Despite the negative connotations of the term, “deadheading” refers to an important gardening process with highly positive outcomes. By removing the dead or dying blossoms at the appropriate place and time, the gardener can increase the overall health, blossoming, shapeliness and beauty of many flowering plants and bushes.

With plants such as tea roses, deadheading is a continuing process of small-scale pruning that should go on throughout the growing season. In the case of peonies and of rhododendrons, it should take place during a much shorter time, perhaps 2 to 3 weeks, as the flower petals fall and seed pods form in their place. Read more…

Reports from the Huntington Police Department provided the following information:

Three men were released from police custody Monday morning after they attempted to sell 14 bronze flower pots for scrap at a recycling center along 3rd Avenue in West Huntington.

The flower pots were consistent with those that sit on grave sites.

When the recycling employee became suspicious he called 911, and police started asking questions about where the pots came from in an attempt to determine whether or not the items had been stolen from a local cemetery. Read more…

Ocean Springs has a reputation as a charming, artistic town - a place that cares about appearance.

“To Ocean Springs, it’s very important,” said business owner Larry Dryden, “We’re a small town and we have that ambiance and we want to keep it that way.”

Dryden says something as simple as flowers and green space can send a message of hospitality.

“I get a lot of compliments. A lot of people coming in because it looks welcoming, that type of thing,” said the downtown florist. Read more…

When the sudden appearance of an endangered flower halted a controversial housing project in the heart of California’s wine country, the developer, Scott Schellinger, suspected he was the victim of a set-up.

Now, after calling in experts from the state’s fish and game commission, who have backed his findings, he is claiming that the “discovery” of rare and protected Sebastopol meadowfoam on the eight-hectare site near San Francisco was the work of opponents who transplanted the flowers from elsewhere. Read more…

The artistic and horticultural talents of East Enders were on full display Sunday, as hundreds of people flocked to Munjoy Hill to enjoy tours of the neighborhood’s gardens and artist studios.

“It’s going very well,” said Pauli Daniels, a member of the Garden Tour Committee, which organized the Munjoy Hill Hidden Gardens Tour with the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization. “The morning started off with a bang. People were lined up to get tickets.”

Both the garden tour and the East End Open Studios Tour - organized by the Society for East End Arts - are in their second year. Read more…

In this part of North Texas, water rationing has become a way of life during the summer months. Joining several cities that have implemented water use restrictions, Flower Mound is asking its citizens to be conscious, and prohibiting them from outdoor watering during peak sun hours.

Flower Mound is locked into a rate structure with Dallas Water Utilities and the Upper Trinity Regional Water District. The city, anticipating future growth in it’s western portion, purchases 41 million gallons per day, while using a maximum of 27 million gallons per day, and stores the excess.

While there seems to be plenty of water to spare, Flower Mound is still restricting residents from watering between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Read more…

A celebration of diversity and pride in Rochester this weekend.

The “Flower Power in the Flower City” parade ended a week-long celebration of gay pride.

People lined the route to check out the floats and marching bands. Hundreds of people took part in this year’s parade, which drew folks from long distances. “We have people from all over here; we have friends from Canada, Cleveland, Chicago, Boston; I’ve met people who have traveled quite a distance to come visit our city,” said parade organizer David McLuckie.

This year’s parade carried the theme of 1960s love. The celebration also included a moment of silence to honor victims of hate crimes.

Ikebana Professor Serapion S. Metilla will conduct a five-day course on the various styles and techniques of flower arrangement for all occasions. This will be held from July 19 to 23 at Mett’s Plant Arts, King Louis Garden Center, Manila Seedling Bank, Quezon City.

The sessions will be from 1 to 6 p.m. On the first day, he will discuss introduction to Ikebana with hands-on practice on Moribana and Shoka. On the second day, he will take up Western style with hands-on practice on All-around or One-sided and L-shape. Read more…

Sales of Hawaii-grown flowers and nursery products hit a record $100.6 million in 2005, up 5 percent from the previous year.

While the number of farms and nurseries declined slightly from 920 in 2004 to 905 last year, nearly every floriculture business was selling more fresh flowers and plants, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Strong demand for plants and materials used in landscaping led to a nearly 10 percent increase in sales of nursery products, which hit $33.7 million last year. Read more…

History records that it was the Swinging Sixties. A decade that included the summer of love, the Beatles, hippies and outrageous drug-taking.

And if it ever seemed odd that everyone who was around at the time seemed to be indulging in all of the above, a survey today reveals why.

Fibs. Lots of them.

Parents who have been trying to impress their children have resorted to exaggeration and outright lies over what they did during the flower power decade. Claims of liberated teenage years at love-ins and being at live Beatles gigs have led to the coining of a new phrase - generational gazumping - to describe 50-somethings desperately trying to appear cool. Read more…