Plant Gardens 101

Among the legendary creatures that have helped shaped our imagination as children are fairies. My daughter began her fascination with after receiving a gift from her grandmother. She gave her a story book filled with illustrations of Flower Fairies and even now she is still enchanted by them.

Flower Fairs are a rather small type of fairies who grow only up to 6 inches. They were created by author and artist Cicely Mary Baker. Epilepsy prevented Cicely from going to school and was instead tutored at home. It gave her a lot of time to develop her talent for drawing and used the children who attended the kindergarten that her sister ran as models.

Cicely’s artistic talent and her love or nature enabled her to create a wonderful magical world for the Flower Fairies. Her drawing was intricate with vivid colors that stirred the reader’s imagination. The flowers and plants were drawn carefully with the accuracy of a seasoned botanist. Her first book, titled Flower fairies of Spring came out in 1923. (more…)

Have you ever seen a Japanese Garden before? The first thing that would probably come into your mind when you hear about these gardens are bonsai trees. This Japanese art of making miniature trees has recently become popular. You might also associate these gardens with the art of Zen. This type of garden is usually based on a Zen related theme and the tranquil atmosphere that it projects is supposed to help bring people into a meditative state.

My fascination with this type of garden started when I came across the first Japanese Garden I ever saw. My father works in a language school and one of his colleagues is a Japanese professor. This professor had lived for several years in Japan and in that time he has mastered the language and has adopted much of the Japanese culture. One of the elements of Japanese culture he likes and continues to practice was the art of maintaining a Japanese Garden.

He invited us and all his other colleagues and their families to a party to celebrate the birth of his third son. It was my first time to visit his home. I was fascinated when I saw his miniature Japanese Garden. I have never seen anything like it before. His garden was beautiful, neat, clean, and seemed so delicate. I was hesitant to walk along the stones because I felt that my footsteps would disturb the garden’s tranquil atmosphere.    (more…)

California is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I can attest to this because I grew up in this wonderful state. However, I have to relocate to another state because of a few reasons. Anyway, this state is just drop dead gorgeous, from the ocean to the mountains. The flora is also one of best things that I love about California. I can recall that there was a bird of paradise flower growing at nearly every corner when I was living there.

Have you ever seen a bird of paradise flower? If you haven’t, then let me tell you that this flower is really amazing. It is one of the most sought after and extravagant blooms in the whole entire world. However, the climate of my current state does not allow me to grow this flower. I guess I can grow one in a greenhouse, but I don’t really think that I could do all that hard work just for the experience of seeing my favorite flower. Nevertheless, I still miss the bird of paradise flower.    (more…)