As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


More greenery in the garden

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I’ve noticed a trend in the way I garden. When I first began my lovely garden 5 years ago it was all about the flowers.

I wanted lots of roses, and of course I did achieve that goal with over 60 roses in my collection now. I choose flowering plants, a variety that would bloom from mid March until well into late October or early November.

Now, while I still appreciate my wide variety of flowering plants I’ve noticed in the last couple of years the lack of greenery. I put in more hosta’s over the last two years and I’m carefully working at selecting more greenery as it will balance the garden out and compliment the flowers.

I usually try to get plants that are hardy to a zone or two lower than my USD Zone 5b or Canadian Zone 6b just to be sure they make it through our winters. I know I shouldn’t have to go so low, but I really hate losing plants and this is one safe guard against losing plants.

Does anyone have any suggestions for nice greenery that works well in their Zone 5 or lower garden? I’m starting to plan my late winter purchases.






Switch to video conferencing for better business communication

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If you run a business or work for a business that often uses some form of tele-conferencing you might be interested in the site that I’ve just visited. It’s called Lifesize and they specialize in business communication systems from truly lifesize Video Conference in High definition to a product called Lifesize Phone which provides audio conferencing in high definition audio.

I suppose that not every business would be able to afford or need HD Video Conferencing at the moment but I wouldn’t doubt that most can and should make room in the budget to get HD audio conferencing. It’s definitely something to keep in mind as your company grows and as video conferencing becomes more and more popular as a way for businesses to communicate with their branches, representatives and clients. Compared to the old fashioned land line way of audio conferencing with static or being unable to hear all of the participants in the room clearly, HD audio is crisp and clear. HD audio uses 16 always on, circular array microphones with true CD quality sound.

HD video conferencing can be used on it’s own, or combined with the HD video conferencing equipment for extraordinary conferencing every time Lifesize’s products are used.

Rose Bud

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Wordless Wednesday

justjoey

Just Joey, Hybrid Tea Rose – bud

I received a number of fantastic comments on this photo today. Thank you very much. It’s a beautiful rose, with a light fragrance. As you can see from the photo above it’s lovely even when it’s just a bud about to open and I can tell you that Just Joey is even more beautiful when it’s fully open. It’s a large flower with 25 to 30 petals I believe. The only unfortunately thing about this rose is that the blooms don’t last long – perhaps three days in warm weather, and 5 in cool weather. Some of the other roses that I grow are much longer lasting.

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