Mesick Hardware & Floral

Business name:

Mesick Hardware & Floral

Address:

105 East Mesick Avenue

City:

Mesick

State:

Michigan

Zip Code:

49668

Phone number:

(231) 885-1260

if this is your business: ( update info) (delete this listing)

Express you love, friendship, thanks, support - or all of the above - with beautiful flowers & gifts!

Florists in Mesick MI and Nearby Cities

Flowers and Gifts News

Gardening: Gardenias, while difficult to grow, have a beautiful payoff

Native to sub-tropical China, the dry air of Southern California makes gardenias feel woefully homesick.Yet, when it comes to gardenias, it may be just as much a matter of nature (genetics) as it is of nurture (plant care). When you propagate gardenias from cuttings, the plants that develop will tend to show the classic mineral deficiencies for which gardenias are known, lack of magnesium and lack of iron. With these two mineral deficiencies, you see chlorosis, identified by yellow spaces between green veins.AdvertisementChlorosis comes from the word chlorophyll, the molecule that makes leaves green. At the center of this molecule is an atom of magnesium, surrounded by four atoms of nitrogen. (Incidentally, hemoglobin, the molecule that makes blood red is identical in its fundamental structure to chlorophyll, except that an atom of iron is surrounded by the four nitrogens). Magnesium deficiency is expressed in older leaves at branch bases even while terminal leaves remain green. The reason for this is that magnesium is mobile and will seek out the newest, which is always the most important, growth when its supply is limited. Add magnesium with Epsom salts (2 tablespoons in a gallon of water once a month) and add iron with powdered iron chelate in the spring.Regarding nitrogen deficiency, it is the easiest of all deficiencies to diagnose. Like magnesium, nitrogen is highly mobile and when you see a branch with leaves that are pale green to yellow excepting green terminal leaves, you known there is a nitrogen shortage. Unlike magnesium or iron deficiency, however, the color of the entire leaf is a pale green to yellow color and leaf veins are not greener than the surrounding tissue. Meanwhile, since iron does not move well in the plant, it’s deficiency is first noticed on new growth.Getting back to genetics, keep in mind that popular gardenia varieties have been selected for flower quantity or fragrance or both. However, nursery growers have learned that when these varieties are clonally propagated, the root systems of the new plants struggle to provide robust growth once plants are shifted from nursery containers to harsher garden conditions. The solution to this problem has been provided by grafting onto a rootstock species that keeps foliage green despite difficult soil conditions and that is highly efficient at extracting magnesium and iron from the soil.With plants in general, pale green to yellow foliage may not indicate nitrogen deficiency but rather nitrogen imbalance that may be seasonal and self correcting. Two plants — common hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) and blue potato bush (Lycianthes rantoneii) — are famous for displaying sickly foliage in late winter only to have it change to a lush green, sans fertilizer, as weather warms.For more information about area plants and gardens, go to Joshua Siskin’s website at www.thesmartergardener.com. Send questions and photos to Joshua@perfectplants.com.Tip of the weekYou can special order grafted gardenias through Monrovia Nursery, the mega plant grower. Check to see which retail nurseries in your area buy from them at Monrovia.com. The rootstock species that is grafted upon is starry gardenia (Gardenia thunbergia).Around 20 years ago, before the Sherman Oaks Library was demolished and rebuilt, there was a stunning hedge, around 8 feet tall, of this species. Flowers are highly fragrant trumpets that end in swirling stars. In its native habitat of South Africa, starry gardenia, due to its prickliness, is used as a living security fence. Leaves of starry magnolia are always deep green and fertilization is not needed.No wonder this dry climate gardenia succeeds as a rootstock for the moisture craving garden varieties that are grafted upon it. (The Pasadena Star-News)

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

Over the course of several years, Shaw dug, deepened, and expanded a series of ponds on his property. The objective was simple at first; homesick for the flora from his native Maine, Shaw hoped to build a garden suitable for aquatic flowers like the Lotus. Every night, Shaw would paddle around his lily pads in a canoe, planting tubers and fighting off the turtles that liked to feast on their roots. The evidence of Shaw’s hard work was visible each summer as he continuously brought in larger and more bountiful lily harvests. Residents of Washington had never seen anything like Shaw’s stunning Lotuses, and he started selling them for a handsome profit. Shaw was eventually making so much selling Lotuses that he quit his job at the Treasury Department and doubled down on the flower game. Now with a staff of five, the Shaw Lily Pond Company expanded operations and operated out of 45 square ponds. Each pond was separated by an earthen dyke and specialized in a different species of aquatic life. There were 5-foot diameter Victoria lily pads, exotic Lotuses, utilitarian plants destined for aquariums, and prize fish like the Japanese Carp. Reporters didn’t know what to make of this one-armed entrepreneur and his unusual but lucrative “aquatic plantation.” The Washington Post marveled in 1908 that “the Waldorf-Astoria management alone bought 70,000 Egyptian Lotuses [from Shaw] last year at a cost of 2 cents each, and Lotuses are but one of a number of varieties grown, and they are not the most expensive by many a shining penny.”Shaw retired an affluent man, and after his death in 1921 the business passed to his daughter Helen. The Shaw Lily Ponds were almost destroyed during the 1930s, when the Potomac was undergoing ... (Atlas Obscura)

