We all practice ethnobotany when we decorate our homes with plants, add spices to our meals, or select a certain type of wood to build something useful.

We will show you, here, the many modern uses of plants, whether they be for medicinal, spiritual, practical or culinary purposes - did you know that planting with a purpose is the best use of your garden, terrace or window sill?

This page will make it apparent why a person would be better off having a 'Willow-Bark' plant for use when there is a headache then purchasing the synthetic or corrupted substances at pharmacies. Come back soon, come back often to find out more as well as dates for seminars on this subject.  

It seems like New York City as well as the whole eastern half of the country shared a shiver. Well its time for you to shake off the cold and get started on your garden indoors. So, get a jump on the growing season by starting your garden indoors. It's a fun project that kids will love, too. All you need are some seeds, sun and water ( potting soil, and starter trays are available at Creative Blossoms ). It's also pruning time so we'll help you get started on your trees and shrubs. We'll help you figure out where to place the right cut so you do not harm it or to control the direction of its growth.  And as we informed you last spring before you plant things, and we know you're itching to do it, but you should know what your soil needs first. A simple free soil test from us at Creative Blossoms can save you all kinds of trouble later. Find out how easy it is with a phone to us or leaving a message on this forum page.

Our Plant of the Month: Daffodils

This flower is a spring favorite for many people and gardeners. The weather can be grey and cold, but when the daffodils are out, smiles start flashing all around.

ideal for camping or emergency power outages, the
Sun Power Port is a portable generator that when used
to its full potential will pay for itself in less than two

years.
In one day of full sunshine, the solar panel easily charges
the 12 volt (standard automobile) battery.  An inverter
changes the DC current to AC.  From there the electrical energy
is easily accessible to most standard 110 volt small
appliances used in North America.   What are the advantages of

a solar generator?  If you don't know, check out

sunpowerport.com.  The featured generator will run most small

electrical appliances.  It is great for camping or emergency

backup.  No noise.  No fumes.  For more details see

http://www.sunpowerport.com

One nice thing about container gardens is that the containers themselves become part of the landscape. So you can really personalize your space with unique shapes, colors, and sizes before you even put any plants in. Let the containers reflect your style, your region, your sense of humor, or whatever you like. For a more natural look, use a variety of shapes and sizes of containers, and contrast your plants for color and interest.

And my all time favorite thing about a container garden is that they can be taken inside the home or apartment!

How could this be? You're being careful not to overwater your houseplants. But now, you're seeing brown tips on the ends of the leaves. Maybe whole stalks are dying. You fertilize regularly, yet the plants are not doing well at all. What could the problem be? You'd be surprised, but it's probably salts.

If people would learn the message behind the flower or plant would be an even more beautiful thing, to be able to fully identify with the message in a flower or plant – its quality, its vibration – would be powerful.

Think for a minute about Adam and Eve (was the fig leaf the first bikini?); what about Noah and the Dove (olive leaf in dove mouth as proof of dry land?). Flowers and plants possess a psychic power and anyone who has passed a lavender or spent time in a greenhouse, flower shop or walking through a meadow – got-cha! – will attest to the power and should support their local florist.

Declaring your love through flowers has been made simple enough. It’s no coincidence that baby’s breath and ferns are included with your roses. While the roses say love, the baby’s breath means everlasting love and the ferns add sincerity. But you can always make your floral love note a bit more personal. Red tulips are an outright message of love. If you want to be more subtle, small sunflowers signal adoration, and violets let the receiver know they occupy your thoughts, strands of ivy signifies fidelity and friendship, gardenias conveys a secret love, forsythia anticipation. Leopold, in the movie Kate and Leopold, knew better than to send a woman orange lilies.

If you want to learn more or even plan a garden based on meanings, then contact me at Creative Blossoms, this can be a lot of fun – I did the same for Diana Earl, oh yeah, you know her as Diana Ross!

The main problem, I have found, is that it takes a lot of collection. Yeah, sunlight may be free, but gathering it and converting it into power is expensive, and I mean very expensive. According to findsolar.com, installing solar panels on my friend Julie's home with 400 sq ft roof size would cost around $32,000 and she can get about $18,000 back from various government incentives, in the form of a federal tax credit and exemption from property taxes.

She will make her money back in savings on her electric bill, that's right! Acccording to findsolar.com, her avg monthly savings will be about $75. Over the 25 years of useful panel life, then, she'll save $22,000. So, her monthly bill alone is enough to let the sunshine begin.   

