White Roses

By Georgina Clatworthy

 Whilst fresh flowers will always remain the first choice for most brides, wedding silk flowers are undergoing something of a renaissance in recent years. This can be partly attributed to silk flowers being made to a better quality than in previous years and a desire by many brides to keep the arrangements permanently.

Of course faux flowers are not just available in silk, you will find a good range of paper versions, plastic and even wood although the latter two may not find their way into too many weddings!

So what can you expect from faux flowers for your wedding? Well obviously these flowers will not wilt, drop their petals or go a horrid shade of brown as the day goes on! Many florists are as adept as working with silk or paper flowers as they are with fresh ones so you should always ask about them as an alternative.

Many brides believe that faux flowers will be cheaper than fresh ones. This is not always the case however. Mother Nature does not charge for the hours it takes to produce beautiful fresh flowers, however a manufacturer of faux flowers will and when you consider the detail that has gone into some flowers you will realize why they are more expensive than their fresh versions!

Using silk flowers for your wedding can give many brides the confidence to have a go at arranging them themselves, possibly because they are less likely to damage them and find them far easier to work with. Whilst some silk flowers will be good replicas of the real thing - often you will have to look twice or even touch them to realize they are not real, others are designed with a range of fabulous colors and even have added water droplets or crystals.

Paper flowers can often lend a shabby chic appearance to arrangements and are a popular choice for less formal weddings, they also make nice additions to wedding favors and gifts. A good tip is to buy flowers with wired stems which can then be twisted and made into pretty napkin rings.

Silk flowers offer up the opportunity for you to keep your arrangements, especially if you want to give some of them away as gifts to guests. A wedding bouquet of silk flowers can be preserved far easier than one made from fresh flowers and some brides choose to have a second bouquet made in silk flowers to match the one made from fresh flowers which she carried on the day.

Georgina Clatworthy is a dedicated full time writer who composes informative articles related to wedding favors and wedding. She is connected with 1WeddingSource, todays leading wedding social networking planning site.

Your Online Source To The Meaning Of White Roses

Wild Bird Foods That Fit the Bill

By Luann Hays

 Many bird lovers visit pet stores or hardware stores to purchase specialty bird seed mixes to attract specific types of birds. They buy cardinal food to attract cardinals and special finch food to lure finches. People understand that certain birds like particular types of food, but what most don’t know is that the food a bird prefers has a lot to do with its bill (also referred to as a bird’s beak).

The bill is one of the most significant and defining characteristics of a bird’s appearance. Like feathers, bills are unique to birds, and their shape and size are often used by bird watchers to identify them. The bill serves a number of purposes, from communicating and cleaning to mating and gathering nesting materials. More importantly, it’s a highly useful tool used to accomplish a bird’s most important function — feeding.

Birds use their bills as dinner utensils to crush, crack and snap shells off of seeds. They chisel, peck, poke and drill tree bark for insects, and they sip, suck and probe flowers for nectar. The kind of bill a bird has usually allows it to utilize a particular food source and is a very good clue to its diet. Many birds have a specialized bill which limits the food it can eat. That’s why specialty mixes exist. Mixes like Wild Delight’s Cardinal Food contain premium nuts and seeds that cardinals’ bills were designed for.

Birds’ bills come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Conical bills, like those found on cardinals, finches and grosbeaks, are thick and sturdy — great for cracking and shelling seeds like Nyjer and safflower seeds. In fact, these birds have bills that are strong enough to crack seeds as hard as cherry pits. However, not all conical bills are the same.

Some are more slender, as on the goldfinch and pine siskin, which allows them to probe deep to extract seeds. Crossbills have the most specialized bill of all the finches. Their “crossed-over” bill allows these birds to remove seeds from cones, pry bark from trees to uncover hidden insects and split open fruit to extract the seeds. In fact, the red- and white-winged crossbills are the only two birds in North America to have crossed bills.

Other birds such as woodpeckers have strong bills that taper to a tip and are ideal for chiseling through wood for insects or sap. The downy woodpecker has bristles around its bill, protecting its nostrils from sawdust, while the yellow-bellied sapsucker drills holes in trees to access the internal river of sap. Besides insects and sap, woodpeckers prefer fruit and tree seeds. Specialty mixes like Wild Delight’s Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Chickadee Food contain real fruits such as cranberries, apples and juniper berries, and a premium blend of hulled seeds that are great for woodpeckers as well as chickadees and nuthatches.

Birds like warblers have thin, slender beaks to pick insects off of leaves, twigs and bark. Tiny bills, like those on black-capped chickadees, are able to get into small places to eat insects that are hiding. Chickadees also open seeds by jamming them into tree crevices and then hammering the seeds with their bills. They even break open seeds by holding them in their feet, pecking their bills against them.

Generally, birds are quite practical. They will choose the best food available within the limits of their bill size and shape. Waste-free mixes like Wild Delight’s Deck Porch N’ Patio contain seeds that are already shelled, making it a great choice for feeders because birds with a variety of bill sizes and shapes can eat it — and it keeps outdoor living areas free from shells and leftovers.

Birds’ bills come in all shapes and sizes, just like the birds themselves. In one way or another, what they eat simply depends on what they can eat. By providing food like specialty mixes that are made to include nuts and seeds that fit the bill, bird enthusiasts can better attract and enjoy their favorite outdoor pets.

Luann is the owner of Buy Flower Gifts, a comprehensive online florist. Luann offers many beautiful floral bouquets as well as a large selection of giftbaskets and unique gifts. The site also provides a variety of articles and info. pages about flowers and gardening.

flowers

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.