How Did Valentine’s Day Begin?

Saint Valentine’s Day, also known as Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it remains a working day in most of them.

St. Valentine’s Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. Several martyrdom stories were invented for the various Valentines that belonged to February 14, and added to later martyrologies. A popular hagiographical account of Saint Valentine of Rome states that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment, he healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius. An embellishment to this story states that before his execution he wrote her a letter signed “Your Valentine” as a farewell. Today, Saint Valentine’s Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion, as well as in the Lutheran Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrates Saint Valentine’s Day, albeit on July 6 and July 30, the former date in honor of the Roman presbyter Saint Valentine, and the latter date in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni). In Brazil, the Dia de São Valentim is recognized on June 12.

The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as “valentines”). Valentine’s Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards

Source: Wikipedia

How to Dry Flowers

Drying flowers is not nearly as difficult as you might think. There are even multiple ways to do it.

The easiest way is probably using silica gel crystals. A quick search for them will quickly find them readily available and you may even be able to find them at your local hobby store.

Cut the flowers so that there is only a one inch stem. Make sure there is no water or insects on them.

Select the appropriate sized pan/container for the flowers you want to dry. Put down a layer of silica gel crystals about an inch thick in the bottom of your container.

Place your flowers on the crystal bed and carefully pour more crystals over them until they are completely covered.

Cover the container and leave your flowers to for two to seven days (the more flowers, the longer it will take).

Remove the flowers carefully and gently brush away any remaining silica gel crystals.

Use your dried flowers for any arts and crafts projects you’d like.

You can continue to use the silica gel crystals over and over. Just be sure to collect them and store them in a sealed container so they don’t get wet.

Winter Bird Feeders

Winters in North Texas are usually fairly mild but they can be particularly cold and icy. The birds that stick around during this season can have a problem as far as food good. While they may visit feeders put out for them occasionally during the fall, the only way they will come back in winter is if they are sure there is an abundance of food there.

In the winters you may see whole different range of bird species come and visit you for the feeders you put out. There are several ways in which you can bring in more birds to your bird feeders in North Texas winters. You should have a few different designs of bird feeders available in the first place. Some of the easiest ones are with the hopper or the platform styled design.

When you are choosing your feeders, the best ones for winter are those that are largely covered where the feeding ports are and have their dispensing trays covered as well. This ensures that no seed is lost in the snow. You could even choose to have feeders with a fly through design and the cover will have to move several inches over the corners of the feeder to protect the birds.

The placement of your feeder in the winter is also equally important. Put it in a relatively sheltered spot, near a bush perhaps and facing a window so that you can watch the birds as they feed. This will also protect the birds from any predators that may be around. Placement will have to such that it does not place a window in collision course for the birds.

You need to ensure that the feeder has a good capacity to hold the birds as feel as the feed. It means that the food will hold for a while and will not need regular replenishing. This makes sense only if the seed is covered from the outdoor moisture. You will need to keep the feeders clean as this will attract more birds. Your chances of getting more are improved when you place it in the backyard. Ensure that the feeder is dry before you actually fill it in again.

The kind of food you place out in the winter also matters. Seeds such as black oil sunflower, hulled peanuts, niger seeds make for good options. Watch out for any predators that may have noticed the birds coming to feed. You will have to keep them protected.

Flowers are Still Used as Perfume Base

Many flowers are still used in perfumes as essential ingredients. Actually, the perfume comes from the essential oils extracted from the flowers. The oils are extracted by a special distillation process. Both soil and climate conditions affect the scents of the flowers.

The most popular flowers that are popularly used in perfumes include rose, jasmine, violets, lily, plumeria and orange flower.

Roses are undoubtedly the most popular flower for perfumes because it has valuable elements necessary for making a fine perfume. Rose fragrance peaks just before sunrise and that’s when they are gathered for perfumes. Rosa Centifolia and Rosa Damascena are the two species of roses popularly used in the perfume industry.

Jasmine is another flower which has a pure essence and gives a perfume a well-rounded quality. Jasmine flowers are picked just before dawn. They are processed immediately because their freshness fades quickly. Jasmine and synthetic versions of Jasmine are used in 83 percent of all women’s perfume.

Violets have long been used in perfumes. Victoria Violet and Parma Violet are the two varieties used in perfumes. They are not used as much as rose and jasmine because violets produce a smaller amount of essential oils.

Orange flower oil or Neroli was named after the Italian princess of Neroli because it is believed she was the first to use the oil for scented gloves. Neroli oil is plentiful and widely used in finer citrus colognes. Orange flowers are grown in the south of France, Spain, Italy and North Africa.

