Clare Florist Blog

Top 50 Flower Gardens in Scotland

Now, you may or may not have seen the useful article “50 Greatest Gardens” in The Sunday Mail on 29/04/07.
For those of you who did not, read on – I will make sure you don't miss out!
Those of you who did read it however, should still find this article equally or possible even more useful!

I have compiled a more concise list here

– without the descriptions for 50 of the top floral gardens in Scotland which includes the web links (or phone numbers where there was not one) for every one.

I will go into more depth with several of the top 50 – trying to give information on a Garden near you!  So you will not need to go through pages of information of locations further afield that you may not be able easily to get to.
This list consists purely of locations within Scotland – but never fear – look out in the near future as I will look into and post locations in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

My own top picks for gardens in Scotland (by Area)

Far North of Scotland

Castle of Mey, near John O'Groats,

Caithness. Saved by the Queen Mother after falling in love with it in 1952, the then Barrogill Castle was renovated and the beautiful gardens created to the standard that they are now in. A great feat considering it was to be abandoned previously before the Queen Mother rescued. It can also boast of being the most northern castle on the Scottish mainland. For great links about the castle and its gardens, see www.castleofmey.org.uk

Northern Scotland

Pitmedden Gardens near Ellon, Aberdeenshire

The link is to the Gardens section of “aboutbritain.com” and so gives links to various other places of interest as well as things you may like to consider if you are not local – such as hotels, travel etc. As for the Pitmedden Gardens themselves, although re-created in the 1950s by the National Trust, the original gardens were set out by Pitmedden's first baronet – Sir Alexander Seton in 1675 (the designs said to be inspired by those of Holyrood House in Edinburgh. The link again is: www.aboutbritain.com/pitmeddengarden.html

Western Scotland

Arduaine Gardens, near Oban, Argyll.

Supported by “The National Trust for Scotland”, the website is a credit to the Gardens – and is certainly worth a visit itself –even if you do not get to visit in person. With sections going through the Garden's History, with James Arthur Campbell saying to have “turned the first sod of the garden in August 1895” (as per his own journal). He began the ornamental garden several years later – and the site contains pictures of the garden developing in its early years. The Garden Today Section is equally informative, with picuresque illustrations of its garden in contemporary times. There are even sections called “Meet the Staff” through to “Plant Collection” and “What's New” among others. This link, well worth a visit: www.arduaine-garden.org.uk

East of Scotland

Inveresk Lodge, Musselburgh

This too is supported by “The National Trust for Scotland”, and as such the site is similarly detailed as the Arduaine Gardens (above). The site gives a brief glimpse into the Gardens and is very visitor friendly – with its disabled-friendly sign proudly displayed – as is its “Family Friendly” link. Its Home Page describes: “

Secluded garden features features rare and unusual plants in an informal setting, with wooded and wildlife areas

”. Also links to up-to-date news about the property and gardens, aswell as others in the locality and further afield. The link again: www.nts.org.uk/Property/35

Central Scotland

Cluny Gardens, near Aberfeldy

This is a link from the “Perthshire” website. It should be pointed out that the Gardens are open only from March until October. It does however boast a Wellingtonia tree with the widest girth (11m) of any conifer in the UK. Most impressively in my own opinion – due to the the rapid decline of the red squirrel in the wild, the gardens have them! Please see: http://www.perthshire.co.uk/index.asp?pg=395for the link from Cluny Gardens specifically on this now rare breed.

Southern Scotland

Kailzie Gardens, near Peebles

For those of you who love to visit Flower Gardens – or just take a passing interest – I would really recommend this sitewww.kailziegardens.com. It is probably the best of the independent or “stand-alone” sites in the Top 50 (in my opinion), and has many interesting links – making you feel like you have visited the place before even going! There are many photos to illustrate the Gardens – with links to its History, Osprey Watching and even Weddings. Open 7 days a week, unlike many Gardens which are open only during late Spring/late Summer. This is definitely one worth a look.

