Category Archives: Flower Care & Advice

I watched a film the other day called ‘The Vow’ about a woman who had been in a coma and had woken up but had lost part of her memory so she couldn’t remember being married or her husband. The film focused on the attempts he made to help her to remember which included revisiting many of the places they’d been to whilst together and unfortunately none of them did.
The film got me thinking and I did a little research into memory, how it works and how it can be stimulated. It’s a complicated process, completely different to how a computer memory works according to some, for instead of storing information our brains use a series of stimuli gained from our senses to remind us of what we are ‘remembering’.
It covers simple things such as when we see a collection of marks on a piece of paper our brain follows the process like this…

It’s information, so it’s there to tell me something.

The marks look like letters so they must form words

The arrangement of the letters match with words I know

I can link them all up to read the message

I can understand the message being given by those marks

It’s the same when we meet someone again, our brain matches the face to all the faces we’ve seen in the past and if it’s one we’ve been introduced to it will then try to link the visuality of the face to a name.
And again when we taste food that we love or that we hate, memory has a big part to play. In the film, the woman was a vegetarian but because of her memory loss can’t associate the taste of bacon with her former life as a vegetarian.
Some of the most inspiring ones for me are the memories associated with smell and they’re one of the strongest memory joggers. I love the smell of newly made cotton which reminds me of gifts of clothing. Going into a room where onions are frying reminds me of my favourite dish my mum used to make whilst jasmine makes me think of a garden I loved years ago and the people that owned it. There’s perfume or aftershave that lingers on clothes or furniture or in the room that reminds us of our partners too and each time I smell scented stocks, I’m carried back to the summer evenings in my parents’ garden.
Giving flowers isn’t just a visual gift, you can more than double the effect by choosing scented flowers – research has shown that smell is one of the oldest senses and is even used by bacteria to be able to react to their environments.
If you want to create memories or just stir up some from days gone by, don’t just think about that flowers to give, think about what scents those flowers will have. If you’re not sure, the knowledgeable staff at Cosmea Gardens are willing and able to assist in helping you to give the gift of memories as well as flowers.

Although the weather is noticeably cooler, I can’t believe it’s nearly Christmas, so it’s time for some tips on how to make your home look effortlessly festive.

I love poinsettia plants and although there’s a myriad of colours to choose from these days, I still love the ones with the red bracts. You can spice them up by putting them in a festive looking container or simply get a terracotta pot, paint it green and then when dry, daub some wood glue in patterns such as bells, snowflakes or Christmas trees around it and press on some contrasting glitter. Don’t forget to bung up the drainage hole before putting the plant in it or you’ll have a soggy mess on your table!

If you want to keep the pot plain, then a quick squirt of spray-on glue over the leaves, followed by a dusting of silver glitter gives an instant effect.

If you can get hold of any evergreen foliage, it doesn’t have to be holly or ivy, make up a wreath by intertwining the stems and tie in red or gold ribbon in bows, add small Christmas decorations or small sprayed pine cones – there are hundreds in Cyprus at the moment – then hang it on your door or over a fireplace.

Finally, if you can’t afford one of the really expensive real Christmas trees this year which, to be honest, won’t survive long in the Cypriot climate, buy an Araucaria, otherwise known as a Norfolk Island Pine, which looks exotically similar and which will grace your garden afterwards. A 1.2 metre specimen in a pot can be bought for around 20 euros, less than half the equivalent for a Norwegian Spruce. Check out Cosmea Gardens for their range of festive plants and have a Plant-astic Christmas this year.

I’ve never been in Cyprus in May or June before so this year is a new experience for me. Last weekend my wife and I went over to stay in Ayia Napa for a few days and she kindly drove. This gave me the chance to look around at the countryside, gradually dessicating in the strengthening summer sun but what amazed me was the beautiful sight of the Oleander bushes planted by the Cypriot transport authorities in the central reservation of the motorways.

I’d tried growing an Oleander at home in the UK with no success at all so to see the magnificent display here was breath-taking. It made me think of them as the Cypriot equivalent of the UK’s rhododendron displays.

Now I wondered whether I could do a display of Oleander in the house. I chose a selection of branches from a white and pink Oleander, being careful to wash my hands afterwards as the sap is extremely poisonous. The result was stunning and lasted nearly two weeks. The benefit with Oleander as a cut flower is that it has its own framing greenery, you can just put it in a vase and off you go. Being a semi-hardwood stem, you’ll need to break up the ends first with something heavy but then afterwards you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful display.

I was completely knocked out of the water though by a much simpler and elegant arrangement from my wife who simply took some wasted blooms and put them in a white china cup – so much for the years of study…..!!

if you haven’t got access to any Oleander, you can buy plants cheaply from florists and garden centres such as Cosmea Gardens. Don’t take too much off the plant in the first year though – you don’t want to ruin it!

