Tropical landscape plants are those plants that commonly have broad leaves, green foliage and most of all, bright and beautifully-colored flowers. This is the unique feature of this type of landscape – having plants that are rare. Not only that it is rare because they are found naturally in tropical countries, but they are also not used commonly as garden and landscaping plants for they take up much area because of their size.

Exploring: Tropical Landscape

Tropical landscapists do not worry or have difficulties in searching for plants that grow vigorously, but they have problems in finding the appropriate plants to be used in a landscape setting.

Here are the plants that are commonly used in tropical landscaping and gardening:

Palms and Cycads. These are considered to be classic ornaments or tropical trees because they are commonly found in almost all tropical landscapes. They give a more “tropical” feeling and sense once you look at them because they are known only to thrive in tropic regions of the world. Having these trees is the best way to create your tropical garden. Other ornamental trees that can be used in tropical garden are apple and lemon trees. Tall and strong bamboos or the grass family can also be used because they tend to grow to the height of trees.

Short and Climbing. The tropical regions are known to be home for species of beautiful and colorful shrubs and vines. An example of these plants is the rose flower. Roses can bloom all-year round and produce very colorful and sweet-scented flowers. Other tropical shrubs and vine ornaments include many kinds of ivies, bougainvillea and other more that have colorful flowers.

Flowers. As mentioned earlier, tropical landscapes and gardens are known to have colorful flowers. Orchids and bromeliads are the best examples of these plants that are found and featured commonly in tropical gardens because of their very colorful and beautiful flowers. In addition to this, the flowers are very delicate and the ultimate prize in growing them is actually having them flower.

The Challenge: Weather and Climate

Tropical plants, as the name implies, are known to grow in a habitat that is temperate and humid. The problem with having this type of landscape is the weather and climate conditions. We all know that these plants cannot survive extreme cold.

When you are in an area that suffers from severe winter but you still want to have a tropical landscape because of its rare beauty, do not lose hope. You can still achieve having a tropical garden even though it is freezing in your area. You can actually place the plants you are going to use in the landscape in pots.

Putting and planting tropical plants in pots will enable you to transfer them in an area where they can be protected from the harsh weather. The greenhouse is the best place to keep your tropical plants in good and healthy living condition though the weather is not tolerable for them when they are exposed to it.

Landscape Lighting Suggestion

Landscape lighting is an art. You might think that outdoor lighting simply means throwing up some flood lights to point up at your tree at night is all you need to do and bam! You got your garden lit up.

Wrong.

If you’re like me and watch all those HGTV shows about home improvement, you’ll see that decks, patios, and gardens are not only outdoor spaces these days, they are part of your home’s fashion and style – to be used for parties and create a specific emotion at night.

Take your time and pick out the different styles of lights which you can use (check out the link above).

Lighting up your garden not only includes “up lights” for your trees, it includes lighting up things like:

• pathways
• deck borders
• grass and garden borders
• walls
• pool

You can also choose between lights powered by the sun and lights powered by your power company. If you live in places with a lot of sun, solar lights work great.

So take your time and plan out your tropical garden carefully.

You’ll dust off the old gardening gloves (or open the package they’ve sat in for all these years) and start your long-awaited vegetable garden.

How do I know this, you ask? Well, I too, was once a casualty of garden procrastination. It wasn’t until I actually started my garden that I realized how easy and inexpensive they really are. All you need is a little know-how and a few lawn equipment tools and parts.

So, if you’re looking for a guide for the perfect budget-savvy backyard garden, let me help you get started.

What Is the Goal of This Garden?

Before you start making any decisions with your garden planning, it’s important to understand why you are taking on this project in the first place.

• Is it to get home-grown vegetables from your own backyard?
• Is it to avoid pesticides?
• Is it to grow something that can’t be found anywhere else?
• Or is it just for a fun summer activity?

Depending on the reasoning for your garden, you can narrow down the criteria for getting it started.