1- Make them itch by placing some sawdust, diatomaceous earth or shavings from pumice around plants or an area to act as a barrier - since they move by sliding along, they are irritated by rough surfaces and the particles cut into them - be sure to reapply after it rains heavy.

2- Trap them by placing orange and lemon rinds, or even upturned clay flowerpots in their favorite area - do it in the evening and you find them trapped in the morning - drown all captives in a pail of salty water.

3- Bait them by filling cat food cans or aluminum pie pans with a mixture from beer (1 can), sugar (1tbsp), and yeast (1tsp) - let the mixture set 24hrs in a bowl then pour into cans/pans set them in various areas of your garden with the rims just at ground level.

An experiment by my Horticultural Class in 1987, found plants grow faster when they were sang to. The sung-to plants grew two inches higher than their unsung-to counterparts. Female student voices worked especially well for faster growth. Male student voices,  couldn’t make the plants grow as quickly, and in some cases, low-voiced males stunted the growth of the plants by singing at them. This must be why we throw rotten tomatoes at horrible singers.

In 21st century America, the health care industry is dominated by pharmaceuticals. According to a 2003 report called "Death by Medicine," by Drs. Gary Null, Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio, and Dorothy Smith, 783,936 people in the United States die every year from conventional medicine mistakes. Of those deaths, roughly 106,000 were from prescription drugs although—due to underreported cases of adverse drug reactions—that number may actually be as high as 200,000. It should come as no surprise that (so-called) alternative medicine has hit the mainstream and is now a $50-billion health care industry in the US. A recent survey found that 14 of the 18 major HMOs and insurance providers cover at least 11 of 34 alternative therapies and 74% of Americans have chosen this approach at least once.

Which brings us back to naturopathy. This practice dates back to at least 19th century Germany, if not earlier, and today's naturopathic physicians (NDs) are trained at accredited medical colleges to follow a system of medicine that assists in the restoration of health by following a set of specific rules. The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians explains the basic assumption "that nature is orderly, and this orderliness is designed to result in ongoing life and well being." They further detail that this orderliness is "guided by a kind of inner wisdom that everyone has. This inner wisdom can be assisted to return a person to their best balance by naturopathic treatments."

The above report, "Death By Medicine," is available for free while supplies last at Creative Blossoms.

Wasn't Marvin Gaye similar in raising a world consciousness concerning the war and other in his record “Whats Going On?”

As for me – here's something from one of Michael's songs that will say it all for me.

I'm gonna make a change…
I'm starting with the man in the mirror
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and
Then make that Change!

Our global water supply is becoming more of an issue every day. Even in developed nations, where a plentiful supply of water is sometimes taken for granted, the value of water is in­creasing among the people and their governments, as such, my 5 year-old daughter, over heard me talking about this and  wanted to know what exactly will happen if we run out of water?­ 

So you know how that goes – ” out the mouth of babes “ - so instead of giving my judgement I (we) researched together ( I did most of the work–LOL–and here's some of my (our) findings ).

A country's water use, as opposed to simple water use, is the total amount of H2O needed for the production of goods and services. Figuring out a country's water use means adding all the water used plus the water inherent in products imported, then minus the water in exports. Using this top-down method, the average water footprint in the world is 1,243 cubic meters a year. As you already might have guessed, in the U.S. we are water hogs – we use more than twice the world average, or 2,500 cubic meters. That's like an Olympic-sized swimming pool for each and every one of us, or 2.5 million liters each. The Chinese, to compare, use 700 cubic meters annually and has much more people.

Thanks to Ahmya, my 5 year-old daughter (love you)

3. Is the item non-recyclable, non-biodegradable, non-reusable? Stay away.

This is the very essence of green thinking. When you're done with that product it's just going to sit in the ground, or river, or lake, or ocean forever? If this is the only option you've got in front of you, do without.

4. Can you pronounce the ingredients?

Perhaps the simplest test in determining the quality of something you're going to put in or on your body, is simply asking yourself if you can pronounce the ingredients. And I'm not talking about not knowing the correct way to say some new-to-you. I'm talking about multi-syllable words that bear no resemblance to anything you yourself could actually grow in your backyard. If whatever you're looking at be it food, a health and beauty product has anything like that, put it right down and move on.

If you can't visualize all the ingredients, still less pronounce them then you can be assured that the product, 99 times out of 100, is not green. The distance all those ingredients traveled adds up too. The simpler you keep things the better.

5. How did the product get here?

Even if you're getting the majority of your food locally, and try to buy locally made consumer goods, there's still probably a good deal that's imported.

Here is the best of energy efficiency: Ship, train, truck, plane. You very well may have known that order, but not the impact.