Recently in Flowering Gifts Category

Happy New Year and thank you for your continued 
interest, and support, of Bluebird Gardens Quilts 
and Gifts. 

During the 14 years we've been in business, you have 
helped guide what we've made and offered, and I
personally appreciate hearing from each one of you!

In response to your requests, in 2012 we are making and 
offering more US-made baby quilts, such as 
Ninepatch Teddy Bears baby quilts, with patterns on both
sides including flannel.

We are also making more quilts with environmentally-friendly 
bamboo fill instead of cotton. If you haven't touched bamboo 
fill, it feels like cashmere and unlike cotton, is easily grown,
farmed and yes, it can also be easily washed. It costs a little
more than cotton but if more quilt manufacturers start using it, 
prices should come down.

Some of our new, bamboo-filled baby quilts are your 
personal favorite themes like Winnie the Pooh. (photo)

One of your favorite all-time  gifts is back, our 
quilter's goodies bags, now offered either as a 
quilted bag and or Hello Kitty bag.

It's been fun hearing from some of you who were 
counting on Santa getting your Missouri 
2012 Natural Events Calendars. 

Although Missouri Department of Conservation 
is sold out, we  still have some in stock.

Howard Furniture Care has added a wonderful 
new lemon-based furniture polish to their 
product line which doesn't leave a hazy build-up
 like other, spray products with a lemon scent. 
Still trying to  decide which one I like best, 
the orange oil or the new lemon oil!

If you're in mid-Missouri, stop by the new 11,000-square foot antique and art store
Route 66 Antiques and Art off I-44 exit 189. Antique primitives, art work and
our retail shop is there - plenty of space for vendors if you want to join us!
Call Martha Willy at 573-426-3300.

Poinsettias are a personal favorite but don't make it past the holidays. If you were
 given a Poinsettia, here are some tips on after-holiday care.

Thanks again for your support, emails and friendship, and here's to an exciting 2012!


 

 

Every time I stand in line buying an Amaryllis bulb, someone will ask how to grow these wonderful, South American tropical bulbs.

If there's an easier plant to grow, or one that gives so much back for so little effort, I don't know what it would be.

Amaryllis store all they need to grow in a large bulb.

When you buy an Amaryllis, you can get either the plain bulb or a kit that will include a pot, potting medium and  instructions.

Frankly you can save money by just getting the Amaryllis bulb and using a regular potting soil and adding half a cup of a light medium.

Place the Amaryllis bulb literally on top of a pot of soil.

Allow for an inch around the bulb in the pot, and settle the bulb maybe half an inch into the soil and add a support stick next to it.

Once Amaryllis start growing, you'll almost think you're watching them grow before your eyes. Growth can be as much as an inch a day, depending on the variety and growing conditions.

Water with 1/4 cup of water every 2-3 days and place near but not in direct sunlight.

Once you see flower buds popping up, you may need to tie the stem to the support stick.
.


Once flowers are blooming, they'll definitely need to be supported because this ugly bulb turns into stunning flowers.

Bamboo sticks, or something out of your garden will work well as support.

As flowers fade, green leaves will unfold from the bulb.

Cut off dead flowers.

Let leaves grow and develop until they turn yellow.

Leave the Amaryllis bulb without water or light, for a couple of months.

You can re-pot the bulb, or just water for another wonderful blooming round.

Healthy Amaryllis bulbs will produce bulblets growing out of their sides; if you let those little bulbs grow leaves through a couple of seasons, you'll soon have new Amaryllis.

I pot my Amaryllis into summer pots wintering inside and let them grow with other plants.

They usually bloom late January and February, a welcome surprise in the middle of winter gloom.

For a quick update to any home decor, and a wonderful gift for any occasion, pot an Amaryllis bulb with a card with these instructions.

Amaryllis will bring beauty, and interest, to any room or special occasion!

Charlotte

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There's a wonderful garden gift you can give anyone on your gift list for Father's Day, Mother's Day, as a housewarming gift, for almost any occasion - who has a garden and enjoys wildlife.

Courtesy of  National Wildlife Federation, you can get a garden "certified" as a "wildlife habit."

After answering a series of questions and paying $20, the official certificate is mailed designating your garden as a certified wildlife habitat.

National Wildlife Foundation Wildlife Certification  questions  focus on providing, food, water, cover and pest management without chemicals.

My certificate took 3 weeks to be issued.

Not sure of the answers?

Print off the questionnaire and provide it with a check for $20 so the gift recipient can answer the questionnaire themselves and send in for the certificate.

Just starting your garden?