Make It Easy

This may seem obvious to most people, but keeping your first garden simple can save you time and headaches down the road. Keep your garden within the scope of your skills and budget. Plant vegetables that are easy to grow. And most importantly, do your research – check out gardening books from the library, search the internet to get your questions answered, and don’t be afraid to approach your local nursery.

Nothing can trump a well-educated green thumb!

What Do You Want to Grow?

At this point, you should have a pretty good idea on what you’re looking to get out of your garden. Now comes the implementation. Take a minute to sit down and map out your garden. Draw a scaled diagram of your garden, with proper spacing for each plant you intend on planting.

For example, you’ll need about 8 inches of space between lettuce. Doing this assures you that you’ll have enough space for each plant to grow properly.

If you’re looking to make your garden as easy and carefree as possible…

I recommend avoiding:

• cauliflower
• celery
• onions
• artichokes

These veggies are temperamental and will test your patience.

So if you aren’t looking for a challenge…

I recommend using:

• lettuce
• carrots
• cucumbers
• peppers

Keep in mind that you can save a lot of time and stress by avoiding seeds and going directly to starters. These starters have already been grown for a few weeks, so their survival rate is much higher than seeds.

And they’re simple — just dig a hole, plant them, and watch the results. These should be available at any of your local nurseries.

Choose the Right Soil

Other than your climate, there’s no aspect of a healthy garden more important that the soil.

As a rule of thumb, you’ll want to use soil that’s loose and drains well. More specifically, you’ll need soil with proper amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, calcium and even boron.

These nutrients are used to maintain a proper soil pH level. Your goal should be to always maintain a pH level between 6 and 7.

If you don’t already have a pH meter, your local hardware stores and nurseries will carry them for a few bucks. Get one and use it often!

Conclusion

And that’s how easy it can be to start your own backyard garden. Trust me when I say that this will be one of the best investments you can make all year long. Not only will you share the process of growing your own food with your family and neighbors, but you’ll also have delicious, organic vegetables, that YOU grew!

It’s a feeling that I hope everyone can experience.

This article is by no means a comprehensive guide to starting the perfect garden, it’s merely some tips that I wish I would have known before I started my first garden. A solid plan for your garden will pay off in dividends come harvesting season. And who knows, maybe next year you’ll determine that your whole yard would look better as a garden.

What tips do you think are worth sharing with other green-thumbs? Let us know in the comments!
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Of course, as a homeowner, you want to showcase your home and your beautiful landscape for people to see and appreciate.

You may have created a beautiful design but you may be lacking things that will highlight them.

Creating wonderful scenery in your own home takes a lot of work.

You may have spent so much time and effort in doing that landscape of yours.

The law of attraction over things is much explained in nature – if you are able to be brighter or more colorful, the better.

The answer in improving the beauty of your landscape is simple – make it more attractive or colorful. There are various ways in making your home landscape appear more appealing and eye-catching. There are various principles that should be applied so that you piece of art scenery will be more fun and nice to watch.

It would not only be you that will see the beauty in your work but also other people. Your landscape will become more attractive and will make people go “wow!” on your beautiful home.

Landscape improvement is the key to that!

1. Focus and Lighting

In order for your landscape to be more attractive and beautiful-looking, especially at night, it is recommended that you install lighting.

Lighting is also the key in creating a “mood” in your garden or landscape.

It doesn’t just add the “drama” effect to your landscape but will also provide sufficient or adequate lighting for your lawn.

A good choice of lighting in the landscape or garden will also provide light in your pathways or walks. It will also highlight your home and landscape because of the “glow” in it. The landscape can also be easily seen from afar and becomes more attractive because of the effect of the light to the colors of the plants in your landscape.

Landscape lights are comparable to the lights that are used in the holiday or Christmas seasons. Christmas lights can easily vamp up the look of a certain space and are very attractive to look at. The idea of putting and installing lights in your garden also applies to the same principle.

2. Safe is Beautiful

You might have created a very nice ambiance and scenery in your home or backyard but wouldn’t it be a lot better if you have also added up safety and security features with it? It would be nicer if you have created a beautiful landscape that is free from anything that may cause harm to you, your family and the people who visit your home.

