Interflora has designed a stunning Collection for Mother’s Day 2010 with an emphasis not only on style and elegance, but also on affordability.

Out of a Collection of over 20 new products, over 60% are priced at below £33.00:

Mother’s Day 2010 Azalea Basket.  Interflora’s team of award winning florists has worked hard to produce a Collection that has wide appeal for both the sender and the Mum. £19.99.

Mother’s Day 2010 Hat Box. Kenyan Roses & Pink Germinis. £32.99.

The Mother’s Day Perfect Gift in our picture really is the complete package.
A fantastic selection of seasonal flowers, presented in a beautiful curved glass vase, and finished with a pink sisal collar and decorative ‘Mother’s day’ bow trim.

This vase arrangement features short-stemmed roses, freesias, germinis, and spray chrysanthemums with salal and pittosporum. £29.99.

And if you’re looking for something other than flowers this year, Interflora has a selection of gifts that would thrill any Mum:

A specially boxed selection of mouth-watering cupcakes each with an iced ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ message. £24.99.

Personalised Mother’s Day chocolates £19.99; the Mother’s Day Treat Tower (gorgeous!) at £29.99; or the Biscuiteers Shoe Box (designer biscuits!) at £24.99.

The Interflora Mother’s Day 2010 Collection will be available to order from Wednesday 17th February, right up until the afternoon of Saturday 13th March for delivery on Mother’s Day, Sunday 14th.

To complement the Collection, Interflora can create individually designed floral gifts with its Designed to Order service. Simply advise on the style, colour and how much you would like to spend.

Prices start at just £19.99 plus delivery.

To place an order visit Interflora.co.uk or call 0800 434343.

Homebase has launched a new value range - a collection of budget DIY essentials to help keep the costs down.

This collection of over 300 everyday essentials, including 150 for under £5, offers exceptional prices on the products.

From decorating and DIY, to home furnishings and finishing touches, the Value Range has everything you need for a home makeover:

“For the DIY enthusiast” Affordable hand tools including a 3m tape measure (99p), a 16oz hammer (£3.99), 6in junior hacksaw (£1.99) and a slotted screwdriver (99p).

“For keen decorators” Choose from a range of decorating essentials, including plain white wall tiles (£4.49 for a pack of 44), white matt paint (£5.99 for five litres) and lining paper (£2.24, to cover 5.6sq/m).

There is a choice of accessories including, a 500-watt floodlight (£4.99) basic roller kit (£2.49), step stool (£11.99) and paintbrushes from 49p

Other finishing touches for the home include beech laminate flooring (£10.61 for 2.66sq/m), polished brass internal door pack (£8.99) and a silver spotlight – pictured here. (£6.99).

“The new homeowner” Decorate in style for less with home essentials including a paper light shade (£2.49), beech bookcase (£12.99), toilet seat (£8.99) and a coir doormat (£3.99). You can even pick up a double duvet for £7.99 for the first night in your new bed.

“The kitchen connoisseur” With a great range of cookshop products on offer, there’s no excuse to keep out of the kitchen. Pick up a a 16-piece cutlery set (£2.99 and a 12-piece white porcelain dinner set (£5.99).

“The gardening guru” Get into your garden this summer with a range of gardening products including seeds (from 39p), terracotta pots (from 49p) and plants (from 99p).

Homebase is the UK’s second largest home improvement retailer and is recognised for choice, style and customer service.

Visit the Homebase website to view the whole Value range.

The new ‘Grow’ range of vegetable growing kits from Greenhouse Sensation, promises to help gardeners develop greener fingers, produce bigger harvests and enjoy stress-free holidays.

These clever vegetable plots and pots automatically feed and water plants to prevent over and under-watering, the chief causes of many common gardening problems.

Simply top-up the growing kit’s integral reservoir and plants are automatically provided with the water they need, when it’s needed.

Plants automatically get the perfect balance of water, nutrients and lots of oxygen, so the gardener gets bumper harvests.

Gardeners can see how much water has been taken from the reservoir, and quickly learn about the amount of water plants need, according to soil dampness, plant size, light levels and weather conditions.

The Grow kits even improve harvest sizes, as the automated watering is more responsive to a plant’s needs than manual watering.

