"A garden is never so good as it will be next year," Thomas Cooper

The winter months are the perfect time to begin planning your garden.  Here at Garden Accents, we use this quiet time to reflect on what worked for us last year in our own gardens, what didn’t work, and which new and exciting items we’d like to try this year.  We start compiling our spring orders right after the holidays so that new merchandise begins arriving just as the first buds begin to swell on the trees.  Why not schedule some time to come in and meet with our sales staff here at Garden Accents?  We have an amazing inventory of great items here in stock, but we also have access to more than one hundred vendors so finding that special item for your garden is a challenge we’re eager to accept.  By planning early, we may be able to include your order with our spring shipment to save shipping costs, plus your lovely new additions to your outdoor space or garden will arrive just in time to complement your burgeoning bulbs and waking perennials! 

Fight the Winter Blues and Create Your Own Indoor Oasis

The Dow Jones is down and maybe that winter getaway has been put on hold but despair not!  Here’s an investment that will provide a wealth of dividends year after year and bring a dose of sunshine to these bleak winter days--Create your own springtime solarium in any room of the house!  Garden Accents has everything you need to create a soothing, uplifting haven indoors—just add plants and water.  Looking back in history, orangeries and conservatories have been a staple in northern climes for centuries to bring some light and the promise of spring to the long, dark days of winter. These glass houses provided a way to enjoy tender plants and tropical exotics such as citrus fruits, pineapples and sweetly-scented blossoms all winter long. What a simple way to escape the winter doldrums!  You can achieve a similar effect with just a few items…A fountain for lovely background sounds, great lighting with ‘grow’ lights and full-spectrum bulbs, a beautiful piece of statuary, a few elegant urns or pots brimming with lush foliage and lightly fragrant blooms…Imagine having a light-filled room in your house to escape to, the air filled with the sweet scent of stephanotis or a Meyer lemon tree, where you could curl up on a comfortable chair and read the latest bestseller that’s been sitting on your nightstand?  Sounds like paradise!

Camille Leavitt’s Artistic Ironwork is Here!

You must see her work to believe it!  Camille is one of our newest artists here at Garden Accents.  Quiet and unassuming, this young lady is one of the most talented iron artists we’ve seen which is no surprise when you learn that her father is Greg Leavitt and her mother is Lydia Leavitt, both renowned artists whose work you’ve probably seen at the Philadelphia Flower Show, or around the Main Line and Philadelphia.  Camille’s pieces are a breathtaking blend of strength and whimsy.   One of our favorite pieces is a free-form birdbath consisting of tortuous limbs and blossoms holding a wide, hand-hammered copper birdbath bowl providing an overall effect which is both bold and delicate at the same time. 

New Indoor ‘Flea Market’ at Garden Accents--‘Discounted Treasures’

Do you love beautiful, investment-quality garden ornaments but are on a tight budget?  You’ll love our Discounted Treasures section!  We try to change our displays quite frequently and in doing so sometimes come across an item that has suffered a little bit of damage.  We mark down these items dramatically as some need a little extra TLC to return them to their former glory.  Some of our current Discounted Treasures include an oversized traditional cast iron urn on a pedestal base, various pots, and an English footed urn to name a few…Items are added as we find them!  For shopping comfort during these frigid winter days, we’ve dedicated a special space for our Discounted Treasures in a well-lit, warm area in our indoor showroom so you can browse at your leisure while enjoying a complimentary steaming hot cup of freshly brewed coffee or cocoa.

We Proudly Announce…

Congratulations to our own Gail Ferry who just earned her Bachelors of Science in Landscape Architecture from Temple University.  Gail has been a valuable part-time member of our Garden Accents sales and design team for more than four years and will now be working with us on a full-time basis. 

January’s Odd Garden Facts

Natural Plant Defenses  
 
Many plants produce chemicals to make them less appealing to their attacker. Let’s take the Laurel for example.  When an insect lands on a Laurel and starts chewing, the leaves release a bitter-tasting chemical which makes the leaves taste awful to the insect.  This chemical--which smells great to most humans--is actually cyanide!  When you crush the leaves of a laurel, and take a big whiff--it smells just like almond extract. Cyanide is what gives almonds their distinct smell but there’s such a minute concentration in them that it causes no harm when eating almonds.

Within the world of plants capable of defending themselves, the willow has no rival. Not only does the willow produce defensive chemicals when under attack but so do all the other willows nearby.  As an interesting side note, did you know that aspirin (derived from salicin or salicylic acid) comes from willows?  In 200 BC, Hippocrates recognized the medicinal qualities of the willow and prescribed its bark and leaves to relieve fever, pain and to ease labor pains.  In 1900, the Bayer Company reformulated and buffered the compound and patented “aspirin” as we know it today.