


Creating an outdoor space for relaxation can be challenging. Once lovely flowers and plants are in place, how do you pull it altogether? Garden finials are an excellent way to give your garden a finishing touch. Finials are appealing and come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. Some finials are spherical, some are shaped like a long spear with a steep, pointed tip, while others have ornate scrollwork or a Fleur-de-lis shape. Often, finials are depictions of mythical creatures. The choices are endless.

Choose plants that attract Hummingbirds
Flowers are, of course, the key ingredient in attracting hummingbirds to your garden. The tiny birds feed on nectar that is produced by flowers, and they seem particularly attracted to plants with trumpet or tubular bright red and orange flowers. Favorites include rhododendrons, azaleas and rose of Sharon bushes. For northern gardens that attract the ruby-throated hummingbird, choose plants that flower at different times during the blooming season to provide food for them throughout the spring, summer and fall.
It’s easy to bring grace, comfort and beauty to your home with porch and garden swings. Outdoor swings are like time machines transporting you back in time.Made popular in the mid-1800s, when wraparound porches were common, swings symbolize freedom, grace and relaxation.
Remember the thrill of swinging on your play set in the backyard or at the neighborhood park? Sometimes, the very thought of the gentle sway of a swing can take you back to childhood, or can conjure pleasant memories of lazy afternoons sipping cold lemonade and sharing stories and ambitions with friends.
Banana “trees” are not actually trees, but herbaceous plants in the genus Musa. Due to their size, shape and structure, they are often mistaken for trees. Bananas are largely cultivated for their fruit, but also used as an ornamental plant in gardens.There are two types of bananas that are cultivated mainly in tropical regions. There is the sweet fruit that is eaten raw or used in dessert recipes, and the firmer, starchier plantains used in cooking vegetable-based dishes like curries.
Most of the year, the holiday cactus looks like one of the strangest plants alive. It consists of a cluster of hanging “branches,” which are actually stems. These stems are made up of a series of similarly shaped flat segments that look like thick leaves. The plant doesn’t seem to grow much, and doesn’t appear to be very interesting, that is until it starts producing teardrop-shaped buds from the ends of the arched stems. Slowly, each teardrop opens to unveil an unusual display of petals which surround a colorful protruding stamen. The whole plant is soon cascading with dazzling, unique blossoms. It is then truly an amazing sight to behold.