The Sunny Sunflower

Posted in Flower show, Sunflowers by smell the flowers

There is one stunning flower that stands the summer hit and it’s the sunflower. It is a bright flower that makes you smile and happy whenever you look at it. Sunflowers are strong and confident and they are Leo sign’s birth flowers (which happens to be my flower…wink wink).

If you ever saw a sunflower field, you must have noticed that the sunflower’s head is tilting wherever the sun is. It’s an amazing phenomena and quite enchanting to watch how the stand still flower moves it’s head from side to side.

I gathered some sunflowers pictures, some are from the floriade show and some are from sunflowers bouquet i had at home. Enjoy.

This is a green head sunflower from the Japanese both at the Floriade

Lovely sunflower image

Sun flower close bud, it looks like some kind of Carnivorous plant.

Sunflower closeup

9Jul2012

The Hidden Rose Garden

Posted in Flower show, Roses by smell the flowers

Continuing my visit to Floriade, today I want to tell you a story about the hidden rose garden that I almost missed.

At some point, while walking for hours at the Floriade, my mom and I got so tired that we looked for a place to sit and relax. We saw a big maze with benches so we decided to sit there for a while.

When we approached the maze, I saw a small rose bush with gigantic English roses. I just wanted to take a picture of the cute roses and go back to the bench.

But I wasn’t ready to what I discovered.

Rows upon rows of hybrid roses in almost every imaginable color, size, and smell. It was magical, like I have found a hidden garden full of roses.

I got all excited that I forgot I was tired. I took more then 50 pictures of all kinds of roses and I’m sure I missed some.

Here are some of my favorite pictures, to view the all collection you are welcome to visit my Facebook page or Flickr account:

Whiter shade of pale rose

Pink paradise rose

Lampion rose

Designer sunset rose

Crown princess margareta rose

Broceliande rose

Bonfire rose

Augusta luise rose

5Jul2012

Zen Gardens

Posted in Flower show, Zen gardens by smell the flowers

Continuing my visit to Floriade 2012 in Venlo Netherlands, today post is about Zen gardens.

I love Zen gardens, they are simple, yet powerful. It makes you feel peaceful and relaxed. I’m seriously considering creating a Zen garden at home, although I’m not sure how will my dogs react to that…they’re still young and like to dig holes everywhere.

Anyway, the Zen gardens at the Floriade were a true peace of art, I could sit there for hours staring at the water and the sensational flowers all around.

This Zen design is a beautiful combination of stones and plants, two nature’s basic elements. The captivating blue rocks are water like creating the same effect as real water. If you like Zen gardens and don’t want to add water element, these rocks are great alternative.

Another Zen garden. A big water source in the center surrounded by exquisite flowers and greenery.

A view from a different angle:

The flowers around

3Jul2012

The Green House

Posted in Flower show by smell the flowers

“The green house” is a tribute to nature, plants, herbs and flowers. Without greenery we have no life. The green house exhibit demonstrates in an unusual way, how greenery has interwoven in every aspect of our daily life.

The kitchen wall was covered with a unique herbs display. The herbs are growing inside small pockets very convenient if you like to cook with fresh herbs.

Eccentric look of the dinning table. Everything is covered with greenery.

Closer view of the dinnerware.

Innovative eco friendly chandelier

Would you like to have a sit?

2Jul2012

My Trip To Floriade 2012 Part I

Posted in Flower show by smell the flowers

Every 10 years the Netherlands host a huge agriculture exhibit, the Floriade. When I learned it is happening right now, I thought to myself that I really want to go there.

As a mother of two youngsters it’s not an easy task to wake up in the morning and decide you want to travel somewhere in the world. But lucky for me, my husband was very supportive about me taking the trip and my kids promised to behave while I’m away 🙂

I also managed to convince my mom to join me as it will be a great opportunity to celebrate her upcoming 60th birthday in a mother daughter trip.

So off we flew to Amsterdam.

The Netherlands never fails to amaze me.

It is such a wonderful country, kind people and lots of cows and greenery.

We stayed at Amsterdam and traveled by train to the Floriade that is hosted by the city of Venlo. (Later this week I’ll share some nice pictures from our trip to Amsterdam and Gouda.)

The train ride took us about two hours, but it was so much fun to see the country from a train window. They have these gigantic cows and sheep that you can’t take your eyes of. And all the water canals and greenery is absolutely breath-taking.

At the Venlo central station waited a shuttle to take us to the Floriade. When we arrived there, all the surrounding grounds were covered with these lovely flowers that look like flourished out of no where.

This is me at the entrance

This is a unique display of solar flowers. They are made from some sort of plastic that collect and reflect back the sun rays. When you stare at the flowers, you feel a warm sensation all over your body.

Every flower was carefully planted to make a stunning effect of color and texture

I took so many pictures it will take me a while to sort everything. But I really wanted to share some of them. I hope you don’t mind me sharing more pictures of the green home, orchids, roses and many other great exhibits later on this week.

As you would expect from a flourishing country like the Netherlands, it was an amazing exhibit. We walked around for about 8 hours and I’m not sure we saw it all. The place is huge and there where so many great displays to be inspired by.

Every area was unique and presented a new view about nature, flowers and life. Every turn we discovered more flowers we haven’t seen before.

It was like receiving so many gifts at your birthday and opening them one at a time, each present is more exquisite and unique than the other one. It’s a gift from nature to mankind to inspire and teach us to live in harmony.