COLUMBUS. Ohio Plants and flower arrangements are always popular holiday gifts. Instead of purchasing them this year, create your own arrange ments. Ohio State University hor ticulturist Jeanne Youger-Comaty gives the following hints for three popular and easy ideas. • Topiaries. Topiaries are the latest rage in home decorating. You can create a variety of shapes by training any type of climbing vine around a wire form. For a simple table-top Christ mas tree, start with a well-rooted six-inch pot of ivy. Runners should be IS inches to 25 inches long. Sink a 20-inch metal tree frame (that you buy or make your self) into the soil as deep as possi ble. The frame will have metal rings evenly spaced up the out side. The first ring should touch the soil. Take one stem at a time and weave it slowly around the frame in a spiral pattern. Tuck ivy around the frame to hook vine into place. After four or five days, clip off stems that don’t follow the final cone shape. Repot the plant into a decorative container. Con tinue training the ivy up and around the frame until the tree is completely covered. Depending SEE US AT THE PA FARM SHOW JAN. 6-11 MAIN FLOOR 514-516 Authorized master distributor since 1982 Create Living Gifts This Holiday on the size of frame, and size and type of ivy used, it will take one to three months for the tree to be completely covered. Decorate your gift to match the season. For example, hang tiny ornaments or lights on the tree for Christmas or dried flowers for a centerpiece in the spring. Remem ber to water your gift adequately, prune regularly to maintain* shape (snip new growth before shoots exceed 3 inches), and place them in bright, indirect sunlight. • Paper-whites. Paper-whites might be the easiest bulbs to force into bloom. A cluster of the fra grant, white or yellow flowers makes a great centeipiece. You can buy pre-cooled paper white narcissus bulbs individually or already potted. Plant individual bulbs in a container holding water and either clean pebbles, gravel or marbles. The material should be pea size to a ht-lf-inch diameter. Use containers that are low, wide, at least three inches deep and without drainage holes. Fill the containers two-thirds full with pebbles and push the bulbs about one-third into the gravel. Bulbs should not touch. Pour water carefully inside the container so that it reaches just below the base of the bulbs. If Northeast Agri Systems Inc. SB Flyway Business Park s,ore hours Mon - prl 730t0 4 30 Gj|g|B aos university ave. 1 ’OA Wfict Airnnrt Dnnrl Sat 8 00,0 Noon NHHW (Formorly Long Lumber) I west AirparT PGad 24 Hr 7 Day Repair Service awn 1-800-735-6381 Lititz, PA 17543 store hours: Ph; (717)569-2702 1-800-673-2580 water touches the bulbs they will rot Add water as needed. Place the container in bright light and allow several weeks to flower. After the flowers fade, the foliage will grow for about a month, but the bulbs are not reusable. • Terrariums. These glass encased garters are great for small areas sucl as offices. Containers can range from fan cy glass bowls to recycled clear plastic liter bottles and salad trays. Use your imagination (or clean out your basement) to find the ide al container. If a container lacks a cover, use a piece of glass or plas tic wrap. Leaves or snippets of house plants that grow well in terrariums include African violets, begonias, coleus, English ivy, jade plant and pothos. Other terrarium plants are dwarf maidenhair fem, parlor palm, creeping fig, baby’s tears, prayer plant and dwarf gloxinia. Clean and dry the container. Place a thin layer of small stones or pebbles across the bottom to help drain water. Cover the stones with well-drained potting soil. Slighdy wet the soil. Both layers should occupy less than a fifth of the container. Place non-plant accent items Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 16, 1995-811 such as seashells in the terrarium first. Make holes in the soil with an unwound wire hanger to plant the largest cuttings. Finish with the shorter plants. Never place a plant so it touches the edges; it will collect moisture and decay. Lightly mist the plants and cov er the terrarium. If water beads on Make Holiday Gatherings Simpler, Healthier HONESDALE (Wayne Co.) exhausted host or hostess isn’t If the holidays are meant to be a congenial company. When plan time of joy and celebration, then y° ur " lcnu - “ ns,der sun P le why does the mere thought of foods you know how to prepare, family gatherings and homemade Consider what can be prepared cookies make some tired and a " ead and or held in depressed? Why do the holidays ■ nolher mann , cr - abo Lut,hav cause resentment and anger, m 8 a P° duclc * Also, if holiday instead of friendship and good- don 1 be timid will, frustration and guilt, instead a b° at scrying leftovers or ordering of enjoyment and thankfulness? * or P lzza - ~ kitchen can seem Often it is because of unrealistic a dungeon if you re held cap expectations! We want to make Uv ® after the occasion special and we may \ * am not g oin B overspend, have special people visiting. If the y°“ rumn J a ge through hob result is less than perfect, we typi- da y reci P es . keep your food cally are heartsick; sometimes to Jud Bet mind. How can you the point that we make our guests 3n J°y a dinner knowing a large feel it’s all their fault. portion of the month’s food As you plan your holiday budget is sitting on the table? If gatherings this year, put your ,ei ! v ® d att ractively, re cipes made expectations in perspective. Make Wldl commoi | household staples sure the social and entertaining and an occasiona special mgre menu you plan is not so complex d,ent can bf, J ust as elegant as that you don’t have time to enjoy «hat call for many expensive yourself, your family and your in ® r , ents ' . g uests 3.1 am gomg to serve healthful Take time to decide on your foC A ‘ conflict often occurs when social and entertaining goals and we entertain. We invite our friends develop a plan to achieve these into our homes as a way to express goals. Make sure you include the our friendship. However, if we following three resolutions serv e them rich calorie-laden offered by the Wayne County foods detrimental to their health, Cooperative Extension Office: , s th at friendship? Wouldn’t a 1.1 am not going to overwork clearer statement of love and myself. friendship be to serve them good Be kind to yourself! An foods that also are good for them? 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