Daisies, Tomatoes and Parsnips, Oh My! The relationship between what you grow and the air you breathe Researchers at the University of Virginia found that air pollution is destroying flower fragrance, making it harder for bees to find flowers when foraging. This proves that the relationship between the air we breathe and what we grow can be a crucial factor on whether your garden will have the best petunias on the block or whether they fall flat. The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District and the air districts of the region want to provide tips on how you can make the most out of your garden. This can be done while reducing pollutants in the air you breathe and bringing

“The Language of Flowers” expresses the yearnings of the heart. Author, Vanessa Diffenbaugh is doing just that as she kicks off a nationwide book tour with a five hundred dollar a head fundraiser to raise money for foster kids who have aged out of foster care, followed by a talk & book signing at Tsakopoulos Library Galleria on Wednesday, August 31, 2011, 7:30pm to 9pm. The petals hide the tragic inequities of foster care. Her protagonist, Victoria, a damaged foster kid, ages out at 18 and finds herself sleeping in a park. She works at a flower shop for change and communicates meaning through her artistry of flowers. It is what she determines is what she is good at, a creative outlet and

The Sacramento Historic Cemetery on Broadway hosted an informational flower tour on Saturday. The 10-person tour group, led by guide Sharon Patrician, made its way around the cemetery, enjoying the multitude of plant life that the site has to offer. Members of the tour group were free to ask Patrician questions, explore plots and take photos. Patrician pointed out noteworthy plants and flowers along the way. Tour favorites were the fragrant historic rose bushes, vibrant red poppies and the rice flower, named for its pearl-like formation. Patrician passed around a primrose flower from a plant that has been in the ground for 10 years, encouraging attendees to feel its “silken quality.”

Mother’s Day is coming Sunday, and The Sacramento Press has a few gift ideas that are sure to let mom know how much you love her.   Gift idea No. 1: Send your mom on a relaxing getaway. Super Spa, located at 1722 J St., Suite 1, offers a variety of massage services. Relaxation or therapeutic massages range from $40 to $120 depending on the length of the massage. A warm stone therapy ranges from $90 to $140, and a head and scalp treatment for 30 minutes costs $40. Every 60 minutes of massage includes an organic aromatherapy steam. According to owner Suzanne Saunders, Super Spa's "Treat Mom to 90 minutes of bliss" special includes a L'initié facial care with Univera's super hydrating l

The American Bonsai Association, Sacramento (ABAS) held its 52nd Annual Show and Sale over the weekend at the Shepard Garden and Arts Center in McKinley Park, Sacramento. Bonsai is the Japanese art of growing and shaping miniature trees in containers to imitate the forms and shapes of full-sized trees. The show included displays of over 100 bonsai trees, suiseki (Japanese viewing stones) displays, workshops, and bonsai vendors from around Northern California.                  

The clouds broke apart and the wind slowed. Under a spanking clear blue sky East Sacramento gave a hint of spring. Blooms, the highly esteemed and the lowly weeds, opened their eyes and peeked out at the day.

Springtime will soon be in the air and you and your family are invited to get take a break from the 9 to 5 and city life to experience the awakening of life. The Center For Land-Based Learning at the Farm on Putah Creek is hosting Welcome Back Springtime at the Farm on Putah Creek Sunday March 28, 2010 from 10:00am – 4:00pm. The Center For Land-Based Learning is a non-profit whose stated mission is to “engage youth in learning experiences on the land that foster respect for the critical interplay of agriculture, nature and society.” Under the leadership of Mary Kimball, Executive Director, the Center uses a network of farms, ranches, and natural ecosystems as educational laboratories for

The vacant spot next to the liquor mart could’ve been a sandwich shop, a travel agency, a cell-phone distributor, or a butcher. It could’ve been anything. But three days before Valentine’s Day, it opens its doors as a flower shop, and that’s nothing short of bloody brilliant. The morning of, I walk across the street to spend fifty bucks on a dozen pink roses, a little box of chocolates, a vase, and a teddy bear. The place is hardly put-together. Sparse shelves in the corners, milk-crate boxes used for tables, flowers propped up in paint buckets. One big refrigerator houses specialty roses with price-tags reaching eighty to a hundred bucks. The other flowers are reasonably priced. There’s

Artist, Jennifer J. O'Neill-Pickering is speaking the language of flowers at Capitol Public Radio through watercolors. Have you ever wondered what the veiled meaning is that is associated with a specific flower? Then, you might want to go view the twenty-three watercolor paintings by artist, Jennifer J. O'Neill-Pickering, on display at Capital Public Radio through June 26th. Different cultures and different periods of time have assigned various meanings to flowers and some of these are still with us today. During Victorian England, these meanings developed into a language called Floriography. People then selected different flower bouquets to convey various thoughts and feelings to their f

Unseasonable rain showers have kept maypole dancing to a minimum for the first few days of May.  But longtime dwellers of the Central Valley know to keep their shorts and tank tops handy. It is going to be scorching hot soon.  Spring is effectively over.  Like a clock-watcher at the end of her work shift, spring is so out of here the moment the summer sun arrives, and nobody is going to see her mild days and chilly nights again until 2010. So forget looking up at the cloudy skies.  Look down on the ground.  Wildflowers -- or weeds, if you please -- tell us that summer is coming.  If you've done any crawling around in the grass in the last week or two, you'll have noticed that most wildfl

Leaving the house can be somewhat of a chore. Some days it's nice to be secluded in my apartment, reading or watching television. However, once I step foot outside of the apartment, I immediately feel a warm pleasantness come over me. Rick's garden sprawls across the small front yard. The garden is an explosion of all kinds of different plants, colors and textures. With every new day of spring and summer, there is always something new and interesting blooming, making for a pleasant surprise. There are traditional beauties like roses and irises, but also plants to satisfy unusual tastes such as Mullens, which grow over six feet and are covered in pods and look as if they arrived from anoth