Experienced gardeners will also be relieved to learn that the Grow kits keep plants perfectly watered over extended periods – like summer holidays - no more having to rely on friends and neighbours.

The range of four styles of veg plots and pots, can be used in any indoor or outdoor sunny spot to grow almost anything; they are watered by a SmartMat mechanism, and the Solargrow is watered by a solar panel powered pump.

About Grow Products – no power supply required, all can be used indoors or outdoors:

• Windowgrow– self-watering windowsill plot with seed raising lid. Price: £26.99.
• Size: L70cm x W15cm x H15cm.

• Vitogrow – Self-watering veg plot with optional mini greenhouse. (In our Picture) Price: £34.90 to £109.90.
• Size: Square 55cm x 55cm or Long 105cm x 55cm

• Quadgrow – 4x self-watering pots for tall plants such as tomatoes, chillies and beans. Price: £52.95.
• Size: 55cm x 55cm.

• Solargrow – solar-powered large planter with solar panel and solar-powered pump to water plants 2 x every hour. Price: £64.90.
• Size: Planter 55cm x 44cm. Solar panel: 23cm x 23cm.

Every customer has access to the Gardening Angel advice service offered by the company, to call or email their experienced team of horticulturalists.

Greenhouse Sensation products are available direct from the Greenhouse Sensation website, and from a range of stockists.

Tel: (0845) 602 3774

Delicious, fresh vegetables from your own garden on your dinner table every day – what a luxury!

It needn’t be a worry if you think your garden is too small, or if you only have a few hours to spare.

Complete kits for instant edible gardens have arrived!:

Small Vegetable Garden Plant Pack - The plant pack contains all the plants and seeds you’ll need for ONE GROWING YEAR. It doesn’t matter when you buy the pack, as you will receive deliveries through the post for a whole 12 months.

• The young plants are only sent out when they are ready for planting, so there’s no need to ‘harden’ them off or pot them up.

• With each plant pack you will be sent a Planting Plan.

• How many plants you’ll need to fill your beds, has been carefully worked out; how far apart each plant should be and depending on the weather, the best time to plant. It’s a bit like ‘planting by numbers’.

• Great for one to two people - It will fill two raised beds 1.2m x 2.4m, or a plot 4m x 4.5m. Price: £92.50 Including delivery.

The Mini Kitchen Garden Plant Pack – New from The Travelling Souk.

• Its small size means that it will fit into all gardens, raised beds or pots.

• There is something very satisfying about growing your own and with the instant edible garden kits you are helped every step of the way.

• Ready-to-plant organic young plants are delivered to you by post and a planting by numbers plan means that you get it right – an excellent way of engaging your children too.

• The mini-kitchen-garden pack is packed with veggies, salad, herbs and strawberries – just dig in!

• The kit contains 40 young organic plants and retails at £45.

Also available from The Travelling Souk are Raised Beds and Mini Green Houses.

Visit the Travelling Souk website to view more gardening delights.

Following in the footsteps of the Obamas, the Queen and the Prime Minister, planting a kitchen garden is one of the most environmentally friendly ways to start the New Year.

More and more people are including fruit and vegetables in their gardens as they experience the superior taste and health benefits of home-grown food.

However, growing vegetables has traditionally needed more experience than picking out plants from a garden centre; many crops need to be grown from seed, spaced correctly and ‘rotated’ in groups, to prevent the build-up of pests or loss of soil nutrients.

The brilliant GrowVeg.com simplifies the planning of a vegetable garden or allotment, by making it easy to work out what to plant, where to plant it and when to do so.

The website enables the gardener to build a personalised interactive plan of their garden using the unique online Garden Planner software:

• Gardeners simply sketch out their growing space and then add vegetables to it by clicking and dropping them onto the area.

• An intuitive colour-coded circle around each plant, shows how much space it requires and which crops to keep together.

• Plants can easily be rearranged by dragging them into another location until the perfect layout is achieved.

• Once the vegetable patch is planned GrowVeg.com will send email reminders twice a month listing which vegetables need sowing or planting out. (Only if opted in for contact).

• A complete list of plants and their spacing can quickly be printed out, giving a useful summary of what to buy, when to plant and when to harvest.

