By Jaden Sloan

 There is nothing quite as welcome as those beautiful spring flowers that seem to emerge from nowhere to welcome the arrival of spring. Bulb type flowers are really unique plants, because they spend most of their days resting quietly beneath the surface of the soil. Then right on schedule, up they come, full of bloom and vigor, and then almost as fast as they came, they go. Except for the green leafy part of the plant that tends to linger longer than we would like them to. Despite their short bloom time and unattractive foliage after the blooms are gone, they are still a wonderful addition to any landscape. But how should you care for them? First let’s talk about how to use them in your landscape. Flowers of all kinds are best when planted in groupings. Many people buy 25 or 50 bulbs and just go around the yard planting helter skelter. That’s fine if that’s what you want, but when planted that way they tend to blend in with the landscape and really don’t show up well at all. When you plant them in large groups they are a breathtaking showpiece.

In the early spring start thinking about where you would like to create a bed for flower bulbs. Prepare the bed by raising it with good rich topsoil, and if at all possible add some well composted cow manure. Do this in the spring while you are in the gardening mood; you may not be in the fall. Over the summer fill the bed with annual flowers to keep the weeds down, and to pretty up your yard for the summer. Come fall all you have to do is pull out the annuals and plant your bulbs to the depth recommended on the package.

If you think you could have a problem with squirrels digging up the bulbs and eating them, you can also wrap the bulbs in steel wool, leaving just the tip of the bulb exposed so it can grow out of the little wire cage you’ve created. Or you can just plant the bulbs and then cover the bed with chicken wire or plastic fencing until the bulbs start to grow in the spring.

When the bulbs come up in the spring and start blooming, you should clip off the blooms as they start to wither. This keeps the bulb from producing seeds, which requires a lot of energy, and you want the bulb to use all of its available energy to store food in preparation for the bulb’s resting period. Once the bulbs are completely done blooming you don’t want to cut off the tops until they are withered and die back. The million dollar question is how to treat the tops until that happens.

Many people bend them over and slip a rubber band over them, or in the case of bulbs like Daffodils tie them with one of the long leaves. This seems to work because it is a very common practice among many experienced gardeners. However, Mike is about to rain on the parade.

I strongly disagree with this theory because back about 6th grade we learned about photosynthesis in science class. To recap what we learned, and without going into the boring details, photosynthesis is the process of the plant using the sun’s rays to make food for itself. The rays from the sun are absorbed by the foliage and the food making process begins. In the case of a flower bulb this food is transported to the bulb beneath the ground and stored for later use.

So basically the leaves of the plant are like little solar panels. Their job is to absorb the rays from the sun to begin the process known as photosynthesis. If we fold them over and handcuff them with their hands behind their back, they are not going to be able to do their job. It’s like throwing a tarpaulin over 80% of a solar panel.

In order for the leaves to absorb the rays from the sun, the surface of the foliage has to be exposed to the sun. On top of that, when you bend the foliage over, you are restricting the flow of nutrients to the bulb. The veins in the leaves and the stem are a lot like our blood vessels. If you restrict them the flow stops.

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Getting The Right Landscape Company

By Joey Simmons

 In this day of the information age it has never been easier to find out what you need to know in order to hire the right landscaping company for the job. No matter if your job is a small one of a large one you still need to make sure that the landscaping company that you choose is reliable and trustworthy and that they actually know what they are doing.

You should start by finding out how long this landscaping company has been in business, the longer the better. If they have been in business for 20 some odd years then there is a much better chance that they are good at what they do. Of course there are exceptions to this rule but it is a pretty good rule of thumb. If they were so bad they would probably not have been able to stay working for so many years.

Your checking up should not end there however. You still need to find out just how well run a landscaping company they are. Look at it this way: most landscaping companies are small business and they only have a few people working there. The owners have to do the bulk of the work on their own. That is why they are not always as reliable as they should be. Like other contractors they have a lot on their plate and they can at times get overwhelmed and not show up for a job when they were supposed to. While I do not excuse it I can understand it. They have a lot of people demanding certain things from them. The owners of the landscaping company will generally have to do all of the free estimates themselves, take the appointments, get to the appointments, do the books and then do the actual landscaping company work. Wow, that is enough tot run anyone into the ground.

That is why you should find out how many clients a potential landscaping company has at the time you ate going to hire them. If they sound as if they will be too busy then you might want to choose another landscaping company, one that will have the time that you need. You need to choose a landscaping company that will be dedicated to the work that you are getting done, you are paying for a service and you deserve for it to be as good as it can be.

To learn about maple tree leaf and japanese maple tree, visit the Plants And Flowers website.

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