The Lotus Experiment...............

I just love the art of water gardening, always looking and experimenting with new ways to enhance mine. I have always had my favorite, water lilies growing there, but I always dreamed of having a lotus plant in my garden. The local nursery's stock was just not an option $, so I thought I would try to germinate and grow my own from seed.

First I cut the seeds out of their pod

Then I scarified each seed by sanding the outer shell until I could see the cream colored flesh inside.

Placed the seeds in a small bowl of water, at a depth to just slightly cover them, changing the water 3 times a day. After 3 days, the seeds looked larger from the absorption of water. About 5 days later, I noticed a crack in some of the seeds. The next day some revealed a stout green shoot emerging.

Within a weeks time, they grew very fast, still keeping them just below the water line, With the seed staying at the bottom they stand straight up ever reaching for the top of the water, I used a large vase for this part and yes kept changing the water 3 times a day.


At this stage I decided to plant them.

Ordinary dirt even clay based is fine for lotus. Think about where they grow naturally, in muck and mud of a still water pond. I used 8 inch round flower pots, place a plastic grocery bag at the bottom (to keep the roots in the pot) and some rocks to hold the bag down, then filled each flower pot with the soil & clay mixture. I made a hole in the center and gently placed the seed in. Firmed the soil around it and placed a thin layer of pea gravel on top of the soil, to keep the seed from floating out of the pot and to keep the dirt in.

I submerged the pots into a large black tub, (the kind you find at outdoor parties used for ice & drinks).
Lotus plants need very warm water to grow and at least 6 hours of sunshine and must be grown in still water. So for now I have them on my deck, until that is I finish the bog they will be placed in next year

Success! My first leaf appeared about a week later, very exciting!

However the mosquitoes were also loving this still water tub. So I used a tiny piece of a mosquito dunk to control this.
Refreshing the water from time to time, I will keep these growing in this tub for the summer & fall, for they will not produce any flowers until next year (hopefully!) only leaves for now. I will bring them in when the weather turns here in New York & place them in the basement in water for them to become dormant (at a temp of at least 55 degrees). Never dead head the leaves of a lotus, for they keep feeding the tuber. I will experiment with one and lower it to the lowest point in my pond where the fish hibernate to see if it can survive a winter here.

Next spring they will be placed in the bog to grow.

This is the bog I am working on. I dug the hole level to the surrounding soil of the garden, quite the workout! I will be filling it partially with a peat moss and soil mixture. In the picture you see a straight black liner leading to the bog. This is the drainage from 2 gutters on our house that will feed the bog as it rains. Here in the country, with well water, we have to conserve, so I thought this would be the best solution for that.

My last picture of them, taken just the other day, at 12 weeks old, So far so good! My baby lotus nursery :)

I am already looking forward to next spring :)
to be continued..................

http://jewelsinthegarden.blogspot.com/2011/10/lotus-experimentcontinued.html

~Winner of my Summer Solstice Giveaway ~

I would like to thank everyone for visiting my Etsy Shop, and to welcome all of my new friends following my blog and on facebook.

Thank you all for your kind words and lovely compliments on my work. They are Very Much Appreciated :)

I am pleased to announce, The winner of my Summer Solstice Giveaway is

MaryLee ~ Congratulations!

Thank you to everyone who participated!

More giveaways to come ~

Hope you all have a Wonderful Summer!

Julie

Fairy House Festival ~

Create an inviting home and Welcome a fairy into your garden! Crafting a fairy house is easy, just look to Mother Nature for your supplies. Construct them out of all natural elements, bark, moss, grasses, twigs, stones, feathers, nuts, dried flowers, etc...... take a hike into the woods to find your materials, a fun afternoon in itself!

Reconnect your children with nature, get them outdoors enjoying the natural world. It is a good way to encourage your children to appreciate and respect Mother Earth and our environment.

My Daughter, Granddaughter and myself created a fairy house for an event this past weekend held at Art Park in Lewiston, NY.

"A Fairy House Festival"

It was a Beautiful Sunny Day for the affair!
The welcome sign post led you to fun and excitement in every direction. Sweet little fairy houses were scattered under the trees throughtout the woods. Created by so many talented children and their families. Music and Merriment filled the air, along with story telling on a magic carpet under the trees.


Fairy dancers performed and fluttered in the sunshine ~


Face painting, arts and crafts for the children to enjoy! We had a Grand time!



Our entry was a Fairy Nursery. So Very Sweet!

It consisted of sticks we collected and turned into a tree. Tiny gourds strung from the tree swaying gently in the breeze. These gourds held our new born fairy babies, wrapped in leaves.

A nurse fairy sat in the tree to watch over and take care of the baby fairies.

She consisted of a hickory nut head with hair made from the blossoms of an oak tree and an acorn top hat. Her dress of dried flower petals and wings of a dried lily pod. She sits in the tree rocking a baby fairy.

On the forest floor sat a tiny house made of sticks, leaves and moss. A feather bed inside to change the little ones and a comfy mushroom chair to sit in.

Moss covered the ground floor, with a path of pebbles that lead you through the garden to a cozy camfire, to sit a spell, tell stories, rock the babies and sing to them. (Complete with marshmallows on a stick to munch upon)

Introduce your children to the wonderful, rewarding and magical art of a fairy garden. Get them outdoors and enjoying nature ~

Help them create their own special space to experiment with plants and garden art. Where they can sit and play, plant flowers, read stores, decorate with their own garden art and let their inagination run wild. Keeping them busy every year tending and adding to it. Bringing them hours of enjoyment, accomplishment and respect for Mother Earth!