• Plenty of information on the likes and dislikes of each vegetable is built in, including which plants to sow together and how much water, feeding and maintenance they require.

In addition to the interactive Garden Planning software, the site has a number of expert GrowGuide articles, on everything from keeping your plants pest-free to gardening with children.

GrowVeg.com is also offering a free 30-day trial of the Garden Planning software, including all the features of the site; new features are continually being added, such as the ability to add garden notes and vegetable varieties.

To view the smart Garden Planning software and arrange your free trial, visit

the GrowVeg website.

Why not turn that dull roof into something spectacular with a low maintenance green roof that offers some worthwhile environmental benefits?

Sedum Supply specialises in growing and supplying a marvellous range of sedum products, for use on green roofs and in garden landscaping projects and has also developed ready grown environmentally friendly wildflower roofs.

Green Roofs are becoming more and more popular in both rural and urban locations and they can be installed on flat roofs as well as roofs with a slope of up to 45 degrees.

There are different ways of achieving a living green roof:-

An Extensive Green Roof is particularly low maintenance, generally planted with sedum and is designed to look after itself for most the year.

A Wild Flower Green Roof is an extensive Green Roof planted with a wild flower mix, to provide colour throughout the summer months and a very natural habitat for local wildlife.

An Intensive Green Roof provides an accessible roof garden that can be used for recreational and leisure purposes and will require ongoing maintenance throughout the year.

Green roofs are also becoming popular because:

Alleviate Flooding
Following a heavy rainfall a green roof will initially retain more rain than a conventional roof. This minimises the initial heavy run-off, which can cause localised flooding and put pressure on the sewage system.

Noise Reduction
The soft layer of a sedum blanket growing on a green roof has the affect of absorbing sound, as opposed to hard conventional roofs, which can reflect it; the same layer can reduce sound pollution within the building.

Increases Thermal Insulation properties
Making it warmer in winter, cooler in summer and reducing energy costs.

Green roofs can be used to soften ugly flat roofs on extensions, garages, sheds etc. so that they blend more easily into their environment.

Visit the Sedum Supply website for more in depth information.

Tel: (0845) 688 8793

The Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Centre, in collaboration with Italy-based lifestyle designer Donna Brown has produced “Summer Decoration with Bulb Flowers” — a free consumer booklet, which features an unusual table decorating twist.

Canadian-born Donna is a top name in the interiors industry in Italy, whose passion for flower design is based on the creative study of the connection between flowers and food.

She has developed an innovative way of decorating with some of nature’s most interesting ‘design objects’.

The booklet contains an inspired collection of easy to follow floral arrangements that feature unusual combinations such as dahlias, eggs and potatoes; or orange and white lilies with red peppers.

The results are creative centrepieces that bring original summer flair to any table.

‘Summer Decoration with Bulb Flowers’ is free and available from 1st July 2009.

To request a free copy, please contact The Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Centre on: (020) 7915 4776.

The foundation known as the International Flower Bulb Centre (IFBC) provides Dutch flower bulb growers and traders, with international promotion for their flower bulbs and bulb flowers.

For inspiration and information about bulb growing visit:
Web: http://www.flowerbulbs.co.uk

Rococo Chocolates and The Gluttonous Gardener (Chantal and Ned, have been plotting and come up with some wonderful ideas for sumptuous gifts.

Rococo Chocolates is loved by people who appreciate good quality, real chocolate and who want to enjoy life’s little luxuries, while The Gluttonous Gardener has become well known for their imaginative range of gifts that combine high quality edibles and growables, all beautifully hand packed in wooden crates and delivered next day nationwide.

A Selection:

Rococo Rose Crate
Never promise them a rose garden, but perhaps more modestly opt for this crate of fragrant delights - a beautiful scented old fashioned pink shrub rose, ready to plant with a box of Rococo’s handmade organic milk chocolate Rose wafers.
RRP £48 + delivery.

Rococo Lavender Crate
A beautiful crate containing a healthy potted lavender plant, together with a box of Rococo’s delicious handmade organic dark chocolate Lavender wafers.

RRP £48 + delivery.

Rococo Vineyard
Anyone can own a vineyard with this crate. A red and white grapevine, selected to thrive in the English climate with full planting and care instructions, packed in a crate with a bag of delicious Rococo chocolate “Grapes” to munch whilst you plant. RRP £50 + delivery.

