola or wittrockiana
Conditions in which they grow: Full sun or partial shade
Soil: Must be well-drained but moist

2- Hellebore

Hellebore is the queen of early spring plants. The other names for hellebore are Christmas rose and Lenten rose. These spring flowers that bloom from hellebore are unique and saucer-shaped, allowing you to add a different look to your garden. Despite their delicate beauty, they are fairly hearty and can withstand light frost, making them another excellent planting for early spring.

Scientific name: Helleborus niger
Conditions in which they grow: Full shade
Soil: Must be well-drained but moist

3- Bloodroot

This white herbaceous perennial flower arrives in March and lasts until late spring. Bloodroot grows best in either a woodland or shaded garden. 

Scientific name: Sanguinaria canadensis
Conditions in which they grow: Full shade
Soil: Must be well-drained but moist

4- Snowdrops

These bright, clustered flowering plants can grow in both moderate winters and cold-winter regions. 

Scientific name: Anemone nemorosa
Conditions in which they grow: In full sun or partial shade
Soil: Must be well-drained but moist

5- Lilac   

The different shapes, sizes, and colors of lilac make them one of the best plants for spring. The flowers also have a sweet fragrance when they bloom.

Scientific name: Syringa vulgaris
Conditions in which they grow: In full sun
Soil: Must be well-drained

General tips for growing early spring flowers

Perennials typically emerge each year when the weather is warm and right. A surprise late frost might brown out some of the perennial foliage, but don’t worry too much because it won't kill the plant. The exception is if you've bought new perennials from a greenhouse and just planted them this spring. These plants might have been forced ahead of their usual schedule in the controllable conditions of the greenhouse. While they may look hearty, healthy and beautiful they may not be able to withstand a surprise spring frost.

For new spring plantings, it's good to leave perennials outside in the sunlight for about a week before you plant them. Once they are planted, if you see a sudden cold snap in the forecast you should cover the plantings overnight to be safe. But don’t cover them longer than overnight. Remove your covering once the temperature goes above freezing the next day. This is especially important if you cover with clear plastic. The sun can heat things up underneath plastic during the day, which will be harmful to your plants. Also, draping plastic over a structure above the plants is better than spreading plastic sheeting directly on top of the plants. The weight of plastic covering directly on top of the plants can break the stems.

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Why tulips grow best in cold weather

If you live in a cold climate and can’t wait to see your garden start to grow, you’ll probably be a big fan of tulips. Most other plants can't bear wintry weather, but tulips actually need cold conditions to prosper. Tulip bulbs, also known as modified roots, follow their own rules when it comes to growing. Unlike other flowers that will start to bloom as the days lengthen with the coming of spring, tulips will only start to flower when they are ready. Tulips also don’t like the heat given off by too much direct sunlight and usually won’t grow successfully unless the bulb is planted more than 8 inches deep in the soil. Taking all these picky preferences together, some people think that it’s almost impossible to grow tulips from the bulb at home.

The right temperature for tulips

The ideal temperature to grow tulips is below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. But there is such a thing as too cold for tulips: The plant has a temperature tolerance limit of 29 degrees. A few degrees below this level will destroy the tulip buds and flowers. If it reaches freezing, the whole tulip can be damaged. Tulips begin to show signs of growth at 60 degrees. Flowers and leaves start to appear at 68 degrees. Because of these precise needs, tulip breeders tend to refrigerate the bulbs so that they can plant them at the right time. In fact, tulips can be planted as late as early December and still enjoy spring blooms.

A rare gift

There are certain species of tulip bulbs that are perennials. These include the species Tulipa batalinii, T. clusiana, T. humilis, T. kaufmanniana and T.turkestanica. But, unlike most perennials, these tulips cannot be counted on to bloom every year once planted. In fact, most of these tulips will come back only a few years at best. If tulip foliage dies too soon after they bloom, dormancy sets in before another flower can form and none will appear the following year. Also, large tulip bulbs eventually wear out and produce young offsets that take several years before they flower.cold conditions 

How the pros grow tulips

Commercial tulip growers provide ideal conditions by digging up and storing bulbs in refrigeration. This is obviously difficult to replicate for the average home gardener. After the spring bloom — and for many tulips, this means late spring — there usually isn't enough time for foliage to manufacture and store food before the days heat up and send bulbs into dormancy. Tulips grow so well in the Netherlands due to the northerly latitude and chilly sea air that brings longer, cooler springs. In most home gardens, there is no guarantee that cool weather will last long enough for tulips to get the growing conditions they need.

