Plants and Flowers

The photosynthesis, which influences growth of plants, substantially depends on intensity and illumination spectrum and also duration of illumination. Too little light exposure leads to lengthening of shoot, reduction of the leaf surface and reduction of chlorophyll formation; prevalence of blue-violet radiation slows down growth, and excessive red radiation accelerates it. An optimum mode of photosynthesis guarantees correct plants development.

Required high levels of light exposure for exotic plants cannot be provided with usual decorative light devices and demand special equipment. Moreover, such levels are incompatible with long stay of people; therefore certain time should be given for lighting of a garden. The tropical origin of the majority of room and hothouse plants causes their requirement in 12-16-hours light day.

The most effective and popular light sources for artificial illumination are – natrium and metal-halide lamps. Natrium lamps give powerful light in orange and red spectrum, which promotes growth of plants and flowering; using of natrium lamps increases flowering by 20 % and more. Some deficiency of blue radiation is compensated by the natural illumination from windows. If plants are placed in the closed or strongly shaded rooms almost without natural light, natrium lamps should be used in combination with metal-halide lamps, which are less effective, but have higher blue radiation contents. The best effect is achieved at simultaneous use of these two types of lamps.

In practice lamps with mirroring bulb are economic and convenient. They allow to direct all radiation on plants rationally, to make the lighting device compact, lightweight and convenient in maintenance.

Glass covering is as important as construction systems and choice of materials. Glass covering of the winter garden is made from insulated glazing units: here architects and customers have wide enough choice of quality of the glass and decorative furnish. Some may be please with metal inserts or even stained-glass window.

Today two materials are used for glazing of roofs: glass and polycarbonate. In a case of glass roof, triplex is made in addition - two glasses are put together by means of a special tape that allows glass to be stronger, and at the moment of a strong blow not be broken into small splinters.

Polycarbonate doesn’t require such security measures, as its resilience allows it to push away subjects which can fall to a roof during a strong wind or hurricane. The incline of the glazed roofing part, as practice has shown, should make not less than 20 degrees - at a smaller incline removal of water and snow from a roof becomes complicated; besides greater steepness gives more free-of-charge solar energy received by light demanders and heat-loving plants during winter time when the sun is low above a skyline. The frame of a winter garden should be strong enough to maintain the weight of the glass. Besides it should have good heat-insulated properties and be simple in maintenance.

Constructional systems of roofs and their three-dimensional combination with side glass cover play special role in winter gardens. The winter garden should be beautiful, transparent, light and at the same time strong enough and steady to mechanical and atmospheric impacts. The main characteristics of any winter garden is safety of its elements, protectability of an internal space from cooling and overheating, rigidity and durability of a skeleton, optimum optical transmission and high firmness to extreme atmospheric phenomena.

There are several technologies and constructive systems of winter gardens which have passed long approbation. Essentially systems are subdivided into three groups depending on a constructional material: from PVC (plastic systems), aluminium and firm wood varieties. It is necessary to consider that modern systems are combined frequently. Wood systems are sensitive to atmospheric influences, they are much more difficult to unify. Even in the developed western countries wooden winter gardens are exclusive constructions for the time being, though some known firms specialize on those very wooden elements. These piece “works of art” cost much more expensively than constructions from new modern materials.

Use of modern materials and elements has allowed to lower cost of such constructions, but has put a problem of a choice before the consumer: plastic or aluminium.

Winter gardens have found their rebirth in 80s years of the XX century. They have quickly won popularity in the West, and now in many countries of Europe, America and Canada winter gardens are widely used in construction at designing of buildings with various functional destination: inhabited, public, individual, industrial, etc.

The direct connection of a winter garden with premises serves nowadays one of determining functional signs when we speak about winter gardens. The winter garden is an intermediate zone between surroundings, whether it is a garden, a flower bed or a city building, and the inhabited space limited by four walls. It also may be said that the winter garden is one of rooms of a house or an apartment, but at the same time it is a special room: semi-house – semi-garden. And it sets apart winter garden from a greenhouse, which is not a part of living quarters and serves only for cultivation of heat-loving plants.