Anyway, I hope that you found this entry useful -whether or not you read the original article. As I said, I will soon look at locations outwith Scotland that should be of interest to you.  I will also keep lookout for upcoming events and if there are any you know of in your area - please let me know about them!  Also, any gardens you feel should have been in the Top 50 but weren't - let me know your opinion.

Prepared by Viki posted by Bob.

International Mother's Day Flowers

Just to make you aware our collection of flowers specially chosen to be suitable for sending to your Mother in the UK, as part of Mother's Day Internationally on the 13th May 2007, are available here.

Send flowers throughout the UK

Why not send some flowers this week, perhaps as a Thank-you for an excellent Easter? - whatever the reason  we have the flowers for you.
We have a vast range of flowers and bouquets which we can send throughout the UK without any fuss 6 days a week - all prices are inclusive of UK delivery - and here are a couple of examples.

Dendrobium miniature orchids - twelve stems of this lovely purple orchid which lasts very well for only £18.99.

Perhaps though you want to send flower's but are not so sure which ones?
Our team of florist's will choose a wonderful collection of pink seasonal flowers and arrange them in a bouquet ready to place in your own vase for only £29.99.

What flowers were delivered for Mother's Day 2007

In previous posts within this blog there was some excellent work carried out by Viki on what flowers women wanted as well as those that men would like to buy for their Mother for Mother's day.

I would like to slightly build on that here by presenting a short analyisis of what types of flowers we actually delivered around the UK in the period leading upto and including Mother's Day 2007.

The graph shows the percentages of each of the main types of flowers Clare Florist delivered throughout the Uk for Mother's day in 2007.  The top performers were : -

Flower type	Percentage delivered (for top 92%)
Tulips	44
Roses	14
Lillies	11
Carnations	10
Orchids	7
Iris	6

This list is I believe strongly skewed towards the seasonal flowers (tulips) which are constituents within the special offers we have been promoting. Despite this it is clear that the traditional favourites like roses, carnations and lillies are still coming to the fore.

It will be interesting to see how this changes over the coming months.

Chocolate! and other Easter gifts.

I did not want to mention it before – as it may be not be a subject many of us want to think about the day/s following Easter. Especially when you consider:

• We were expected to consume 80 million eggs in Scotland alone over Easter (The Sunday Herald)
• This equates to 3.5 eggs per person according to the recent Somerfield Supermarket Survey (now notorious on these pages!)
• The Times, April 4 expected that Brits were to spend a whopping £520 million on Easter Eggs this year!

Following Easter – it was reported that the Easter weekend was worth £7.8billion to UK retailers (4% more than last year). A manager of the "Glasgow Fort" shopping centre said that other than Christmas, it was their busiest time.

Looking around the shops myself in Edinburgh (which was described as “booming”) there were a lot of bargains to be found – even on the Saturday prior to Easter shops had started to reduce their merchandise. Perhaps, as we are beginning to celebrate Easter by giving more than just an eggs (with kids increasingly expecting toys in addition – akin almost to Christmas – who wants a stingy Easter Bunny?!) – maybe savvy shoppers are keeping gifts aside until next year. Many of the eggs sold this year have a best before date after next Easter. It is not only eggs however. A great example I found was the Early Learning Centre on the Saturday prior to Easter had many items reduced from £6 to £1.50 including craft sets that could be used all round and easter egg hunt sets that can be use for years and years to come.

(Quotes and figures from The Metro, 10 April 2007)

Returning to the subject to chocolate (not that I'm obsessed or anything!) - but have you ever thought about how and where your easter eggs are made? Easter is now seen as a traditionally Christian festival – but how Christian (or ethical if you are not a believer) is what you buy?

Slave Trade - There has been much in the papers recently regarding Easter Eggs and “the slave trade” which begs the question “is it possible to have an “ethical” Easter at all?” This appears to have been something that has been going on for some time (undoubtedly the slave trade has been an ongoing issue – but specifically relating to the Easter Egg trade I am refining it to at present). Campaigners are now warning that “thousands of children are working slave labour on West African cocoa farms to help produce Easter chocolate for the UK”. BBC News 6 April 2007

Mother's Day dates during 2007 around the World

Is your mother outside the UK? - then why not find out what date Mother's Day is celebrated in that country and then send flowers by visiting this page.

