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Venus Flytraps, Carnivorous Plants and More at Meanplants.com	Trees Dwarf Red Buckeye "The Dwarf Red Buckeye Tree, `Aesculus pavia,' will start sending out tender new leaves as early as February, up to a month before most other trees show any signs of life. This is one of the first plants in the woodland to reawaken in the spring. Especially pretty when under-planted with spring wildflowers, the Dwarf Red Buckeye is easy to grow. If features large, drooping, dark green leaves that will provide plenty of interest throughout the growing season." $14.95 Buy now!	The Peony 'Sarah Bernhardt', 'Paeonia', a fall planted bulb. The Peony 'Sarah Bernhardt is one of the most popular Double Peonies. This gorgeous variety produces large, soft pink flowers, of perfect form with a delightful fragrance. They produce superb, long lasting cut flowers. During late spring-early summer, they fill the garden with fragrance. Peonies usually take a few years to establish and bloom heavily. Staking is recommended. Peonies attract butterflies and are great cut flowers and borders. The Spanish Bluebells  Hyacinthoides hispanica ', is a fall planted bulb. These Spanish Bluebells produce elegant flowers with a heavenly, sweet perfume. This is one of the tallest-growing Scilla species. Hanging from the sturdy, round flower stalks are lots and lots of broad, bell-shaped flowers. Bluebells bloom for a 3 week period in late spring/early summer. Spanish Bluebells are great for mass planting, containers, rock gardens, and borders. The Hibiscus 'Plum Crazy', is one of the Fleming's most colorful varieties of Hibiscus. The plum shaded flowers have a 10" bloom with a plant height of 4'. The dark purple, maple-cut leaves make a great contrast. Named by Dave Fleming himself, 'Plum Crazy' took over 20 years to develop and refine the species and one can see why. It is best to plant this Hibiscus in a full sun area and it will tolerate most soil types. 'Plum Crazy' looks wonderful with grasses, as a background plant or with Hibiscus 'Fantasia' and Hibiscus 'Old Yella'.

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Childrens Gardens

How often do you find yourself saying: "I wish I knew how to learn more about this topic" Well, we were listening!  And this article is the result.  Enjoy.

Apparently, we can see how nature is treated these days.  It is a sad thing to know that people do not pay attention so much anymore to the environmental problems.  What can we do about this?  It\'s as simple as starting with the children.  It is good to see the children's involvement with environment-friendly activities. One such nature-loving activity that children could easily get their hands on is gardening. Why should you consider gardening for your children?

Here are the benefits that gardening could easily provide the children with:

1.  Science
In planting, children are indirectly taught the wonders of science like the plant\'s life cycle and how human's intervention can break or make the environment.  They can have a first hand experience on the miracle of life through a seed.  This would definitely be a new and enjoyable experience for the kids.

2.  Life
Watching a seed grow into a tree is just as wondrous as the conception to birth and growth of a child.  In time, kids will learn to love their plants and appreciate the life in them. Gardening could actually help simulate how life should be treated -- it should be with care. The necessities to live will be emphasized to kids with the help of gardening - water, sunlight, air, soil. Those necessities could easily be corresponded to human necessities, i.e., water, shelter, air, food.  By simply weeding out, one could educate how bad influences should be avoided to be able to live life smoothly.

3.  Relaxation
Studies show that gardening can reduce stress because of its calming effect. This is applicable to any age group.  More so, it stimulates all the five senses.  Believe it or not, gardening may be used as therapy to children who have been abused or those who are members of broken homes.  It helps build one\'s self-esteem.  

If you liked what you've read so far, you'll love the rest.  Now you too can access the resources created by top experts.  They will help you save hours of frustrating, wasted searching, and let you zero in on the best material on this subject - like this article you're reading.  Go on...

4.  Quality Time with the Family
You can forget about your stressful work life for a while be soothed by the lovely ambience in the garden.  You can play and spend quality time with your children.  You can talk while watering the plants or you can work quietly beside each other.  The bottom line is, always do what you have to do, together with your kids.  You might discover a lot of new things about your child while mingling with them in your garden.  

Let kids become aware of their environment's needs. And one way to jumpstart that environmental education may be through gardening.  It\'s hitting two birds with one stone -- teach them to respect life while you bond with them.

Writing this article was hard - but fascinating - work.  We spent hours researching this material and crafting it painstakingly into an article that will provide you with useful, valuable, practical information. And the end result was worth all the hard work!  Don't you agree?