Lighting the landscape you have created is a very good idea but just don’t forget to also light up the walkways and pathways that lead you there. The effects of the lights you have installed in your garden will be very nice to watch at night but you might end up having accidents when you are walking in the dark towards your garden.

Fences are also good addition to the landscape you have created. This will keep other people from just entering whenever they want in your landscape and home. This will also keep animals that may destroy and ruin what you have worked for.

3. Evolving Trends, Tree Removals, & Maintenance

Not everything you have placed and installed in your garden is designed to last forever. You may have problems and issues with “wear and tear”. In order to make your garden more attractive and to keep its attractiveness, you have to maintain everything.

This will also allow you to see through improvements that you may want to make in your garden, like adding a gazebo or water feature down the road.

The gardening and landscaping styles are also evolving so it is much better if you keep on track with the new trends to help improve your beautiful scenery.

A buddy of mine does tree removals Melbourne (his company removes trees in the Melbourne, Australia area) and he’s mentioned how by clearing areas with old dead or sickly trees can make room for landscapers to do their magic and make the area look healthy again.

4. Plants: The Color of the Scene

Plants are the highlight in your landscape.

You should choose plants that are growing all-year round. Gardeners and landscapists often make a mistake with planting flowers and plants that are just blooming in the summer.

It is much better to choose plants that are all-year round and are colorful to add more life to your garden.

Also, make sure to take care of the carpet of your lawn – the grass. It also adds more appeal to have them healthy and well-trimmed.

Globe Artichoke

Aesthetically, globe artichokes are one of the best edible plants you can add to your garden. Their spiky jade green leaves and flowering purple blades add visual appeal. Use these tasty vegetables for salads, grilling or the always popular spinach-artichoke dip.

Sunflowers

Classic and gorgeous, sunflowers’ electric yellow petals bloom around a fuzzy brown stigma as they peer up at our star. Their toasted seeds make for a wonderful snack or as a topping for salads.

Mint

Mint’s vibrant green leaves and refreshing fragrance makes it a fitting addition to any edible garden. This herb grows rapidly and its roots (called “runners”) will proliferate through your garden if it’s not contained in a pot, according to ApartmentTherapy.com. Sprigs should be collected prior to the plant flowering. Grow mint in areas receiving both sun and partial shade.

Figs

Plant a fig tree in your yard to please both you and your neighborhood fauna. The tree grows large, glossy leaves and produces the saccharine, purple fruit you know and love. Use them for fig jam, dessert or eat them raw. Use mulch to safeguard the trunk from the lawn mower and grass trimmer as well as to inhibit weed growth.

Nasturtium

Despite its unattractive name, nasturtium produces edible warm-colored flowers. Their leaves can be ingested as well—they’re mildly spicy with a taste not dissimilar to radishes, according to TreeHugger.com. The seeds can even be pickled—think capers—for a delicious condiment.

Chives

Chives are relatively easy to grow and are welcome in any garden. Harvest this perennial’s cylindrical green stalks for use in omelets or to sprinkle on your baked potato. Chives blossom into flowers with starry, pale purple petals—also edible, also delicious.

Elderberries

Respect your elderberries. Clusters of these deep purple berries lend themselves well to jelly and preserves as well as elderberry wine, according to TreeHugger.com. Its butter-cream flowers can be preserved as sugars and syrups.

Chamomile

Similar in appearance to daisies, chamomile’s creamy white petals bloom from a sunny yellow stigma. The plant can be harvested and used as an herbal remedy or for a soothing tea. Several plants share the chamomile name: English, Roman and German chamomile share similar qualities, according to HowStuffWorks.com.

Passion Fruit

The passion fruit is a climbing vine that uses its tendrils to scale any surface, no matter how high, according to TropicalPermaculture.com. The flower of the passion fruit alone is worth it. Even if the succulent fruit fails to grow, the beautiful violet foliage emerges in a stringy pattern that is a pleasure to behold.