Easter - News Update

In the aftermath of Easter – I now bring you some offerings from recent newspaper articles. There is so much out there – I may well bring you some more later on in the week. It would be interesting to know how much chocolate one consumes on average over Easter – and see how that compares to my consumption over the past 2 days! I can hardly move! And if I see another Cream Egg….!

Songs of Praise “Easter” Service

ITV (as with the BBC) have admitted that their “Easter Songs of Praise” was, in fact, filmed in December! The windows were lit up from behind to make it look like the sun was shining through, and participants wore suitable attire to make it look as if they were actually attending an Easter Service!

The service was actually filmed the day following its Christmas Eve service! ITV apparently admitted that the same pre-recording had been done at the end of the year previously, with a source at the channel stating that this had been done over many Easters! He added however that on the part of ITV there was nothing misleading as the services were never promoted as “live” (although there is a difference between not being live and bringing out a service with people in platforms and flares!). On the other hand however, the Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill (the Bishop of Lichfield) said that it would give an “air of unreality” to the Easter service.

For more on the debate, please see here

Somerfield

Those of you who read the survey results from Somerfield Supermarket which I included in a previous blog, may be interested to know the context of their survey (not mine obviously – I never make miztakes!). The store seemingly in fact got into a “huge muddle over the meaning of Easter…in its attempt to sell more chocolate eggs” ( The Times , 4 April 2007 in an Article entitled  “Store gets egg on it’s face…” !). In a press statement, Somerfield made a “boob” which they then revised, and had to revise again before they finally got it right!

Please see the revisions as below:

Somerfield Press Release 3 April 2007:  [On Easter Eggs and Brits not knowing the meaning of handing them out]

1. "over a quarter don't know why handing them out symbolises the birth of Jesus..."
2. "over a quarter don't know why handing them out symbolises the rebirth of Jesus..."
3. "over a quarter don't know why handing them out symbolises the resurrection of Jesus"

For more on the subject please see:  The Times Online

Other Links of interest relating to Easter:

Easter Around the World

Please see the following link for the Times’ Photo Gallery comprising 14 Easter photos from around the World.

Royal Bonnets!

If you are interested in the Royals and their “Bonnets” over the Easter Period, you may like to take a look at: this link which features photos, including the Queen herself arriving for the Royal Families Easter Service with a beautifully floral effort.

That’s it for today! I feel a lot better now! Pass the Cream Eggs!

Posted for Viki by Bob

Easter "facts", jokes and sign off ...

Despite all the doom and gloom of studies/surveys etc. Easter is a Happy Occasion which no doubt most of us throughout the UK will be celebrating.  So, on a less serious note, here are some Easter-related "facts":

• Rabbits like to eat licorice
• "Easter Island" has no trees growing on it
• A mother hen turns her egg over approx 50 times every day
• A hen has to eat 4 pounds to be able to produce 12 eggs
• Eggs contain all vitamins except vitamin C (note, not the chocolate eggs!)

Something else you may not know is that there is a South American Tinamou known as the Easter Egg Bird and lays multi-coloured eggs in pink, yellow, green, blue and purple.

Easter Baskets

During my research into modern Easter traditions I noticed that one big difference between our Easter culture compared with that of the US is their wider use of "Easter Baskets" rather than the UK's "Easter Eggs".  These can be filled simply with the usual chocolate eggs - or you can be more inventive!  This can be turned into a great, healthy alternative for your children.  Kids love that something different as well (as they will probably get loads of eggs anyway!).  A simple basket filled with any small trinkets will be a delight.  Some ideas could include:

• bubbles
• snap cards
• novelty erasers, pens etc
• small plastic animals
• a fluffy chick or rabbit

I am sure you can think of plenty yourself. Children appreciate something that they can keep once the chocolate has gone and they are recovering the next day!