Faces of Fauquier: FHS class let career bloom

Village Flowers).”“I was grounds keeping for Fauquier Bank the summer before my senior year. The lady who owned Village Flowers at the time, Nancy Mesick, came up and I was digging in the dirt, and she asked me if I wanted to come in and apply for a job,” Ms. Schreiner recalled. “I was so excited, because I always wanted to work in a flower shop.”On Wednesday afternoon, Ms. Schreiner looked relaxed as she assembled white rose boutonnières for an upcoming wedding.She finds designing flower arrangements for weddings, funerals, parties and other occasions rewarding.“I like working with the customers and seeing how happy people get about flowers. It’s nice to make people happy and be creative.”Competition with Internet floral companies and “watching costs” rank among challenges for the business, but Ms. Schreiner said Village Flowers remains unique because of its customer service.“We try to deliver later,” Ms. Schreiner said. “We do whatever we have to do to make it happen. We’ll have people call up and say, ‘Oh, I don’t think you can do this,’ and we’ll say, ‘Try us’.”Occasionally, she even makes a bouquet to help a frantic groom getting married in an hour.Once, she designed flowers for a Monty Python-themed party.Ms. Schreiner and owner Dawn Borusky try to get the biggest, freshest flowers from wholesalers in the U.S. Many of their flowers come from California, South America, Holland and Europe.“We carry the highest grade of flowers we can get,” Ms. Schreiner said. “We do pay for it. When they’re lasting longer and looking better, it’s worth it. And most people would rather pay just a little bit more for something that’s going to look better.”During her career, Ms. Schreiner has... (Fauquier Now)

The Secret High-Society History of the Playboy Mansion

Arthur Letts Jr. It was Junior who would finally build the English manor house befitting the aspirations of his homesick father. Arthur Letts Jr. is usually referred to as simply his father's son. According to an article in a 1923 edition of the Los Angeles Times, "Early in life he began his mercantile training by working in various departments in the Broadway Department Store, gaining knowledge of merchandise and successful business methods." He was also a champion golfer, and well known enough in society circles that he starred in a local ad touting the new Templar automobile. After his father's death, he was elected president of the Broadway Board. In 1926, Junior and his wife Bessie began construction on a "14th century gothic-imitation" mansion on a picturesque 4.5 acre estate at 10236 Charing Cross Road, in the heart of his family's Holmby Hills development. Arthur R. Kelly was chosen as architect. Kelly was the natural choice for the Lettses. In 1920, he had designed a home for Junior in Hancock Park; known for his grand revival residences in San Marino and Holmby Hills, Kelly would also design the Harvard-Westlake School, the Wilshire Country Club, and a mansion next door to 10236 Charing Cross Road for Junior's sister. In 1926, the Los Angeles Times touted the Lettses' future home as one of the "high class residences which will enhance the natural beauty of some Southland estates." At the same time that the house was being built, the Broadway chain was sold to longtime employees, and Junior "retired" to manage his late father's vast holdings. This did not slow the breakneck development of the lavish property. By February 1927, the Times reported: Rapid progress is being made on construction of the new Arthur Letts Jr. mansion in Holmby Hills, which when completed will be one of the finest residences in Southern California. It is to be of the rambling English type. The work of landscaping the grounds is now under way, rare plants and trees for the estate being furnished by the famous Letts hothouses in Hollywood. The home is one of the many fine dwellings being built in Holmby Hills, which is being developed by the Janss Investment Company. When it was completed, the 14,000 square-foot mansion did not disappoint. According to one histo... (Curbed LA)

Flower farmer Meghan Wingenfeld is girly, gritty and stylish: Fashion Flash ...

You lived in a few places but you've come back, why? I lived in San Francisco and Brooklyn. I moved around a lot for about six years. I was homesick for Cleveland. There is so much going on here. People are so excited about bringing new ideas here. It's a great place to be. Cleveland is on the rise and there are so many opportunities. Who are your fashion icons? My dad's mother is the kind of lady who only leaves the house when she looks good. She smells good and looks good all the time. Audrey Hepburn is another icon...always! Do you follow the trends? I'm not really into trends because things come and go and come back. It requires buying too much. I do love to study fashion and the trends. I love magazines, especially Vogue. I love fashion photography and studying how clothes fit different bodies. How has your wardrobe changed? I hid my figure in high school. In college I started to understand fit and what worked on my body. I didn't have confidence because things didn't look good on me because I was wearing trends, not wearing what worked. The best thing about friends, they will tell you when things work or don't. They helped. Do you have any rules? We have weddings on the farm and a rule for other women...it is not OK to wear white to anyone's wedding but your own. It's disrespectful. As for me, I can only wear sweats all day if I'm sick or I've been dumped. You mean heartbreak dumped? Yes! Otherwise, I get dressed in the morning. I like my body and being active and feeling good about everything. Getting dressed in things I like helps. I don't wear a lot of makeup on the farm. I do have to wear it when I'm flying. It's very dry up there, so when I'm home I like a clean, fresh face. Are there other effects and or advice you can tell us about flying? Other than the very dry air, you will bloat because of the pressurized cabin. It's smart to wear some layers and comfortable things. You mentioned that you deliver flowers. How does that work? I post the flowers that I have available each day on Facebook. People can contact me and I deliver in Cuyahoga County. I also have a flower CSA. That's Community Supported Agriculture. People often do it for vegetables. They sign up and get a weekly box of whatever is available. I do it with flowers. So far I have 10 members. If all goes well, I will open it up to new members in July. They can choose pickup or delivery. There are different prices depending on what people want. I do cut bouquets. I'm not a florist, so I haven't figured out... (cleveland.com (blog))