Lilies are also among the most used flowers for perfume making. There are over 100 species of lilies, each colored with different nuances. The Easter lily found in Japan and the Far East has a strong fragrance while the Madonna lily which is one of the oldest species found in the Balkans and the Middle East has a nice, light fragrance. The Easter lily has an intense scent and is widely considered utterly feminine and very noticeable.

Real rosemary oil extracted from the flower has a slight touch of menthol as well as a fantastic fragrance that lingers on. The pine like scent of rosemary is a mood elevator and it leaves a lasting fragrance. Any more however, a synthetic form of the oil has largely replaced the natural oil.

Create Your Own Unique Flower

If you are an enthusiastic gardener and are a little bored with the usual varieties of plants that you seem to have in your garden, then possibly it’s time you try to cross-breed some flowers that you may have. It’s much like mixing two shades of paint together where white and red give you pink or yellow and red give you orange. The only thing you will be doing is facilitating this unique mix with flowers.

This may not be quite as hard as you think, though it might take you a bit of trial and error to get it right. Start with the same species of plants in your garden that you really like – like a set of roses or a cosmos or even tulips. Keep in mind that they must be of the same species else the experiment will not work. What you are trying to do is enhance the traits that each of the flowers have and create a new one out of them.

Once you have picked your flowers, you will need to know more about them. Get online or get a plant reference book and find out when they are at the heights of pollination levels. You will also need to spot tips that will let you know when the flowers are pollinating. Once you know when the plant is pollinating you can take on the role of a honey bee. Dip a cotton swab in the pollen of one and apply it to the carpal of the other. Turn to your reference book to find out where these are. Do this a few times during the flowering season. Then it is just a matter of wait and watch to see what results from your efforts.

An easier, though perhaps slower way of doing this with flowers that pollinate is to plant them close to one another so that they are touching. Water them, ensure they grow in proximity and you will find that they cross pollinate on their own and create whole new species themselves. You have to keep in mind that not always will you end up with an exotic color of flower. Some of them can be regular and it takes a while for you to get the right knack when it comes to color combinations.

Once the new plant gives flowers, you can always create seeds from it and grow them extensively if you have really liked the way they look.

A Rose is a Rose is an Emotion (or two)

We all love the beauty of roses. In fact, they are one of nature’s way of reminding us to be optimistic. At the end of that thorny stem blooms a beautiful rose. Not only are roses beautiful, but their colors have come to mean different things.

White roses represent innocence and purity.

Red roses are a sign of love, but they are also used as a form of congratulations, respect and passion.

Pink roses show happiness, admiration, gratitude, elegance. Pink roses come in a variety of shades and those shades can be used to convey different intensities of emotions.

Yellow roses are associated with joy, friendship and caring. They are also used for welcoming.

Peach colored roses show appreciation and thanks.

Orange and coral roses are more rare and indicate pride and desire. As a bouquet they are romantic and compared to sunrises and sunsets.

Lilac and purple roses symbolize enchantment and desire. They are often used to convey love at first sight.

Black roses convey sorrow, loss, farewell, mortality and even Halloween.

While this isn’t the definitive guide, and interpretations vary a bit, this gives you a good idea of what rose colors mean. Combinations of different colored roses can convey different meanings as well. Now that you know the basics, perhaps you’re ready to come up with your own combination of roses you want to send to that certain someone. If not, we are always happy to offer our experience to help you get exactly what you’re looking for.

Confessions of a Florist

Have you ever jumped into a new situation with both feet, kicking and screaming the whole way?   Especially, when it comes to tech situations or computer related things and ideas?  Too difficult, too foreign, too everything, and where oh where, is the closest cliff to hurl this piece of machinery off and over it’s edge?  Oh Pa-leese,  Do not tell me I am the only one?

Just give us floral orders to design & create, European garden baskets to arrange and weddings to imagine-  Those we do with great joy, flare and confidence!   We look forward to the fun and it’s Easy Peasy for us with over 39 years of experience combined!

BUT, The Times They are a Changin’ and so shall we~

Which brings us to this very special announcement – drum roll, please!

Bent Tree Florist is Now BLOGGING!!

Yes, you heard correctly, We moved into the trendy Neighborhood of  Blogland!  Pull out your I Phones people and hold onto your Blue Teeth- We are even Twittering!  Amazed myself, I know!  Facebook, join us!  Our web site and floral designs are now viewable on  your phones, as well!  Orders are secure and come directly to me here at our shop!

Are we Tech Savvy or what?  Stay tuned for intros, pictures and more Tales & Confessions of a Florist.

Elle @ Bent Tree                                                                                                                         P.S.  Onto figure out what in the world an Instagram is accomplishing?!