Signing-Off for Easter

So, a great Easter to you all - however you choose to spend it.  I will just leave you with a few Easter-inspired jokes I have "happened upon".  I will reserve judgement on these!

Q:  Why did the Easter Egg hide?

A:  Because he was a little Chicken!

Q:  What is the difference between a crazy bunny and a "fake" banknote?

A:  One is bad money and the other a mad bunny!

Q:  What do you get when you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?

A:  A hot cross bunny!

So, all that's left for me to say is:

HAPPY EASTER from all at Clare Florist

Posted for Viki by Bob

"What does Easter mean to you?" - by Age

Some "food for thought" - As promised the following are the opinions from a variety of people and ages when asked "What does Easter mean to you?"

• Easter Eggs and Presents!” Ross, 5
• Eating lots of chocolate and getting time off school” Kirsty, 13
• The end of winter and the start of spring” Nicola, 24
• Nothing much now, it is really for kids. I used to love getting Easter Eggs when I was younger, but now I just like to make sure my little one enjoys it” James, 30
• Spending time with family. Eating a lovely meal with loved ones” Karen, 46
• Hiding eggs for an Easter egg hunt. My grandchildren love finding the eggs! I like to make the day as fun as possible – easter egg painting, making easter cards – I've done the lot!” Corrine, 62
• Easter always makes me think of when I was young. I loved watching the Easter parade and making Easter bonnets. You don't see that much of it these days – it's changed a lot. We used to “make do” with what we had – decorating the bonnets with scraps of ribbons and flowers. It was all great fun though. Peggy, 83

There are some recurring themes throughout the age groups - but with so many differing opinions, I will leave you to ponder this yourself and come to your own conclusions.

Somerfied Survey

Following on from my entry yesterday, Somerfield Supermarket conducted their own survey.  The findings were as follows (information from "The Metro" Newspaper Wednesday April 4 2007):

"Many young people do not know why Easter is celebrated, even though they buy chocolate eggs".

Britons in the 15-24 age brackett are "least likely to know the meaning of Easter"

1 out of 10 adults "did not understand the significance of Easter Sunday" and this dropped to 1 in 6 when asked about the importance of Good Friday.

50% were giving something up for Lent but did not know the religious reason why, not surprising then that only 20% of those surveyed said that they would be attending Church this Easter.

Posted for Viki by Bob

Have we really lost what Easter is all about?

I think that this adjacent chart says it all. I found the results STAGGERING – even by modern standards. I did think that Easter Egg would be a popular choice among the young – but it was mainly adults whom I surveyed! When you consider what Easter is traditionally all about i.e. birth, new life and later on the resurrection of Christ – it seems quite clear that the traditional meanings have been lost completely.

It may not be surprising then, that the traditional Easter flower – the lily (see previous entries explaining the age-old connection with the flower and Easter celebrations) also seems to have been lost as the years have gone by. It is still considered “the” Easter flower – even today, as my extensive research on up to the minute websites have shown. But the average adult, as you will see – seems oblivious to the lily and its association with Easter.

As you can see from the graph to the right – the lily does not even feature!  Even after asking the survey question, when I asked the same person again what they thought might be the traditional flower associated with Easter – they said the same thing.  Most were surprised when I told them it was in fact the lily – but after giving them possible reasons for this connection (again, see article below), they could understand why.

So, I will leave you to form your own conclusions, but the results do seem particularly conclusive in that people most associate Easter with Easter Eggs, and traditions such as the link with the lily seem to be dying out in this modern age.  Perhaps if I’d asked the question “Do you know the origins of Easter” I would have got far different results than in the first survey.  It is perhaps not that people do not know the origins in the modern days, but just that they are more at the back of their minds as modern life pressures cause us to rush around cramming Easter Eggs into our trolleys at the last minute!

As I said, it was not young children I surveyed – which perhaps, you may think, explain the chocolate-covered result.  Please watch out tomorrow for my post which includes quotes from a 5-year old to an 83 year old on what Easter means to them, along with some results from a recent independent survey performed by Somerfield along similar lines as I have been discussing.

Posted for Viki by Bob