In Cyprus now it’s harvest time. Yes I know most times of year can be harvest time in Cyprus but to me, it’s a really special time. It’s still warm, light and sunny but the fruit is ripening. I walked down around Sea Caves recently looking at the fruit that grows there. I was especially dazzled by the mandarins that were ripening on the trees. They looked like Christmas decorations, luminous in the sun and bewitching as I looked out across the groves. It made me stop and think that a flower is simply a colourful, often scented object on the end of a green stem with leaves. Surely a fruit can be the same and so I wondered whether beautiful arrangements could be made using fruit. My question was answered later on my walk when I saw ripening oranges on a glossy green sprig of leaves and the first blossoms of next spring’s crop opening and giving off their heady scent. The combination of green white and orange was magical and it made me think what else could be paired together. Again, pomegranates are a beautifu russet red now as they become over ripe on the trees. Their beautiful pendulous shape set against the pale green foliage and paired with orange flowers such as montbretia or geums again lets us show how a beautiful arrangement can also tell the story of the life cycle of a plant. If you get the chance to, try it. Your arrangement will be the talking point of your friends and when the arrangement fades, you can always eat it! For flowers that will complement your arrangement, visit Cosmea Gardens.

I noticed recently that many florists are indulging their customers’ desire for ever newer blooms by introducing Proteas into bouquets.

Personally I don’t like them at all. I think they are shapeless, ugly flowers but many disagree.

The Protea is an amazing flower. There are many different forms and yet they hail almost exclusively from South Africa and then mainly from Cape Province. They are one of the oldest flowering plants in the world, possibly explaining why to me they are so ugly. The problem with arranging them is because they are either put in mixed bouquets, where their uniqueness makes them look like a misfit, or mixed with other Proteas, losing the uniformity of the design. The best arrangement I’ve seen is where one variety has been used and then with a simple backdrop of greenery such as bamboo or Phormium. Keep it simple and the ancient beauty of these unusual flowers will become evident.

If you want to introduce Proteas into your arrangements, call in at Cosmea Gardens where the staff will be pleased to help you.

My turn to ask readers for help this week! I had an email from a reader who wanted to know the name of a plant she had seen in various commercail premises around Cyprus. It’s a fairly ordinary plant but she had seen it in so many places she became curious about it and now wants to but one. Unfortunately she’s not found it in a garden centre or flower shop and the various people she’s asked about it don’t know its name.

The plant is an evergreen houseplant and has erect stems with opposite pairs of disc shaped leaves decreasing in size as they go along the stem. The tallest she’s seen it is about 60cm. It seems to need little attention apart from the odd bit of water and leaf shine.

Can anyone help? If we can find out what it is I think there’ll be a rush on at garden centres and florists such as Cosmea Gardens from people desperate to get hold of a specimen.

I’ll await your replies!!

I actually now have time to be able to look around me now my life isn’t so stressful and it’s amazing what I’ve been missing.

We had a barbecue today in a beautiful garden full of stunning colourful flowers but my wife wasn’t happy! Every time she sat back, or reached for a bite to eat, it was like crossing a motorway for the number of bees that were flying by or buzzing around her. She postulated that it would be a stress free, enjoyable barbecue were it not for the bees and wished that there weren’t so many flowers there that kept attracting them. I thought about it and said that yes, were there no flowers there’d be no bees but equally, were there no bees, there’d be no flowers and wouldn’t that make for a dull world. Another friend ventured that it was her getting in the way of the bees, not the other way round and that if she was careful to let them go about their business then they’d be unlikely to bother her. A few moments of deep breathing later and she began to ignore them and they, her. Everyone happy then and a wonderful afternoon was had by all. Help make the world a beautiful place by encouraging pollinating insects – and even birds! – into your garden. Choose scented, bright flowering plants from Cosmea Gardens and you’ll be doing your bit too!

Just discovered that even great beauty has a nasty side. I’ve got a beautiful Bougainvillea growing over my fence. It grows like crazy and I needed to trim it back. Easy, I thought and dug out the secateurs and shears and began work not realising that hidden beneath the beautiful bracts were lethal 5 cm spikes that soon shredded my hands and ruined the T-shirt I was wearing. After unsuccessfully trying to avoid injury I resorted to the electric hedge trimmer and really set about it. I still had the problem if picking up the clippings without getting impaled.

Made me wonder why, when breeders can develop thornless blackberries etc, why we can’t have a thornless Bougainvillea but then at least you’d hope you’d get a health warning when you buy one! Come on Cosmea Gardens, can you help?

This week I’ve bought some of yet another of my favourite flowers – Gerberas. They are so bright and bold. If a flower is red, then Gerberas are scarlet, if a flower is yellow the Gerberas are sunshine! The problem is that Gerberas don’t last long in arrangements and many florists wire them to keep them in shape. I came across an idea the other day for arranging them and included it in the video that accompanies this blog. I haven’t bored you with it all but have included a photograph of the finished arrangement.

I was driving past a ‘Pick Your Own’ farm the other day and my eye was caught by row upon row of metre high flower stems in a dazzling array of colours. I pulled over to the side of the road to take a closer look and found that the field was full of Gladioli flowers growing ready to be picked for florists.

I walked up and down the rows several times marvelling at the range of colours, not only between blooms but also in the same bloom. They are very architectural in shape and need to be used in large striking arrangements. On their own they can be arranged simply in a vase with the flowers facing out in a curve. As part of a large stand arrangement they need to be mixed with other flowers two thirds their height so as to soften the length yet not hide them. Similarly shaded antirrhinum blooms go well, as their flowers are of a similar design. Alternately go for a plain colour gladioli. White are rare but very striking and backed with deep green glossy foliage or mixed with blood red or purple gladioli they make wonderful arrangements that are sure to be commented on. Currently Gladioli are at their best in the florists and so it’s worth picking up some stems from a quality florists who will have a range of colours, like Cosmea Gardens.