NuMex Twilight

The spicy chili peppers of the NuMex Twilight resemble colored, conical LED Christmas lights in yellow, red, orange and purple hues. These peppers are suitable for pots.

Once you have cut the lawn, trimmed the hedges and planted the flowers, do not forget to complete your project by covering exposed soil with mulch.

The rich color of this mulch is a backdrop that will make your lawn, trees, shrubs and flowers stand out.

After laying down the mulch, you will be able to see the difference immediately. It is one of the most inexpensive ways to improve a landscape quickly.

In many ways, mulch is like icing on the cake. Without mulch, even a well-maintained landscape is incomplete. No matter how rich soil looks, mulch looks much better than exposed soil. By covering exposed soil with mulch, you can instantly enhance your landscape because soil looks dull and mulch has an appealing color.

Whether you are in the process of selling your home or plan on living there the rest of your life, laying down mulch will help increase the curb appeal of your home. Even from far away, mulch not only helps highlight a landscape, it also helps highlight an entire home.

Before and after pictures of landscapes with and without mulch confirm how much of a dramatic difference mulch can make. Most homeowners who use mulch are surprised by how different their yards look after laying down the mulch.

By covering patches of exposed soil with mulch, homeowners can transform their entire garden in just a few minutes.

Most homeowners cover every open area of their yard with exposed soil but do not use mulch to cover their flowerbeds.

When decorating with bark mulch, you want to spread it evenly over any areas of exposed soil and all your flowerbeds. By taking the time to cover your flowerbeds with mulch, you will be on your way to enhancing the natural beauty of your growing flowers.

In addition, you will be taking steps to protect their roots, keep them well hydrated and help them last longer. This is why so many homeowners lay mulch down on their flowerbeds.

What homeowners like most about using mulch is that it does not cost a lot of money. If you are looking for an affordable way to make your landscape stand out, then you should definitely purchase mulch to cover your exposed soil. Mulch is used by many homeowners to help make pathways and borders stand out as well. By evenly spreading mulch in strategic places, you can transform your landscape quickly.

If you are looking for ways to start enhancing your landscape, then there is no better time than the present to make plans to lay down mulch throughout your garden.

Before spring arrives, you should start thinking about ways you can use mulch to enhance your entire landscape now.

Most professionals begin laying mulch down in the spring once the temperature has warmed up a bit, so you will soon be able to transform your landscape.

Using Bark Mulch

Although there are many different types of mulch to choose from, bark mulch is extremely popular. The rich color of this mulch makes it so popular. Also, this mulch does not change after being exposed to the sun.

In addition to making your landscape and lawn look beautiful, bark mulch also helps keep soil hydrated and protects the roots of your plants, shrubs, trees and flowers. Mulch also helps cover and reduce the number of weeds in your garden.

When laying down mulch, you can use it to improve the appearance of your front, back and side yards. There are no limitations when it comes to where you can use mulch.

If you are making plans to spruce up your landscape, then you should definitely think about all the benefits of using bark mulch.

In addition to enhancing your landscape, mulch will help keep weeds at bay, keep your soil well hydrated and protect your shrubs, flowers and plants. It is one of the fastest and most inexpensive ways to improve the appearance of your landscape.

Its times like this when you look through your rain-smeared windows to a lawn that used to be the pride of the neighborhood and see something a little closer to a Jurassic swamp, occasionally with the final dying remnants of a snowman lost among it.

If you’re an enthusiastic gardener like myself, your first instinct is to charge out into the rain and take any action you can to save your precious lawn. However, you have to rein those instincts in.

Right now the best thing you can do for your lawn is steer well clear of it. This means that if there’s a shed, greenhouse or vegetable patch on the other side you need to reach you should either go around the grass, or get some old wooden boards to construct a temporary footpath.

Setting foot on the grass right now would be like taking a walk across wet cement- it will make a mess of your shoes and leave lasting damage where you’ve walked as well. Those wet footprints will dry, creating an obstacle course for your lawnmower that you’ll be cursing when spring eventually rolls around.

