To celebrate the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival the VCBF is putting on a Cherry Blossom Umbrella Flash Mob Dance complete with pink umbrellas!  Part Bollywood and part Singing’ in the Rain, this upbeat flash mob is sure to be a blast for those who participate!   Sign up at: www.vcbf.ca .

Materials:

• Epsom salts
• 100% pure lavender essential oil (not fragrance)
• dried lavender
• vintage mason jars

For the garden, I can think of a whole bunch of really great blooms that I have been coveting (like the Hot Papaya Coneflower and the Geum magellanicum from Annies Annuals) and some that I have always been drawn to (tulip, gladiola, and crocosmia Lucifer all from my garden).

1. crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ 2. gladiolus 3. tulip ‘Ballerina’ 4. Alonsoa meridionalis ‘Red’  5. Geum magellanicum 6. Antirrhinum majus ‘Defiance’ 7. Echinacea purpurea ‘Hot Papaya’ 8. Superbena® Royale Peachy Keen Verbena

Are people really going to update their wardrobes, homes, and gardens just because Pantone has chosen a colour for the year?  Probably not, but I must say that in the past I have been strangely drawn to the colours they have chosen, and that’s before I knew there was a colour of the year.

Last year, I really couldn’t get enough honeysuckle.  That pinky-gold colour graced my wardrobe and my garden.  I didn’t bring it in the house though, it didn’t speak to me for home decor.  That is not case for Tangerine Tango however.  Apartment Therapy compiled some great images combining Tangerine Tango and Grey-Brown, which is exactly what I was going for with this set of Garden Therapy Handmade throw pillows which already grace my home (and look striking in my eucalyptus-colour bedroom).

So I suppose either Pantone is reading my mind or these trends are really based on something.  Pantone says that the color of the year selection is a very thoughtful process. To arrive at the selection, they quite literally combs the world looking for color influences. This can include the entertainment industry and films that are in production, traveling art collections, hot new artists, popular travel destinations and other socio-economic conditions. Influences may also stem from technology, availability of new textures and effects that impact color, and even upcoming sports events that capture worldwide attention.

So what do you think?  Do you like the colour?  Will it have any impact on your choices next year in the garden or otherwise?

There are some really fascinating winter blooming plants that I have seen, like witch hazel ‘Diane‘ and white forsythia, but I wasn’t familiar with this one.  Turns out these aren’t the blooms at all but the fruit that has set seed. Regardless, the show was splendid and completely stood out in a sea of holiday green and red.

Here is some more info on it from Wikipedia:

“Euonymus europaeus grows to 3 to 6 m tall, rarely up to 10 m, with a stem up to 20 cm diameter. The leaves are opposite, and are lanceolate to elliptical, 3 to 8 cm long and 1-3 cm broad, with a finely serrated edge. In autumn they often show a beautiful bright red colour.

The hermaphrodite flowers are produced in late spring and are insect-pollinated; they are rather inconspicuous, small, yellowish green and grow in cymes of 3-8 together. The capsular fruit ripens in autumn, and is red to purple or pink in colour and approximately 1 to 1.5 cm wide. When ripe, the four lobes split open to reveal the orange seeds.

The fruit is poisonous, containing amongst other substances, the alkaloids theobromine and caffeine, as well as an extremely bitter terpene. Poisonings are more common in young children, who are enticed by the brightly-coloured fruits. Ingestion can result in liver and kidney damage and even death.”

And the winner is….Yolande! What luck the very first entry was chosen.
True Random Number Generator
Min: 1
Max: 26
Result:
1
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Here is how to enter (for each item, come back here to comment so we know that you entered):

• Like Garden Therapy on Facebook and come back here to comment – 1 entry (share on FB for another entry)
• Follow Garden Therapy on Twitter and come back here to comment – 1 entry           (RT for another entry)
• Follow Garden Therapy on Pinterest and come back here to comment - 1 entry (share or like for another entry)
• Favourite any item or the Garden Therapy store at Etsy and come back here to comment - 1 entry
• Add a Garden Therapy shop item to an Etsy Treasury List and come back here to comment - 3 entries.
• And if you buy anything from the Garden Therapy shop, we will give you a set!  Just mention it when checking out.

The beauty of these candles is that you can screw a lid on them, decorate them up, and they’ll surprise the lucky person who gets to open them.  They are also wonderful for out-of-town friends and family as they can safely be shipped without damaging the flower.

