Have you ever seen a monkey puzzle tree? Auracaria Aurucana has long been called the monkey puzzle tree, and is so associated with "puzzles" now that one of the UK's leading crossword-setters has taken "Auracaria" as a pseudonym. But why does this funny-looking, spiky tree have such a silly name? Well, the story goes: in the seventeenth century, there was a great fashion among the wealthy for importing exotic plants into their gardens from abroad. One such horticulturalist, at Pencarrow in Cornwall, acquired an auracaria. And, looking upon its spiky leaves, with their sharp...

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Tagged as: monkeys, puzzles, monkey-puzzle

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New statistics suggest that bees, wildflowers and and hoverflies may be recovering from the extremely low levels suffered in the 1980s and 1990s. Leeds University teamed up with the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands to examine biodiversity losses, and found that bees, wild plants and hoverflies are doing alright. Professor Bill Kunin from the University of Leeds said: “Most observers have been saying that the 1992 Rio Earth Summit targets to slow biodiversity loss by 2010 failed, but what we are seeing is a significant slowing or reversal of the declines for wild plants and...

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Tagged as: wildflowers, nature, environment

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For the first time in a hundred years, the "best in show" garden award at the RHS' Chelsea Flower Show has been picked up by a team from Australia. The team, called Fleming's Nursery, won the top prize for their ecologically friendly, yet stylish, garden, which features waterfalls cascading down the side of billabong trees to gather in an outdoor swimming pool (possibly a little better suited for Fleming's home climate in Victoria than our own...). Petal shapes representing the waratah flower, a native of Australia, showed a little Aussie pride in the design. Wes Fleming of...

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Tagged as: chelsea-flower-show, rhs, australia

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Japnese artist Susumu Nishinaga has created a remarkable series of photographs called "The Invisible Beauty of Flowers", using a special scanning microscope to show off some of the beautiful aspects of our favourite flowers which we might never normally see. Mr Nishinaga said: 'Almost everything on earth has been captured by photographers, but there is unknown beauty still waiting to be discovered in the micro world."...

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Tagged as: art, science

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In Japan's Ashikaga Flower Park, an astonishing 10,000-foot wisteria grove is blooming. Wisteria, which normally grows as a vine or climbing plant, can with careful pruning be manipulated to grow as a self-supporting tree -- and that's exactly what's happened here. One visitor to the park, quoted in the Daily Mail, described it as follows: 'Most people react in surprise when they see the Wisteria, as at first sight you wouldn't guess it were a real plant,' said Jeff. 'This is always followed by pure amazement - it's hard to take your eyes off the wisteria when you're...

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Tagged as: japan, flowers

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With Baz Luhrmann's movie of the Great Gatsby just opening at the cinemas, this seemed a fitting time to take a look at the flowers which contribute to the opulence, splendour and luxury of the film. Gatsby is known as an exposé of falseness, of how glitz and glamour can't mask deep unhappiness. But that doesn't mean it isn't glitzy and glamorous! So rather than analyse the plot point-by-point, let's just have a look at some of the amazing floral displays in the Gatsby movie. We're here deeply indebted to this blog from potterybarn.com , who've put together a...

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Tagged as: great-gatsby, baz-luhrmann, movie-flowers

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Prestigious British artist and sculptor Marc Quinn has worked with the Chelsea Flower Show on a scultpure, entitled "the Rush of Nature", to accompany the flower show's 100th birthday this year. This is the first time that such an artwork has been made to accompany the RHS' biggest annual event. Quinn, who has frequently used flowers for inspiration and source material in the past (including the image above, taken from marcquinn.com), said: “The Chelsea Flower Show has provided flowers and inspiration for my work for many years. To create a garden there is something of a...

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Tagged as: art, sculpture, chelsea-flower-show

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There have to be rules, but sometimes the rules could use a little leeway. A bit of give and take. So that beautiful things are allowed to happen. Sadly, one beautiful thing is no longer being allowed to happen. A 69-year-old grandfather, Joe Poultney of Staffordshire, has been banned from selling flowers outside his home by Stafford Borough Council. What makes the story even sadder is that Joe donates all of the money that he makes from the flower sales to a local children's hospice and his village church. He charges hardly anything -- just a pound for a tray of six flowers, so that he has...

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Tagged as: news, flowers

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Yes, the title of this blog sounds like the name of a Rudyard Kipling story, but in fact it's the story of a remarkable scientific discovery. A new study concludes that flowers get their shape by following a 'biological map' located in the flowerbud as it grows. The work was carried out in Norwich, as a joint project between the University of East Anglia and the John Innes Centre. They found that a "map" is stored in every flower bud, which can be thought of as a series of arrows, which point the flower in the right direcvtions when it comes to growing its petals. Without...

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Tagged as: petals, flower-science

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We've been trawling around to find some of the best flower-related arts and crafts idas on the web, and one thing we've noticed is that people consistently make some pretty fabulous jewelry, either on flower themes or actually using flower themselves. So without further ado, let us present to you -- 3 great tutorials for making cute homemade jewelry on a floral theme. In this first video, Youtuber Dsscrapie takes the viewer throughg making a wire flower using floral wire. This could be used as a brooch, a hair ornament, or to decorate an ornament or photo frame! You'll need some fairly...

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Tagged as: crafts, art, flower-jewelry

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