Rococo Italian Coffee break
Ignore the depressing exchange rate and transport yourself to Italy with this gorgeous crate, containing a healthy potted coffee plant, a bag of best Italian coffee and a wedge of mouth-watering soft coffee nougat.
RRP £50 + delivery.

The above are only available from - http://www.glut.co.uk/prodlist.asp?a=srch
Tel: (020) 7627 0800

Web: http://www.rococochocolates.com

Make Mum feel extra special this Mother’s Day; rather than reaching for the usual flowers or chocolates, take a look at Sendathought’s attractive new website, which has elegant, as well as tongue-in-cheek gift ideas that are beautifully wrapped and sent on your behalf.

They won’t break the bank but they’ll mean the world to Mum.

Favourite gifts include:

•‘You’re blooming marvellous’ Thank You Garden - say Thanks to Mum for being the best, with an abundant mass of tightly quilled Pomponette daisies.she just cuts the bag open, adds the seeds, water and let it grow. Priced at £7.00.

•‘Put your feet up and indulge’ Chocolate Tea and Cake Trio - this chocolate tea cup and cakes trio is handmade in Somerset using the finest Belgian chocolate. Priced at £6.50.

•‘You deserve flowers and chocolates’ A box of chocolate flowers – includes 9 handmade white chocolate flowers with sparkly glitter. Priced at £8.00.

•Photo Thoughts – send a framed photo. Simply go onto sendathought’s website and choose a frame, attach a photo at check out and it will be printed, framed and beautifully wrapped. Prices start at just £13.50.

•Box of Happiness – a signature sendathought green box filled to the brim with happy thoughts! Contents include a blend of Happiness Tea, a True Grace candle, scented with uplifting grapefruit and a trio of chocolate flowers handmade in Somerset with the finest Belgian chocolate. Priced at £30.00.

•Box of Relaxation (pictured here), a sendathought box filled with relaxing thoughts. Contents include a blend of Sleepy Tea, a True Grace candle, scented with relaxing English lavender and a relaxing pocket garden, which when watered will grow into a therapeutic lavender plant. Priced at £30.00. (or create your own, price dependent on selected contents.)

Web: http://www.sendathought.co.uk
Tel: (020) 8623 9386

As spring approaches gardening specialist The Chelsea Gardener offers advice on the must have tools, seeds and accessories for the season; bring your garden out of hibernation and prepare for the warmer weather (hopefully) with some product suggestions.

Tools
Whether splitting and moving your herbaceous plants, or pruning your summer flowering shrubs, you’ll need an array of hard working tools, all available from The Chelsea Gardener to get the job done:

Choose durable carbon steel and leather grip Secateurs (from £19.99) for taming plants, and Forks, trowels and Bulb Planters (from £14.00) for weeding and planting bulbs; Shears will come in handy for tidying up hedgerows (from £21.95).
Bring the lawn back to life by removing old grass and leaves with a rake (from £34.99).

Seeds and Bulbs
Spring is the time to start thinking about your kitchen garden; plant seeds in small containers and keep them in the greenhouse or indoors, until seedlings are strong enough to stand the outdoors and the soil has warmed up.

Herbs such as thyme and basil and vegetables including tomatoes and globe artichokes should be planted in March or April; Spring is a good time to plant new bulbs as gladioli and dahlias (Exclusive seeds and bulbs at The Chelsea Gardener, from 99p - £3.99).

Help defend your growing plants with Organic Pesticides (from £3.99) and add nourishment with Organic Seaweed Fertiliser (from £5.49)

Accessories
For smaller gardens or to add variety, why not consider planting your seeds in pots:

The Chelsea Gardener offers a wide range including durable fibreglass and modern metal tubs, alongside more traditional terracotta and stone containers (Fibreclay container, from £24.47).

Once the weather turns milder, add interest to dark corners with lanterns. Opt for standing lanterns such as the India Lantern (from £79.95) or hang Sun Jars (from £20.00) from tree branches. Carry your tools around easily with a pretty Tool Bag (from £17.99).

For more inspiration visit The Chelsea Gardener’s new online shop:

Web: http://www.chelseagardener.com