Tag: flowers

The Meanings of Different Rose Colors

Today is Valentine’s Day, meaning candy, balloons and flowers galore. Since this is one of the most popular times of year for giving bouquets of roses, we at Marvin Gardens thought it would be helpful and fun to share the meaning of different rose colors. You may not want to choose randomly, since roses are usually interpreted differently by their pigmentation. Here’s some of the rose colors and what they symbolize, in sum:

  • Red roses, of course, stand for love, so they’re especially popular on February 14.
  • Pink can show admiration and appreciation.
  • Yellow roses stand more for friendship and happiness.
  • White exemplifies purity and fresh starts, as well as remembrance.
  • Orange is the color for passion.
  • And lavender roses are a bit whimsical, great for symbolizing “love at first sight.”

For more details on rose colors and what they symbolize, you can check out this helpful guide from Pro Flowers.

Image via proflowers.com

New Florals in Home Design

At Marvin Gardens we like to keep up with the latest design trends, and what better place to see them emerge than at home design trade shows like last week’s Maison & Objet in Paris? Design blog Apartment Therapy followed the action at the January event, and we were especially excited to see them report on a trend that ties in gardening and design: the new wave of floral patterns showing up on textiles and wallpapers.

These 2011 florals are far from subtle, instead embracing a more dramatic edge. In fact, they’re “over the top, decadent, often dark and very dramatic,” according to Apartment Therapy. Here are a few examples:

Designers Guild Wallpaper
Designers Guild Wallpaper
Decobel Fabric

To keep up with all our updates on design trends, gardening tips and more the second they’re out, like Marvin Gardens on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @MarvinGardensCT.

Images via Apartment Therapy

Warm Up With Some Lighting Tips for Summer!

There’s that beautiful bit of time in the spring and summer after the sun has set when those flowers in your garden are at their fragrant peak and the air has cooled down to a comfortable temperature. This is an opportune time for highlighting the foliage you’ve spent the past few months cultivating. Below are some tips from EHow.com for installing Feature and Safety lights in your yard to make the most of those perfect Summer evenings.

Feature Lights

  • When you have an exquisite array of lush garden flowers, plants, bushes and trees, you want to enjoy them and show them at their best both day and night. When planning your garden lighting, consider areas of interest that may be especially dramatic at night. Tall trees or hedges, for example, become impressive and mysterious with a spotlight (placed in the ground facing up towards the sky) at the base. Often areas of low foliage or large spreading leaves will look enchanting with a globe light hidden amongst them. Globe lights cast a soft sphere of accent light without drawing attention to the hardware.

Guiding Lights

  • A commonsense use of garden lighting is to illuminate walkways, protecting your delicate landscaping plants as well as preventing accidents. Styles appropriate for this kind of lighting include entrance or tier lighting. Both are a series of small shades atop a foot-long pole that cast light down and away, creating a wide circle of light on the ground. Solar-powered lighting is a practical and easy to install, giving effective for delineating a driveway or path. Art Perez, consultant lighting design expert for HGTV.com landscaping, suggests that although solar landscape lights are inexpensive and easy to install, you may not be as pleased with the light output. Perez suggests setting the lights in a southern exposure, as other locations will not fully charge the lights’ power cells.

Photo Credit: California Landscape Contractors Association