Materials:

• soy & beeswax jar candles
• various colour of beeswax sheets
• tacky wax
• popsicle stick
• cookie cutter
• box cutter / knife /scissors
• pen with the ink cartridge removed

1.  Make some soy & beeswax jar candles in wide mouth 250ml / half pint jars like these.  Fill jars so that they are only 3/4 full (note: they are too full in the photo shown) as this will allow you to have space for the beeswax flower and also be able to screw the lid on the jar for wrapping / shipping.

2.  Now you can begin decorating!  Using a cookie cutter, cut out a flower like shape from a sheet of the beeswax.   We used both honeycomb and smooth sheets for different textures. Using the pen, punch a hole in the centre of the flower then slide it over the wick onto the top of your candle.

3.  Cut a second colour of wax with the cookie cutter.  Using the knife or scissors, separate all the petals.  Then spread some of the tacky wax (a sticky wax that acts as glue for the petals) with a popsicle stick around the centre of the flower. Arrange and press each petal around the wick.  Carefully bend the far tip of each petal upwards to create a 3D effect to the flower.

4. For the third layer of the flower, cut out smaller petal shapes with the knife or scissors.  Generally 6 petals will do.  Again spread the tacky wax and adhere the petals gently bending each tip upwards.

That’s it!  No really, it’s that easy.

For bonus points, you can decorate the jar and the lid.  For some cute printable labels that will fit mason jar lids click here.

We will leave you with a photo of a pretty black one that looks lovely on our night stand next to an Anthropologie ring holder.

But a harvest?  Why, yes!  Flowers were grown in our home garden, photographed in studio, then enlarged to mammoth proportions in order to showcase the magnificent details of each individual flower.  The photographs were digitally designed to be giclee printed on a beautiful linen-cotton canvas and sewn to perfection.  Little details like expensive hidden zipper closures and feather/down inserts were taking into account.  Then each one was hand washed, dried, and ironed, ready to go to it’s new home.

Was it easy?  Um, well, no.  There were months of prints and reprints to get just the right detail to each inch of fabric.  There was wash testing.  There was cuddle testing (that was a particularly tough one).  In the end, it was so worth it.  We think these soft but durable pillows are the perfect art for the home.  We hope that you agree!

Please visit the Garden Therapy Handmade store to check out all the designs, 9 in total.  Favoriting, liking, tweeting, or any other social media sharing would be greatly, greatly appreciated and happily returned in kind.  And thank you for your support.

Without the space to grow hops in our small, urban garden, we were excited to receive a gift of freshly cut hops from the country.  the Golden Hop Vine (Humulus lupulus ‘Aureus’) is a vigorous-growing deciduous vine and the prettier sibling of the common hops used to make beer.    The cone-shaped flowers are green in the summer but when it’s time to cut the vine back in the fall, the flowers start to turn.  The flowers arrived a pale yellow, but have dried to a rich golden colour.  If you are lucky enough to get your hands on some hops, here are the instructions on making your own Halloween Hop Wreath.

Materials:

• grapevine wreath
• golden hop stems
• scissors
• Halloween decoration (crow or other)

Step 1: Pick out strong stems  3″-6″ long with clusters of hops at the ends.  Snip off the leaves and flowers at the base of each stem, enough so that the stem can inserted into the wreath and hold.

Step 2: Starting at the inner bottom edge of the wreath, tuck each stem into the web of grapevine branches, enough so that when the wreath is hung they will not fall out.  Insert the stems around the grapevine wreath from inner bottom edge of the form to the upper top edge.  As the hop flowers will hang once mounted upright, this will ensure that the wreath will look symmetrical.  A good practice is to periodically lift the wreath to its finished position to check the arrangement.  Give it a light shake at the same time to remove any flowers that are loose.

Step 3: Use your creativity to decorate the wreath for the season. We used a crow but a spider, rat, or even a severed hand would have been just as compelling.

Step 4: hang your wreath and enjoy the flowers as they deepen in colour and release the most delicious hop aroma.

Materials:

• wire coat hanger
• scissors
• twine or wire (in a colour that matches your flowers*)
• dried lavender

Instructions:

The best part about this project is that you don’t need any special materials beyond what you can likely find around the house.  Start by bending a wire coat hanger into a circular form.  The hook of the hanger will be hidden when the wreath is complete, and it makes it easy to hang the wreath when finished.