Contributed by Green Landscape Nursery
CUT FLOWERS
& LANDSCAPING WITH FLOWERS
Plant a variety of flowers for a wonderful assortment of fresh cut flowers all spring and summer, such as alstromeria, bachelor buttons, phlox, coreopsis, cosmos, zinnias, penstemon, scabiosa, nemesia, lisianthus, gerbera daisy, salpiglossis, schizanthus, and Shasta daisy. Be sure to include fragrant blooms like nicotiana, wallflower, heliotrope, and sweet William. Plant some edible flowers to include in recipes and to use as a garnish; good ones are nasturtium, pansy, marigold, scented geraniums, and roses.
Taller plants can be used to improve the charm and appearance of many garden areas, so try some hollyhocks, snapdragons, cosmos, foxgloves, delphinium, dahlias, purple coneflower, rudbeckia, and sunflowers.
ROSES AND THEIR FRAGRANCE
Roses have been around for centuries, and their beauty is only part of the story. It's their divine fragrance that helps make them the world's most popular flower!
The color of the rose is one determining factor in the type and strenth of the scent. Darker colored roses are often more heavily perfumed than pastel ones. Red and pink varieties are more apt to exude a classic rose aroma than yellow and white, which tend to emit a more lemony scent. Orange-colored roses often have a fruity fragrance. Also, roses with a greater number of petals usually have more fragrance.
Rose Fragrance Helps Memory
Here are new findings about the fragrance of roses. A recent study in the journal "Science" shows that taking a whiff of a rose during sleep can actually heighten a person's memory!
In the study, groups of test subjects, all medical students, played a version of Concentration, memorizing the location of pairs of playing cards on a computer screen. At the end of the test, subjects received a burst of rose scent in their noses through a mask they wore. They went to sleep about half an hour later.
After 20 minutes, when the students reached deep, slow-wave (or REM) sleep, researchers dispensed pulses of rose fragrance. The subjects had no memory of the pleasant scent--it didn't even wake them. But they scored an average of 97% on the concentration game, compared with 86% when the same subjects slept without "being perfumed."
Plant roses outside your bedroom window!
