The earliest Mother's Day celebrations we know of were ancient Greek spring celebrations in honor of Rhea, the mother of the gods. But those were in honor of one particular mother. England's "Mothering Sunday," begun in the 1600's, is closer to what we think of as "Mother's Day." Celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent, "Mothering Sunday" honored the mothers of England.

In 1907 Anna Jarvis started a drive to establish a national Mother's Day. In 1907 she passed out 500 white carnations at her mother's church in West Virginia -- one for each mother in the congregation. In 1908, her mother's church held the first Mother's Day service, on May 10th (the second Sunday in May). That same day a special service was held at the Wanamaker Auditorium in Philadelphia, where Anna was from, which could seat no more than a third of the 15,000 people who showed up.

By 1909, churches in 46 states, Canada and Mexico were holding Mother's Day services. In the meantime, Ms. Jarvis had quit her job to campaign full time. She managed to get the World's Sunday School Association to help; they were a big factor in convincing legislators to support the idea. In 1912, West Virginia was the first state to designate an official Mother's Day. By 1914, the campaign had convinced Congress, which passed a joint resolution. President Woodrow Wilson signed the resolution, establishing an official national Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May.

Many countries of the world now have their own Mother's Day at different times of the year, but Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, and Turkey join the US in celebrating Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May. Britain still celebrates Mothering Day on the 4th Sunday of Lent — but they now call it Mother's Day. By any name, and at any date, it's a special day to honor a special person.

Having trouble thinking of a gift? Why not do something a little different for Mother's Day? Instead of giving her a bouquet of roses, plant her a rose garden! If she already has a rose garden - add to it! If she lives in an apartment, consider a potted rose plant - many roses will do quite well in containers (ask us for suggestions).

Why give one bouquet that will soon fade away, when you can give years of pleasure from living roses instead?

We've also got some lovely colored bowls and lots of other great gifts for mom - come in and have a look around!

By Tamara Galbraith

Fuchsias have long been a favorite with our friends across the Big Pond in the U.K., but hardier versions are starting to attract some attention now in the U.S.

Saying "hardier" is a little deceptive, however; even the most robust fuchsias only survive outdoors year-round to USDA Zone 7 at the northernmost. In the colder parts of the U.S., fuchsias may be grown as annuals or dug up and overwintered indoors or in the greenhouse.

On the flipside, most fuchsias can survive warm climates, if you're not bothered by the sight of them wilting slightly on a hot day. Adequate humidity is the key - which, incidentally, is why they do so well in jolly old England. If you keep your fuchsias in a hanging basket, be sure to water often. Some shade is advisable.

When grown in hanging baskets, the dangling flowers of fuchsia make a lovely display. The double corolla varieties especially will remind you of the stiff, fluffy skirts of a lady square dancer.

By Clayton Smith

With the popularity of shows like Trading Places, This Old House, The How-to-Crew and many others, Theme Design, Theme Concepts, and Theme Construction are pushing their way into our way of thinking and into our very landscape design. The very nature of these shows is forcing us to blend the inside with the outside. Even though these concepts have been around for quite awhile, with the advent of cable and satellite television, many more home owners that wouldn’t have noticed these ideas are now taking another look at them. With theme landscaping or any other landscaping concepts we must start with what I term as the 3-P's: Planning, Preparation and Planting. In this article we are going to focus mainly on the planning, with preparation and planting to be followed up in subsequent articles.

PLANNING:

The first step in planning is to create goals, and by creating goals we must ask ourselves a series of questions, with the first being WHY are we landscaping? By far this is not the simplest question or task, with both time and investment required in order to achieve the end product of a beautiful landscape that reflects our lifestyle. So the WHY must include our goals in order to begin planning our Theme Landscape. Some of the goals or questions that we might ask include:

1. Do we want privacy?
With homes being thrust on top of each other due to the high cost of home ownership within our western states, privacy becomes a big issue. How do we incorporate privacy into our Theme Landscape?

2. Are we landscaping for entertainment purposes?
I know a national sales manager of a highly respected gardening book publisher who just had his landscaping done geared towards nothing but entertaining. A beautiful patio blended in with a large and stationary BBQ set, reflecting on a pool and hot tub with a waterfall running to both, shows how entertaining became his main goal.

3. Is it for recreation?
Do we like to swim laps in a pool? If so, how do we design that into our landscape? Do we like working in the garden and how can we use this skill for our purpose with respect to our design? Do we have kids and little children that use the yard? Do we need to include a sand box or play area?

4. Are we trying to modify the climate opposed to the general nature of the surrounding environment?
This is a tricky one to explain: If live in Palm Springs and I have a pool in my backyard, I might want to design a tropical garden. But by modifying my landscape to a tropical theme I am in a direct conflict with the surrounding environment.

5. Simply, are we trying to beautify the property?
Trying to sell your house? Remember, the first thing people see when they drive up is your landscaping. The rest of the tour is based on this. If you don't keep your landscape up, then what are they going to think about the rest of the house? Appearance is everything. Also many communities have minimum CC&R's concerning the design and appearance of your yard.

6. Do we want to include or design a garden as part of the landscape?
One of the fastest trends is creating an edible landscape, that is, a landscape that has nearly 100% edible plants designed in it. Whether it is incorporating fruit trees as shade, using strawberry and others as ground covers, or shaping annual and perennial vegetables and fruits as part of the shrubbery, this goal - while technically a challenge - can offer great rewards.

7. Do we want to attract or ward off wildlife?
If our goal is to attract hummingbirds or butterflies, then we need to design our landscape using the appropriate plants to attract them. If we have a lot of deer in our area then we must use plants that deer, in most cases, will stay away from.

8. Are we landscaping for necessity, such as reducing water use?
In some cases we need to design our landscape around problems or area and environmental requirements. Do we need to hold in our hillside, cut down on our water consumption or do a landscape design simply because the CC&R's require it?

These are goals and questions that must be asked and answered before we can continue onto the next step: deciding on the Style or Theme of the landscape.

To be continued...