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies"...Sir James Matthews Barrie (1860-1937)

In Celebration of The Summer Solstice ~ Giveaway

I will be giving away this Stained Glass Moon Ornament, "Moon Shine", June 21, 2011, The First Day of Summer

Sorry this giveaway has ended

~ Wouldn't this Moon shine nicely in your Moon Garden ~

All you need to do is simply

#1 ~ Visit my gardens in my etsy shop

See if there is something you like, then post the name of the piece here.

Thanks for stopping by!

http://gardenjewels.etsy.com/

For extra chances to win ~ Please ~ include in the "same post altogether" that you are.

#2 ~ A follower of my blog

#3~ A Fan of me on my facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jewels-In-The-Garden/122250003658

Open to the US and Canada, First Class Shipping included.

The contest ends midnight June 20

The winner will be chosen at random on June 21 and will be contacted and announced here on my blog.
Good Luck to all and hoping you have a Beautiful Summer! Julie

Children in the Garden

This Spring introduce your children to the wonderful and rewarding art of gardening ~
Get them outdoors and enjoying nature ~
Help them to create their own special space to experiment with plants and garden art. This can be a fun and simple project to do over a weekend.
Keeping them busy every year tending and adding to it.
Bringing them hours of enjoyment and accomplishment.

My children had gardens growing up and had so much fun creating them along the years and were very proud of them. Showing them off by giving garden tours to everyone who visited. They filled them with not only plants and love, but garden art and crafts they created.
20 years later their gardens are still there. A bit overgrown and sadly forgotten. But ready to embrace a new generation of caretakers, "Their Children" How fun that will be to do all over again when they come to visit Grandmama!

~ My son's garden was a collection of plants found right on our land. A woodland garden. Full of elderberry bushes, moss, ferns, wild daffodils, rocks and fossils he'd collected from our all of our travels. He used wild strawberries he found for the ground cover. He picked these every year and ate them with his cherrios :)

~ My daughter's was a fairy garden. Early spring it exploded with crocus, tulips and daffodils. Our cat loved to hide in them and popped out to scare her quite often :) Followed by double daylilies in the summer with gorgeous primrose for the ground cover. She made little paths of tiny pebbles that lead in all directions in her garden. Tiny fairy statues adorned the paths with Fairy houses made of mud and moss.
I smile every time I pass by them.

My Granddaughters fairy garden. We work on it every time she visits.

A simple garden journal is a good way to start.
Map out their garden ideas on paper as to what they envision their garden to become. Keep a garden chore chart along with the journal. With stickers to mark when garden chores are done. When to water, weed, flick those flower eating bugs into a can, dead head the old blossoms and mulching. This reinforces their organizational skills and a sense of responsibility.
Help them work and fertilize the soil to get them going. Maybe encourage them with their own set of children's garden tools.
Then its off to your local nursery or an adventure on your property to gather some plants
and watch the fun grow!

My Garden

It's where I go to free my mind, refresh my body and calm my spirit. Where I find myself seeking enlightenment and a place I find inspiration. I've sculpted the earth into a place I hold very dear to me. A viewing point for nature's beauty. ~ Peace & Tranquility ~

It embraces me when I enter it. The growing gifts from family, friends and my travels greet me and I smile. Each having a story, a place, a person within it. Gathering stones and pebbles found on adventures through the woods, creeks and places I've visited, scattering them among the plants. A reflective pond with waterfalls sets in the background, my husband and I dug by hand that summer long ago. Filled with love and my koi, patiently awaiting to be gazed upon. Tucked away niches to meditate in, as I search for contentment.

One of my favorite places, a tranquil Japanese teahouse my talented husband and son built me for Mothers' Day. It welcomes me to sit for a spell at days end. Wonderful memories, natures' beauty, and my art surround me and comfort me there. Bringing me reflections of color, movement and sounds to sooth my soul.

~ "The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration." ~ Claude Monet ~

Summer Solstice Celebration Sale

Happy Summer Everyone ~

Come sit and relax a bit in my gardens ~

I'm having a SALE in my Etsy shop ~
http://www.etsy.com/shop/gardenjewels

Thanks for stopping by ~ Enjoy your Summer!

A Celebration of Summers End

It all began when I placed a teeny tiny door I made, with a teeny tiny stone walkway leading up to it in my Granddaughter, Madison's fairy garden. A garden I gave her to call her own. Where she could sit and play, plant flowers, read stories, decorate with her own garden art and let her imagination run wild.

Well, Madison was certain that fairies were afoot inside that teeny tiny door. Knocking at it every time she came for a visit, asking the fairies to please come out and play. Leaving letters, drawings and gifts for them, as they also returned the favor :) I told her, "They can't come out just yet. They were very busy preparing for the fairy festival". "Fairy Festival? What's that?" she asked. I explained the fun that was to be had with the fairies at the end of summer. So each time she came to visit me, I kept her idle hands busy, as we planned and crafted decorations and games to play for Our Celebration of Summer End, Our Fairy Festival.

We had such a Beautiful sunny day for the affair. I decorated the trees with ribbons as they waved in the breeze and decorated her fairy garden with tulle and a jeweled wind chime tree. I placed flower cards inside the draped tulle, each with a special game for us to play.

We all put on our fairy wings and journeyed into the garden. Oh the fun we had! We played games, won prizes, sang songs, played music, went on a fairy treasure hunt, had a sidewalk chalk contest, read "Flower Fairies Stories from the Garden" by Cicely Mary Barker and ended it with a grand tea party.

We were served teeny tiny sandwiches, scrumptious cakes, jelly rolls, brownies, fruits and loganberry tea, all courtesy of "Those busy little fairies that live at Grandmama's house in Madison's Fairy Garden" :)

Glass Art Inspired by Nature

~ SALE ~ End of Summer Celebration ~ SALE ~

~ Ends September 22 with the Autumnal Equinox ~

www.gardenjewels.etsy.com