Flower > 'Snipped In The Bud,' Kate Collins's Fourth Wild And Witty Flower Shop Mystery Series, is in Bookstores This May

'Snipped In The Bud,' Kate Collins's Fourth Wild And Witty Flower Shop Mystery Series, is in Bookstores This May

Valparaiso, IN (ContentDesk) April 28, 2006 -- Flowers can be murder.
Just ask Kate Collins, author of the best-selling Flower Shop Mystery series, whose latest book, "Snipped in the Bud," will hit the bookshelves May 2nd.
Kate's snappy, humorous plots revolve around a feisty, fireball of a sleuth, Abby Knight, a twenty-six-year-old law school flunk-out, her cozy little flower shop named Bloomers, and the zany characters who work there. The books have drawn praise from fans all over the world."Abby is a flawed woman," Collins admits. "Readers identify with her struggles, laugh at her mishaps, and root for her successes."Collins, who claims residency in Indiana as well as Key West, Florida, admits she draws a lot of inspiration from her small town roots, as well as from art she's seen in studios all over the Florida keys.

One of her characters is a wannabe sculptress whose creations have been known to cause people to faint dead away.The Flower Shop Mystery series are available nationwide in paperback, and in large print hardback editions, as well as in Canada, England and Australia.Other books in the series: Mum's the Word, Slay It With Flowers, Dearly Depotted..

Cut Flower Gardening For Beautiful Bouquets

Imagine a never-ending supply of beautiful flowers for your home, bouquets and arrangements to give to friends, flowers to pluck at will for gifts, get-well visits, anniversaries and birthdays. By planting a garden stocked with flowers that happily give up their blooms for your pleasure, you can have fresh flower arrangements in every room in your home all throughout the spring and summer.To create your own bouquet garden, start with a sunny spot in your yard. A garden spot that gets 6 to 8 hours of direct sun a day is ideal. It should be within easy reach for watering, since a cut flower garden will need daily watering during any dry spells. You'll also want to design it to make it easy for you to reach all the flowers in it, so a raised bed that can be approached on four sides is perfect.

If you decide to plant against a fence or as a border, make sure that you can get to all the plants without stepping on others by putting in footpaths or trenches for walking.The best way to...

Cut Flower Gardening For Beautiful Bouquets

Flower > Cut Flower Gardening For Beautiful Bouquets

Birthday Flower Arrangements

If you have a friend or relative's birthday coming up and you don't quite know what to give her, flowers could be a good idea. If you can't choose the flowers, leave it to a florist, he will ask you questions about the birthday girl and select the flowers accordingly. Besides sending on beautiful flowers, florists' websites also send fruit baskets and personal care items as birthday gifts.

If you've decided on flowers, you can choose flowers specific for her birth month. If her birthday is in January, send her carnations; in February, violets; March, jonquils; April, sweet peas; May, lilies; June, roses; July, larkspurs; August, gladioli; September, asters; October, calendulas; November, chrysanthemums; and December, narcissuses.

For younger women and girls, your flower arrangements could be based on a flower theme for her birthday party. You could create large paper blooms, perhaps of sunflowers, and do up T-shirts with flowers in...

Birthday Flower Arrangements

Flower > Birthday Flower Arrangements

Flower Seed

Flowers have been grown and nurtured over years for personal and business purposes. A flower provides visual bliss in addition to a soothing aroma and an array of delightful colors. One can give cut flowers as gifts to celebrate events, express feelings or just grow them in a backyard.

It may sound strange when a botanist refers to singular divisions of a flower while referring to male and female reproductive organs. However, this is true.

Flowers are used as a reproductive organ only in certain angiosperms plants. A pistil is located in the center of a flower and it contains female organs. It has a rounded lower base, which is the ovary. These contain reproductive cells called ovule.

Pistils contain a style and a stigma, which are sticky. Pollen grains stick to the stigma through fertilization or pollination from insects, wind or other means.

This facilitates the development of pollen tubes inside the style, which navigate down to the ovary....

Flower Seed

Flower > Flower Seed

JRM Chemical's New "Floral Accents" Floral Preservative Extends Flower Freshness and Tints Water

Cleveland, OH (ContentDesk) March 23, 2006 -- JRM Chemical's new patented floral preservative preserves cut flowers and colors the vase water.
Available in six dramatic colors and no mixing required, the quick dissolving tablet rapidly disperses floral preservative and color.
The attractive colors match the flowers or the d?cor. The color will neither settle over time nor effect the color of the flower.
Only one tablet is needed for a quart of water.

Safe and nontoxic, the preservative will not stain.Floral Accents is a unique new way to extend flower freshness and tint vase water. It is a rapid-dissolve tablet you simply add to the water of the vase for fresh cut flowers. With six colors, Floral Accents is ideal for home and office decorating and event and holiday centerpieces. The product is nontoxic and environmentally safe. Floral Accents is available in a variety of attractive packs and sizes.About JRM Chemical, Inc.JRM Chemical (JRM Chemical's New "Floral Accents" Floral Preservative Extends Flower Freshness and Tints Water
Flower > JRM Chemical's New "Floral Accents" Floral Preservative Extends Flower Freshness and Tints Water

Make a dried flower wall decoration

Fancy a dried flower wall hanging?I used to make those years ago. For this, you need

a paper bowl or plastic bowl that you can cut easily with a pair of scissors.
Florist foam
2 sheets of very thick cardboard each the size of the frame you want
Glue that can stick to the foam and the bowl and the cardboard.
Dried flowers
Paint
Very strong thick string or fishing line to hang the wall hanging.

Now cut the bowl in half.Plan out your frame. What shape do you want it to be? It has to be substantially larger than that half bowl as you need to makeroom for the frame.Cut both sheets of cardboard into the shape of your chosen frame1 sheet would be the backing inside, the other would be just the frame. Make 2 holes in the backing that would be hidden behind the frame. Tie thestring through both holds on the outer side of the backing.

This will be used tohang the final dried flower wall hanging.For the frame, cut out...

Make a dried flower wall decoration

Flower > Make a dried flower wall decoration

The Venus Flower Basket - Symbol of Love

One of the most beautiful of all the creatures that live in the oceans is the rare and very seldom seen Venus flower basket. It only grows on the ocean floor at depths of three thousand to five thousand feet, in the warm tropical waters of the South Pacific, mostly around the Philippines and Japan.

This creature is actually a sponge; however it does not look anything like the sponges you use for cleaning in your home. It is extremely beautiful, intricate, and dainty. When full grown the Venus flower basket is tube shaped and about twelve inches long, usually with some slight curvature.

It looks like it is made up of an intricate fine lace expertly spun in glass fibers no thicker than human hair. It is woven in the form of a hollow tube shaped like a rams horn. The smaller, tapered end is anchored to the ocean floor by a multitude of fine glass-like fibers. The larger end has a lacey looking cap over it.

Because it looks like it is...

The Venus Flower Basket - Symbol of Love

Flower > The Venus Flower Basket - Symbol of Love