These handmade creations are more than textured eye-catching pieces of garden art.  Known as bug hotels, they offer shelter and even food for beetles, solitary bees, and spiders! Beetles and Spiders nestle down between pieces of wood, while birds take wool and yarn for their nests.

All these creatures are essential to the ecosystem, says Lisa Benjamin, founder of Urban Hedgegrow, a collective of artists in California and the United Kingdom who create these dwellings.  Items shown can be ordered from Urban Hedgerow.

In Natural Companions, acclaimed garden writer Ken Druse presents recipes for perfect plant pairings using diverse species that look great together and bloom at the same time.

Artist Ellen Hoverkamp contributes over 100 striking botanical photographs, created in collaboration with the author utilizing a large format, flatbed scanner as her camera. Filled with an incredible amount of horticultural guidance, useful plant recommendations, and gardening lore, this book is a must-have for gardeners and lovers of plants and flowers.

“During a walk through the vast grain fields adjacent to my friend’s house (on Oland, a large island off the east coast of Sweden), I was lucky enough to catch these poppies the moment before their petals closed as darkness set in… The image recalls the tranquil feeling of a summer night – the noise of hawks and swallows flying overhead, the wind, and the soft evening light as the drops below the horizon.”~Thomas Ljungberg

As seen in June 2012 issue of Garden Design magazine.

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Paintings by Botticelli, Durer, Raphael and da Vinci are featured in Celia Fisher’s coffee table book, Flowers of the Renaissance.

Taking a closer look at the Renaissance garden as a whole, author Fisher examines roses, lilies, daffodils, daisies and tulips in order to observe varieties common in the Renaissance and their symbolism in paintings of the period.

As seen in Flower Magazine, Spring Issue.

Orchid expert Kate Santos offers her best tips for keeping moth orchids (Phalaenopsis sp. and its hybrids) happy and blooming.

Orchids are often planted in bark or sphagnum moss. When the bark or moss is dry to the touch, water your orchid until water comes through the drainage hole in the bottom of your pot.  Never leave orchid roots in standing water.

Orchids like bright, indirect light.  North-facing windows generally won’t provide enough light.  An east-facing window is best; western or southern light is fine as long as it’s indirect.  Normal home temperatures are good – about 70 to 80 degrees in the daytime and above 60 degrees at night.

Ask your local  nursery for an orchid fertilizer, and apply it according to package instructions.

Once the orchid has stopped flowering, you can cut off the bloom spike at the base of the plant.  Keep fertilizing.  Leave the pot in bright, indirect light.  Your orchid should rebloom within a year.

You may want to repot your orchid every few years.  Do this when it’s not blooming, because repotting can stress an orchid and cause it to drop its blooms

Featured above is Montclair King “Splash”.  At right, Tying Shin Cupid “Montclair”.  As seen in January 2012 issue of Southern Living.

From the well-known lifestyle photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo and Nicolette Owen of Brooklyn’s Little Flower School, Bringing Nature Home presents a portfolio of unique and original floral arrangements directly inspired by the seasons and the local environment.

Unlike most flower-arrangement books,  this book presents an alternative that is in line with the “back to nature” movement.

A how-to section offers advice on the selection, trimming, and care of the arrangements, making this book practical as well as inspiring.

Tucked within a 220-plus-acre family estate north of Brussels, the entrance to the Moorish pool house is  framed by lush foliage and climbing David Austin roses.

The property’s owner moved into the estate’s converted orangerie as a young bride in 1962.  At the time, she was preoccupied with the rigors of raising a family.  After twenty years she has created a pleasure garden with calm, simple lines in the English manner.

From the May/June issue of Veranda magazine.  Landscape design by Jaccques Wirtz.  Photographs by Alexandre Bailhache. Written by Jean  Bond Rafferty.

Flora Grubb,  “yes, I’m a real person and that is my real name and gardens are my life”, shares her ideas for letting your green flag fly!

Urban Hedgerow, a collaborative team of instigators, artists, creators, thinkers, conservationists, ecologists and bug lovers,  located internationally yet are all connected through our invertebrate friends. Their intention is to shift perceptions and the world’s ability and desire to integrate, tolerate and interact with our environment by transforming our relationship with the wild around us.

In ”The Nature Principle”, authour Richard Louv  shows us how tapping into the restorative powers of the natural world can boost mental acuity and creativity; promote health and wellness; build smarter and more sustainable businesses, communities, and economies; and ultimately strengthen human bonds.

Epiphytic plants, which derive nutrients from the air and thus thrive on virtical surfaces with little or no soil.

Mount Davidson,  with an elevation of 928 feet,  is located in the geographical center of San Francisco, CA.   An “unexpected urban escape into a cloud florest”, it is the highest natural point SF.  It is one of SF’s 44 hills, and one of it’s original “Seven Hills“.

Takashi Tomo-oka, a Tokyo-based photographer, updates both botanical  imagery and Japanese traditions in his striking flower portraits.

His minimalistic images of fragile-looking flower blossoms, plants, and branches recall the Japanese Edo-period paintings he studied in art school.

His pictures are often printed on handmade washi paper and mounted on silk to reember the temple scrolls Tomo-oka liked to examine while growing up in Kyoto.

As seen in Elle Decor June 2012.