Help From an Unexpected Friend

How do you tell when it’s time to start repairing what the wind, rain and snow have done?

Fortunately when it comes to working out exactly when lawn maintenance can take place, you have some tiny allies on side in the form of the humble earthworm.

Earthworms are an excellent judge of soil conditions.

When it’s freezing cold they dig deep into the soil to keep warm, when it begins to warm up they start to rise to the surface again.

When you see worm casts starting to appear the dirt, that’s a good sign your lawn is starting become more hospitable.

Aerating Your Lawn

That’s your cue (read section above) to start going up and down the lawn with a garden fork, spiking the turf evenly about two inches deep every six inches along.

Then walk back up the garden sprinkling a little coarse horticultural sand over your lawn, about a handful for every square foot. This will help with both aeration and drainage.

The chances are some of this sand will end up in the holes you’ve just been spiking, but that’s what worms are for. They’ll poke it back up to the surface in no time.

Now at this point the lawn still won’t have returned to its luscious former glory.

You’ll probably be thinking it looks a bit anemic and will be itching to throw down some lawn feed or start tackling all the weeds and moss that have got a foothold through the winter.

Resist temptation!

Above all, remember not to panic and treat the grass with kid gloves. In its own time your lawn will be back to its old self again.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but many people want to spice it up a little bit with some color. The most common way people do this is by adding flowers to different areas of their landscape, but this comes with some concerns.

Many flowers only bloom for a few weeks or months per year which can put you back right where you started.

Adding Flowers for Color

Of course flowers are an excellent addition to most landscaping jobs, but it is important to do it right to ensure they bloom evenly throughout the year. In most areas of the country there are hundreds of different species of flowers to choose from that will thrive.

You can choose a variety of different species of flowers which bloom at different times of the year. This will not only provide you with color throughout the year but will also give your landscaping a constantly changing look and feel.

Using Trees for Color

There are some trees which have leaves which are red, purple and other colors which can add an excellent splash of color to your landscaping. Many people love the fact that they not only give you additional coloring, but also that the color is up off of the ground which can give your garden a look of additional depth.

You can even get flowering trees which will have a normal green leaf through much of the year but at particular times they will bloom with brilliant flowers. This may be something to consider when planning out your design.

Don’t Forget About the Non-Living Items

Something many people forget as an option to give your landscape additional color are those non-living items such as chairs, walkways or other things. When properly placed you can create distinctive focal points in your garden and help add flair to the entire area. Some popular ideas for this include things like:

• bird feeders
• bird baths
• brick walking paths
• tree swings
• patio furniture

There are, of course, many other options to choose from as well. When looking at your options, don’t be afraid of getting creative with what you use for your garden design.

Remember that when planning the design of your yard that the most important thing is that you’re happy with the end result. Even though landscaping as a whole can be expensive, most of the individual items used aren’t typically going to cost you too much so you can give them a try, and if you don’t like the way they look you can just remove and replace them with something new.

Landscaping should never be something that is done once and forgotten.

Continuous updates and improvements are part of the joy of landscaping and it will also keep your home and your yard looking new and exciting year after year.

The contrast between some things which last for many years like the trees and other items that might be changed based on the season give landscaping the sense of excitement that most people love.

Rapidly growing urban areas leave less and less natural environment for the wild species. Manicured gardens with exotic plants replace native plants. By doing so, we rob native insects of their usual food, pushing them out of the cities and causing population declines.

Everything is interconnected. And so, we start to understand that eventually this will impact us as well.

Take as an example recent stories about mysterious mass death of honey bees. Many people have realized for the first time that there was a real danger of life without honey, at the very least. Moreover, extinction of bee species would trigger changes in the food chain that those species belonged to. Think of the reduced harvest of herbs, fruit and veggies that those bees pollinated.

