Our silk rose artificial flower arrangements are nineteen inches tall including the pot. The small flower arrangements consist of three Cabbage Roses, three Tea Roses and three Cone Hydrangeas. The silk roses are colored light plum, garnet and light salmon. The silk Hydrangeas are shades of dusty rose. The flower arrangements centerpiece also has plum colored Astilbe, Heather, Queen Anne’s Lace, berries and other greens used in flower arrangements. The realistic artificial flowers come in a lightweight resin, urn shaped pot. The pot is 8 inches tall and 20 inches around.
Most plants have flowers. In some cases, however, the flowers are so small and plain that few people think of them as flowers. Most people think of flowers as being brightly colored and showy. Some trees have beautiful blossoms. But the trees themselves are never referred to as flowers. All the plants classified as either garden flowers or wild flowers are smaller than trees, and have soft stems rather than woody stems.
People choose flowers for their shape, color and fragrance. Because of their beauty, flowers are a favorite form of decoration. People also use flowers to express their deepest feelings. For more than 50,000 years, people have placed flowers on the graves of loved ones as a sign of remembrance and respect. Flowers are used at weddings to symbolize love. Certain flowers also have a religious meaning. For example the white Easter lily stands for purity. Buddhists and Hindus regard the lotus as a sacred flower.
Originally, all flowers were wild. Prehistoric people found them growing nearly everywhere, from the cold arctic to the tropics. In time, people learned to grow plants from seeds. They could then raise the prettiest wildflowers in gardens. By 3000 B.C., the Egyptians and others in the Middle East had begun to cultivate a variety of garden flowers, including jasmine, poppies, and water lilies.
A variety of cultivated flowers are raised in every country. Thousands of species of flowering plants still grow in the wild throughout the world. But many of them are becoming endangered as more wilderness areas are leveled to make room for cities.
Flowers add greatly to the beauty of yards, gardens, parks and other landscaped areas. The flowers may be planted in beds or borders and arranged according to size, shape and color. Spring, summer, and fall varieties may be planted to provide a continuous display of blossoms. Some of the most popular plants used in landscaping are flowering shrubs, such as bridal wreaths, forsythias, hydrangeas, and lilacs. Flowering shrubs are especially useful in large landscaping areas because they bloom year after year and require little care.
Garden flowers are simply cultivated wild flowers. Some kinds of garden flowers are exactly like the wild species. Other kinds have been bred scientifically so that their blooms are more attractive than those of the wild variety. Garden flowers are grown on farms and in nurseries and greenhouses as well as in home gardens. Some kinds of garden flowers also make excellent house plants.
Each species of flowering plant grows best in a particular type of environment. The species may be unable to grow at all in a much hotter, cooler, wetter or drier location. Gardeners can control a plant’s environment to some extent. They can therefore grow certain flowers in otherwise unfavorable locations. For example, flowers that need much moisture can be raised in dry climates if the gardener supplies them with the necessary water. When flowers grow in the wild, they do not receive such special treatment Each of the species can survive only in the environment it is naturally suited.
There are about 250,000 kinds of flowering plants in the world. About 165,000 species are native to the tropics. The remaining 85,000 species are native to Europe, North America, and other non tropical regions. About 20,000 of these are native to the continental United States and Canada.