How to plant tulips in your garden

If you are looking for a gardening challenge, a study conducted at Cornell University revealed some best practices to help you grow tulips at home:

1. Starting as early as December, clear away snow and loosen the soil as much as possible. Try to choose an area with soil full of organic matter.

2. Scratch in bulb fertilizer. If the ground is frozen, scatter fertilizer sparingly and over a larger range than normal.

3. Place the tulip bulbs on top of the soil. Do not press them in, as this will damage the bulb base where roots form.

4. Cover the tulip bulbs with 2 to 4 inches of aged mulch or finished compost. Go for the thicker layer if planting during the height of winter. Renew mulch covering often to be sure there is at least a two-inch layer.

Tulips are hard to grow at home. They require special conditions that are different from most other plants. But if you live in cold-weather conditions and are ready for a gardening challenge, tulips offer beautiful spring flowers that are worth the trouble and make for a rare and special addition to any garden.

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Happy International Woman's Day 2020

What does it mean to be a woman in 2020? It means she is a daughter, a wife, a mother, a friend, a sister, a co-worker, a cook, a caregiver, a doctor, a journalist, and whatever else she chooses to be. Simply put, women have always been unstoppable and with changing times they have become a force to reckon with. While we certainly believe that just one day cannot encompass the spirit of womanhood and all they have done (and keep doing) for mankind, there is no harm in celebrating, isn’t it?

To celebrate the essence of all the amazing ladies out there, International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8, every year. Celebrated since the early 1900s, International Women’s Day also promotes gender equality and equal opportunities for women. So, whether she is your best friend, your mother, your daughter or your wife, there is no denying that women play a special role in all walks of life.

The Instagram Famous Flower Fields at Carlsbad

Although it’s still unclear if California will see another magnificent wildflower bloom this year, there is at least one spot in the state that Instagrammers can flock to, and it’s known as the Carlsbad Flower Fields.

The working flower farm in Southern California has become quite the hot destination over the last few years, thanks not only to Instagrammers looking for a great picture, but also because of the stunning ranunculus blooms that go on as far as the eye can see. And good news for those seeking a touch of spring: The blooms are already here.

According to the farm, the flowers are expected to bloom from March through early May, giving visitors plenty of time to plan their trips and snap a few photos to share with friends. And really, it’s a sight to behold, as the flower farm is home to some seven million blooms across the 50-plus acres of hillside land overlooking the ocean.

The rain has been great,” Fred Clarke, general manager of The Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch, shared with the San Diego Tribune. “We did have a heavy rain in December, which washed out some of the seed and ruined a portion of the fields. Thanks to our team’s speedy reaction time and assessment, we were able to replant. The growth of the flowers is better now than ever.”

According to Clarke, people from all over the world come to the fields to see the purple, red, yellow, pink, and white blooms. He noted that the team likes to think of the farm as a “theme park” of sorts. “We use the term in a way that is different than other ‘theme parks.’ Of course, it is a theme park: the ‘theme’ is the beauty of nature,” he added.

Admission to the fields is just $18 for an entire day. Guests can also take part in extra activities, including an adorable wagon ride through the fields for $6 more. Know you want to visit more than once? Pick up a season pass for $39 and go as many times as you want. Just make sure to respect the blooms, and never sit or stand on them, to ensure they can be enjoyed by thousands of others who want to come and enjoy them, too.

Article can be found

Article can be found here

Schedule Your Spring Garden Clean Up Today

Now that spring is on our doorstep, many of us are getting anxious to head out to the garden and clean things up. I know our crew is! We see all the dead ornamental grass stalks, the spent perennial stems, and the autumn leaves collected in our gardens and they give us spring fever. We want to bolt outside and spring clean the garden as soon as we can because we know that as the days get warmer, there will be more and more gardening chores to do. But, don’t head out with your favorite clippers and rake just yet! 

. So now that spring is on its way, and if you didn’t do a fall garden clean up as we recommend, you now have a big spring garden clean up facing you., let Rouvalis help with your Spring Garden Clean up. Schedule your spring clean up today!

Click the link below for more information!

https://www.rouvalisflowers.com/garden-clean

New Seasonal Flower Collection Is Live!

We are starving for color! With the winter lingering on here in Boston we all want Spring to come sooner rather than later. Our new collection that has just launched offers an array of spring flowers used in an artfully designed way to create this collection. Let us know what you think!