When you drive by both rural and urban neighborhoods, you cannot help but notice nicely cut green lawns. These lawns require energy to cut, and a lot of water to keep them green. In the summer, it is not uncommon for the cities to issue bans on watering lawns as water levels in cities’ reservoirs become dangerously low.

What is Ecological Landscaping About?

Ecological landscaping promotes creating mini ecosystems around your own house.

• It incorporates native plants into the landscape design.
• It conserves water and preserves ecological diversity of plant and animal species while promoting healthy and beautiful environments for the humans.
• It employs clever water collection tactics that reduce load on the city water system.
• It makes use of the draught-tolerant local plants and beautiful natural herbs that can be enjoyed both by humans and the insects.
• It includes using local grasses, trees and shrubs. It preserves wetlands, shorelines, and woodlands.

How To Preserve Water

The best way to preserve water is to install a rain water barrel. Collecting rain water this way is good for the city because rain water doesn’t overload city’s sanitary system. Rain water is also much better for your plants than chlorinated city water; so your plants feel better, your garden produces bigger harvest, and you end up growing healthier food. Not to mention, less chlorine and hormones end up getting into the soil.

Another good way to preserve water is to use draught-tolerant plants that require much less watering.

Great Plants to Use for Ecological Landscaping

I was using ecological gardening for years. First, I planted Echinacea, a native North American plant, I enjoyed the buzz of bumble bees in the hot summer days.

I also grow sage, an amazing herb with tremendous medicinal benefits. Not only it looks good, it is one of the most effective folk remedies used since the ancient times. I see all kinds of bees and insects coming to my sage plants in search for food.

Both Echinacea and sage are perennials, meaning less gardening work for me in the spring.

Bee balm and Wild Columbine, Goldenrod and Asters are just a few more examples of very low maintenance native perennial plants.

Green lawns require a lot of maintenance and indirectly cause harm to your environment. Consider ecological landscaping, and create your own paradise in the middle of the city. By doing so, you are improving your health, and making sure you leave good environment for your children to live. You also teach them eternal values of peaceful co-existence and respect to all species alive.

It seems an extension of ourselves, so we put plants, trees, and paths in the ground, perhaps place statues, arbors and other ornamentation.

However, without proper consideration for outdoor lighting, all that work can wash into obscurity as the sun falls. As artists know, lighting is a crucial element of the visual effect of an object.

Here are some lighting techniques that can give your hard work its due recognition by bringing objects in your yard to life.

Up Lighting

If vegetation is a prominent feature of your yard, you may want to start with up lighting. This technique is often used to accent the lower part trees or plants or sometimes an arbor or covering. The effect is achieved typically by placing a spotlight or floodlight on the ground and aiming it either directly up or angled up toward the object of interest.

Down Lighting

Essentially the opposite of up lighting and often called “moon lighting,” this technique accents the higher parts of the object and also casts distinct shadows on the ground.

It involves either mounting the light above an object or high within the object (typically a tree in this case). It is called moonlighting because it is often used to mimic the celestial object by not only softening the light with the obstruction of foliage, but also drawing attention to the branches shadows cast on the ground.

This can often create the most beautiful aesthetic in a yard.

Silhouette Lighting

This technique is used to dramatic effect by placing the light behind the object and projecting toward the front, creating a silhouette of the object.

This is typically done next to a background fixture such as the house itself or sometimes a fence as it enhances the overall aesthetic of that fixture.

Keep in mind that what you are really bringing out in the object is its shape, so you may want to consider another technique if you would rather bring out its color and texture.

Shadowing

Opposite to silhouette lighting, this type of lighting points the light toward your object from the front, which means that the light will probably be on the ground and angled up. This has the benefit of bringing out all the detail of the object, but the focus is on casting an artful shadow on a backdrop.

Grazing Light

A slight variation of these other types of lighting (typically up lighting or down lighting), this technique is used to accent marginal features of an object.

Though it involves more careful angling, the idea is to touch the edge of an object so that you are highlighting an object in such a way that it brings out elements of texture as well as shape of the object.

This is great when you are having trouble figuring out which element of the object you like more.