Use the National Wildlife Federation guide to make sure you are providing wildlife basics.

I frankly was delighted when I got my National Wildlife Federation Wildlife Habitat certificate for Bluebird Gardens. There's something special about being reminded what you're doing is helping the environment.

I was also surprised to be only the 128,583rd certified wildlife habitat - there are a lot of people who enjoy nature the way I do.

If you want to be a little more formal with your certified wildlife habitat gift, have the certificate framed.

I found this frame at a resale store for $2, without glass.

I then took it to our local glass shop and had a plastic piece installed for $3.

I replaced an old mat with the yellow one so the wildlife lettering pops. Dark green or blue would work well, too.

I can personally attest getting my wildlife garden certified as a National Wildlife Federation wildlife habitat is a great garden gift idea for any garden and nature lover on your gift list.



Charlotte

So you think you can't grow anything?

Whether you're looking for a housewarming gift, or just a gift for a garden, these annuals and perennials are easy to plant flowers that will keep on blooming long past the special occasion.

In Missouri and the US Midwest, easy to grow, annual flowers include marigolds, zinnias and cosmos.

My personal, all-time favorite annual flower is Vinca (photo).

Vinca seeds easily, blooms continuously, comes in a wide range of colors, and makes great cut flowers. It also winters over beautifully, and will pick up where it left off last fall as soon as I can get it back outside.

For someone who is starting a garden or welcoming a new family member, consider giving a perennial, which will come back every year.

Some of my favorite perennial flowers include Black-eyed Susans; Butterfly bush, miniature roses and Purple Coneflowers).

If I had to pick one, it would be Purple Coneflowers.

No, make that Black-eyed Susans;.

Actually, either one will work!

Both are Missouri wildflowers and once established, will bloom continuously for years with very little care. Butterflies will keep both company through the season.

Too soon to start planting outside? Give seeds or seedlings that can be planted outside later.

Pots of annuals can brighten a sunny window until the danger of frost is over.

 

 

Charlotte

Bluebird Gardens: custom quilts, gifts, gardening
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African Violets used to be a very popular flowering gift and indoor plant.

I can remember an Illinois neighbor who loved nothing more than getting a new variety of African Violet.

Mrs. Futtrell had more than 30 different African Violet varieties in her living room window collection, including some like this old-fashioned, hardy purple one in photo.

Although not all of my African violets over the years have survived cats knocking them over or lack of watering when someone else was caring for them, I've always had a couple of African Violets around.

Several years ago, I started to notice I couldn't easily find them anymore, especially mid-winter, when not much else is blooming.

According to Stanley Dillon, owner of Stanley's Garden Center in St. James, these native South African wildflowers were over-hybridized.

Stanley said African Violets were so genetically-altered over the years, they reached a point where they could be forced to bloom in a hot house, but would not easily re-bloom, and certainly didn't do well in average home conditions.


Enter US's Space program, the same people who brought us orange drink Tang and vacuum-sealed foods. 

According to EverFloris and Optimara, trademarks of International Plant Breeding out of Switzerland, there's a new strain of African Violets called "Space Violets," developed after  Optimara's Space Violet program "put more than 25,00 seeds into orbit for nearly six years.

"This unusual step, in the annals of potted and flowering plants, turned out to be one giant leap that has produced significant and exciting characteristics for African Violets."

According to the plant sticker, Space Violets are "bigger and easier to grow, with larger, fuller blooms that flower continuously. Unless they're EVerFloris, there's no place on Earth you'll find African Violets like these."

I'm still trying to imagine the conversation at NASA as they were considering space shuttle Discovery's projected payload. Do you suppose anyone said "you want to send what into space??"

Space Violet care instructions are not much different than traditional care for African Violets; keep soil most but never soggy. Keep water off leaves. Give them indirect sunlight, and temperatures between 60-80F. And don't let cats repeatedly knock them over!

Here's my first-ever Space Violet, now available at big box gardening centers. I paid $6.99:

Strikes me as a bit ironic it took years in space to get these hardy, South African wildflowers back to their healthier, ever-blooming roots.




Charlotte

Bluebird Gardens: custom quilts, gifts, gardening
Bluebird Gardens Quilts and Gifts Blog
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Gardening to Distraction on a MO Hill



 

Giving someone a bouquet of spring flowers out of your garden is a great gift for any occasion.

Choosing the right vase makes all the difference in how flowers look, and how long they will last after being picked.

I prefer to use flower containers that are rounded at the bottom. The rounded bottom gives cut flowers access to more water, and they won't be quickly traumatized by going dry overnight.