The Sunflower
A few months ago I was in Amsterdam, Holland and I went to my favorite
museum the Van Gogh museum. I went to my favorite picture the sunflower.
It is amazing how this flower always puts a smile on people's faces.The Sunflower-(Helianthus annus) from the composital family comes from
North America. It comes in three distinctive colors yellow, orange, and red.
It's a heavy flower that usually stands alone as a centerpiece or if in
a bouquet it always reigns supreme.
In the dark winter months of northern Europe it lightens up the house and
gives a warm and optimistic feeling
That is why it is so popular in the winter.
But this flower is really special. It serves so many different purposes
for different people--the list is endless
-Its bird food -its people food
-Oil, margarine, and many other extracts
-Its essence- did you know the Chinese use it in acupuncture
-cosmetics industry make fragrance, shampoo, soap --- you name it.
Facts you should know-
it's the state flower of Kansas
it's nectar is used by many insects
the disk flowers grow in a mesmerizing pattern of two opposite spirals.
The rough-hairy quality of the Common Sunflower serves two purposes. To
discourage plant-eating animals and to conserve water in the plant by limiting evaporation.
How about a cupcake
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Step 1: With the leaf or star tip on your pastry bag, pipe petals
from the center to the edge of the cupcake.
Step 2:Place the nonpareil in the center. Yellow makes a pretty
sunflower, but you can make these flowers in all colors.
-You can build a sunflower house or maze
When we grow the flower it is important 
that the beds are shaped evenly so the distribution of water
is equal to all seeds. In the first few weeks we cover the whole field with a net so the birds do not eat the seed.
As the flower grows we must support the plants, we use metal
nets as trellis. Uniform fields give perfect end product uniform size flowers.
This month we are selling both varieties of sunflowers at a reduced
price. You simply must buy this flower  from us and enjoy the top quality that we are so good at producing.
Eyal
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Canada is steadily growing in Greenhouse produce.
According to a survey that was done among greenhouse producers 2002 saw a +9.3% growth in purchase of greenhouses as
compared to 2001. This is very positive if you take into consideration that 2001 saw an increase of +18% compared to 2000.
Total sales of horticultural material (plants, flowers greens...) in 2002 was $1.42 billion Can$. That's +11%
more than 2001. Over all Canada had 4660 acres-18860 dunames-1886 hectares of Greenhouses in Horticulture.
Cut Flower production accounts for 60%.
Most of the production 51% is in the state of Ontario
with 24% British Columbia, 13% Quebec, the remaining production is dispersed all over the country.
The most astonishing fact is that unlike the rest of the world where less and less growers are growing on more
and more land in Canada 4,200 growers had greenhouses in 2002, up from 3,235 in 2001. That means the Canadian growers believes
that investments in greenhouse is the way to go.
source LBActualititeiten
Eyal
