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A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.
Let the flowers live! No matter what the season is, flowers always make us feel happy, calm, and refreshed. These quotes not only bring peace and content to our hearts, but they also inspire us to blossom and see the world with a fresh perspective. Single Mother Quotes and Sayings. Catchy Quotes and Sayings. Unique Quotes And Sayings. Girly Quotes and Sayings. Popular Sayings and Quotes. Famous Quotes and Sayings about Eyes. The climbing bougainvilleas have masses of long, strong, sharp, hooked thorns which they use to support themselves as they climb up trees or wherever else they can cling to.
These vigorous growers can become a bit tricky to manage if you don't want them to grow to their natural size. The trick is to trim them frequently, but lightly. If you let them go and then cut them back hard they will produce long flowerless shoots, almost overnight. If you've ever visited South Bank in Brisbane you will probably recall how brilliantly bougainvillea are used in the Arbour, a kilometre-long walkway located in the Parklands.
The arched, galvanised steel posts are clad in brilliant magenta bougainvillea, and I've never seen it without flower. But if that sounds like too much work, stick with the dwarf and semi-dwarf varieties which can easily be kept to a height of less than two metres. Bambino Bougs are dwarf varieties, bred in Brisbane. There are some beautiful colours available in this series, including some unusual yellows, lavenders and bi-colours as well as the reds, pinks and cerises. They have smaller, softer thorns.
Bambino Bougs grow to about 1. Use them to create brilliantly coloured informal hedges, feature pots, hanging baskets, or as a flowering shrub in the garden. Plant bougainvilleas in well-drained soil in full sun.
In some versions of the tale, the father is killed for his insolence, in others, he is allowed to live for his face of bravery when confronted with the enemy. But in all of the tales, however, he takes his recipe to his grave, never allowing the barbarous conquerors to enjoy the heavenly brew of the Pictish warriors.
Holly is mostly widely known as a plant used to decorate for the winter holidays. Its association as such goes back to the time of the Romans. The Romans used holly, as an evergreen, to decorate their homes for the riotous fest of Saturnalia.
Several centuries later, Roman Christians, who had followed this practice in their days before conversion, continued to decorate their homes with holly for the Christian winter holiday of Christmas. Over time, holly lost its Saturnalian associations and became a beacon of winter and of the Christmas season. Through the years, holly has accumulated many other myths and legends centered around its Christmas associations.
In England, holly is believed to house fairies and elves who come indoors to enjoy the holiday with humans. In other parts of Europe, holly is thought to repel witches and evil, and so is brought indoors to protect the Christmas festivities.
There is another custom attached to holly, quite different from its Christmas connections. In Northumbrian England, holly was traditionally used by young girls as a charm for revealing the identity of their future husbands.
On Samhain Halloween , Beltaine Midsummer's Eve , Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve, three holly leaves were pinned, opposite the heart, to a young girls nightgown, and three pails of water were placed in her bedroom. She would then go to bed. She would first be awakened by terrible wails and screeching, later by the sound of a horse neighing. Following this, her future spouse would enter the room.
If he was to be greatly in love with her, he would rearrange the pails of water. If not, he would leave the room unchanged. According to the Greeks, Bacchus had a son named Kissos, who, while playing with his father, died suddenly. Heartbroken, Bacchus tried to revive him to no avail.
Taking pity on the unhappy father and dead child, Gaia, the goddess of Earth, changed the boy into ivy, which in Greek is named Kissos, after the child. Bacchus thereafter held sacred the ivy plant, and is most often depicted wearing a crown of its green leaves in Greek art. A more romantic ivy legend comes from Cornish sources. In this tale, a beautiful maiden named Iseult was betrothed to a handsome and brave knight named Tristan. When he was slain, she was so brokenhearted that she died as well.
The king, who was jealous of Tristan's hold on the love of Iseult, who the king fancied, ordered their graves to be placed far apart. From each of the graves, however, an ivy vine grew, and, over time, they met and joined in a true love knot in the sanctuary where the graves lay. This tale was immortalized in Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde.
The sweet scented Jasmine is often carried by brides in their bouquets, but few know the story behind this tradition. Jasmine was first introduced to Europe in by the Duke of Tuscany. Wishing to remain the only person who possessed the lovely plant, the Duke ordered that no cuttings be given away. His gardener, however, was very poor and had a beautiful sweetheart. For her birthday, having no other gift, he picked a sprig of the flowering Jasmine for her to wear.
She planted the sprig in fertile Earth and it rooted. In time, the plant grew large, and she was able to grow others from its cuttings, selling them to wealthy ladies and gentlemen who coveted its exotic fragrance and beauty. With the money gained from selling the plants, she and the gardener were able to marry, and lived happily ever after. In memory of this woman who used a gift of love to make a life of happiness for herself and her sweetheart, the jasmine is carried in bridal bouquets to this very day.
There was a very brave knight in Normandy, whose exploits were famous and who was known throughout the land. He had been offered the hand of several maids, each more lovely than the next, but he refused each, and lived alone, searching for the perfect maiden to be his wife. A rather melancholy person, he spent many hours wandering in graveyards.
One day, while on such a stroll, he saw a young woman, dressed in expensive and beautiful robes sitting on a tombstone. Taken with her beauty, he approached her and kissed her hand. At this, she smiled, and revealed that she was the woman for whom he had searched. Elated, the knight took her home to his castle, where they spent a year in happiness and joy. At the end of the year, at Christmastime, they held a huge banquet and invited scores of knights and their ladies.