Applying one or more of these techniques in your yard can make a big difference.

If you having a hard time coming up with a good setup, one thing you can do is get a good hand held spotlight (preferably cordless) and experiment with the different lighting techniques. If you like what is in your yard, chances are you’ll find a fresh way to enhance its appeal with light.

Ross Donald is a freelance writer and has always loved anything to do with houses, homes and humble abodes. He’s a stay at home dad, a blogger and a chronic DIY’er.

• Water
• Soil
• Air
• Sunlight
• Correct air temperature
• Correct soil temperature

These elements although necessary for plants, are needed in different amounts depending on the type of plant and where it’s from originally.

How much of each element a plant needs initially depends on the plant’s original habitat. Plants that are from rainforest areas will not thrive well in a desert and those that are from wet areas will not grow in hot dry areas.

Man however, has been able to grow plants outside of their habitat and so many plants have been cultured to adapt to new environments. Growers have successfully cross-pollinated plants in an attempt to make them hardy for their new environment.

This cross-pollination has resulted in several varieties of a particular plant which are now able to survive and thrive outside its original habitat. Cross-pollination affects the plant in several ways such as color of flower, flavor of fruit and the depth of the roots.

Stages of a Plant’s Growing Cycle

Plants go through a cycle as they grow which involves 7 processes.

• Pollination
• Fertilization
• Formation of seeds
• Dispersal of seeds
• Germination
• Constant growth
• Pollination

Pollination

Reproduction in plants can either be sexual or asexual. Asexual reproduction happens when stem cuttings or root cuttings of the plants are planted and new plants grow from these. Sexual reproduction occurs through pollination and this is how most plants are grown.

Pollination is aided by animals or insects which carry pollen grains from male to the female part of the plants.

The flowers of a plant contain the sexual organs necessary for reproduction. When the pollen comes in contact with the ovule of the female plant the result is pollination. There are two types of pollination; cross-pollination and self-pollination.

Self-pollination occurs within the same plant, while cross-pollination is between two plants.

Fertilization

The flower of a plant is responsible for the development of the seed and reproduction. The flower consists of many parts but the main sections are the petals, sepals, carpals and stamen. The carpal is the female part while the stamen is the male part.

• The petals are the colorful part of the flower that often carries a fragrance and attracts insects.
• The sepal is the green structure resembling leaves that protects the flower in the budding stage.
• The stamen is the part where pollen is produced and is made up of the filament and the anther.
• The anther is a sac that contains the pollen and is found at the tip of the filament.
• The filament is connected to and holds up the anther.
• The carpal is made up of the stigma, the style and the ovary.
• The stigma is the sticky, top of the carpel which collects the pollen.
• The style is a tube-like structure that extends down to the ovary
• The ovary is the female part of the flower that contains the ovule or egg.

Some plants contain the stamen which is the male part of the flower. Pollen grains travel down to the female part of the flower- the ovule-so that reproduction can take place. After the ovule is fertilized it becomes a seed, and the ovary containing the seed grows into a fruit.

Some flowers are called perfect flowers because they have both stamen and carpel. There are other flowers that are without carpel or stamen and they are called imperfect flowers.

Where a flower contains the four main parts; sepals, petals, stamen and carpels, it is said to be a complete flower.

Seed Formation

Seeds begin to form inside the plant. The growth of the seed will continue inside a fruit. When the fruit matures and ripens, the seed falls or is scattered by animals, wind, water or insects. This allows the seeds to germinate and begin producing new plants when the conditions are right.

Germination

This process takes place when new plants start growing from seeds and roots, stems and leaves are formed. Germination takes place when the seed is buried in soil or any other growing medium.

Sustained Growth

Plants are able to produce new plants all the time. Their ability to produce new plants depends on the needs at the moment. This happens in two ways; root or shoot system. Plants are able to have sustained growth because of processes such as transpiration, nutrient transfer and photosynthesis.

Pollination

The mature plant produces its own flowers necessary for pollination and fertilization and so the cycle continues.