LELA

The bright colors and warmth of spring we have all been craving erupt out of this leaf lined glass vase. Deep plum anemone float above a sea of hot pink and orange, hydrangea, amaryllis, parrot tulips, proteas, Free Spirit roses, lisianthus, fragrant stock and freesia accented by deep green gardenia foliage.

Flowers can hear buzzing bees—and it makes their nectar sweeter

EVEN ON THE quietest days, the world is full of sounds: birds chirping, wind rustling through trees, and insects humming about their business. The ears of both predator and prey are attuned to one another’s presence.

Sound is so elemental to life and survival that it prompted Tel Aviv University researcher Lilach Hadany to ask: What if it wasn’t just animals that could sense sound—what if plants could, too? The first experiments to test this hypothesis, published recently on the pre-print server bioRxiv, suggest that in at least one case, plants can hear, and it confers a real evolutionary advantage.

RELATED: TIME-LAPSE VIDEO SHOWS A GARDEN COMING TO LIFEJourney through a blooming garden of dancing flowers in this incredible four-minute short film. Visual effects artist and filmmaker Jamie Scott spent three years shooting the stunning springtime imagery in this continuous motion time-lapse. The Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers from around the web and selected by National Geographic editors. The filmmakers created the content presented, and the opinions expressed are their own, not those of National Geographic Partners.

Hadany’s team looked at evening primroses (Oenothera drummondii) and found that within minutes of sensing vibrations from pollinators’ wings, the plants temporarily increased the concentration of sugar in their flowers’ nectar. In effect, the flowers themselves served as ears, picking up the specific frequencies of bees’ wings while tuning out irrelevant sounds like wind.

The sweetest sound

As an evolutionary theoretician, Hadany says her question was prompted by the realization that sounds are a ubiquitous natural resource—one that plants would be wasting if they didn’t take advantage of it as animals do. If plants had a way of hearing and responding to sound, she figured, it could help them survive and pass on their genetic legacy.

Since pollination is key to plant reproduction, her team started by investigating flowers. Evening primrose, which grows wild on the beaches and in parks around Tel Aviv, emerged as a good candidate, since it has a long bloom time and produces measurable quantities of nectar.

Article from:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/01/flowers-can-hear-bees-and-make-their-nectar-sweeter/?cmpid=org%3Dngp%3A%3Amc%3Dsocial%3A%3Asrc%3Dfacebook%3A%3Acmp%3Deditorial%3A%3Aadd%3Dfb20200302science-resurfflowershearbees%3A%3Arid%3D&fbclid=IwAR3ExdWpAkO_z0bWmfR4klTyBG675HMu2QJi5oF8DvnyUf-veugOb6l6C-s

Amazing Bulb Trails in Dartmouth Mass

Spring is an incredible time in Massachusetts. The snow starts to thaw, the sun peeks out, and flowers start to blossom in the wild places of the state. This incredible woodland in a nature reserve is the perfect place to see thousands of daffodils in bloom. Here’s when and how to check out this natural wonder. This is a detestation in Dartmouth, Ma Parsons Reserve on Horseneck Road. Miles of trails with flowering bulb plants make for a beautiful walk.

International Women's Day 2020!

International Women's Day 2020

Sunday, March 8th

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. Women’s Day has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organization specific.

If you want to get involved or learn more, be sure to visit:  www.internationalwomensday.com

The Theme of International Women's Day

The campaign theme for International Women’s Day is #EachforEqual

As it is started on their website, “An equal world is an enabled world. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day. We can actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, each one of us can help create a gender equal world.”

Play A Part...

Put your arms out front and STRIKE THE #EachforEqual POSE to motivate others and to make International Women’s Day YOUR day. When turning to social media, use the hashtags #IWD2020 within your message with your “hands out” equal pose for a strong call-to-action for others to support #EachforEqual also.

The 2020 #EachforEqual campaign runs all year long. It doesn’t end on International Women’s Day!

For this year and beyond, how will you support #EachforEqual?

Tulips in the Netherlands!

March 21–May 10 in Lisse, Netherlands, less than an hour outside Amsterdam, Keukenhof Gardens shows off nearly 80 acres of tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths—check the website for what’s in bloom and when. Hilltop trails above the plots offer views and photo ops of the splendor. Other attractions include an indoor pavilion with petal-themed art and more flowers plus tours of the grounds via bike or canal barge.