Human life becomes fuller, when he feels the close connection with an environment. And a winter garden is just one of such stages, which allows the person to feel himself a part of the nature, especially if he is deprived of opportunities to be outside his house.

Due to new constructions and materials, and also modern engineering and technical opportunities in the field of ventilation, heating and shading each of us can realize the dearest wish about a winter garden, having turned into it the terrace of a country house or a glazed balcony of an apartment.

Numerous heights, widths, forms, and textures create and shape landscape designs. Plants in a composition must also fit in buildings and other structures around. Generally problems appear when the gardener uses too many plants similar in shape and textures. Carelessness for existing constructions also causes problems in visual perception.

A reiterative and boring landscape can create plants of the same size, shape, and texture such as broad-leaved evergreen shrubs and needle-leaf evergreen trees.
Broad-leaved shrubs and needle-leaved trees grow close to window ledges and often reach second story windows, thus creating security dangers.

The first question to remember, while choosing plants, should be, whether those plants will work well within the planned design. Remember that plants bloom in early spring and will compete with each other in terms of their beauty and fragrance.

Well-known Japanese word “Bonsai� means “planted in a container�. But generally Bonsai is the accumulation of techniques how to grow, form and care for a tree in order to create a tiny but naturally and old looking tree. As time went by Bonsai has developed from plants in pots into a well respected art.
Although the word ‘Bonsai’ is a literal translation from the Japanese, the notion appeared in the Chinese empire. Chinese were the first who started the art of ‘pun-sai’, using special techniques to grow tiny trees in containers. At first only the elite practiced pun-sai and these trees were spread throughout rich families as luxurious gifts. Later the art of growing dwarf trees in containers was introduced in Japan. The Japanese advanced the art of growing trees in containers, and most well-know techniques and styles were developed in Japan. And only at around 1900 Bonsai was spread outside of Asia.
Once arriving in the Western World, this enjoyable and rewarding pastime has never turned back. It has gained a magnificently diverse range of plant material and techniques.
For the beginning the tree and its container create a single harmonious unit where the shape, texture and color compliment the each other. Then the tree must be shaped. It is not enough just to plant a tree in a container and let it grow - the result would look nothing like a tree and would look very short-lived. Every branch and sprig of a tree is cut or removed until the needed image is achieved. And from then on, the tree is maintained and improved by a regular regime of pruning and trimming.

The two main styles of Bonsai are the classic (which is also known as “kotenâ€?) and the informal or ‘comic’ (called “bunjinâ€?). In first one the trunk of the dwarf tree is wider at the base and converges towards the top; it is just the opposite of the ‘bunjin’, which is more difficult to master.
Over the years, Bonsai growers have often tried to change the classification of the styles, and their many sub-divisions. But once you understand the principles of division into these styles, you will have a benchmark to compare potential for Bonsai and to decide what style suits it.
If you study very attentively the way trees grow in nature, you may design a realistic Bonsai without knowing the names of these various styles.
When you start growing Bonsai, do not forget that you are working with a living tree and look carefully at its natural characteristics and requirements. All coniferous trees are unsuitable to the ‘broom’ style, for example, but are very suitable for all other styles, in particular to formal and informal upright. Often you can grow a plant into several styles, and even if one style only really suits a particular plant, you all the same can interpret this in many different ways.
Azaleas, which are shrubs and do not grow like trees in nature have fewer restrictions in the style, but as a rule, it would be better to choose any design on the way the plant grows in nature.

The five basic Bonsai styles are formal upright, informal upright, slanting, semi-cascade and cascade, though there are many other styles. All of them have their own individual beauty.

Formal Upright
The formal upright style is a very common form of Bonsai. This style very often can be met in nature, especially when the tree has lots of light and doesn’t have problems from competing trees. The trunk must be thicker at the bottom and must grow thinner with the height. The top of the tree should be formed by a single branch.
Informal Upright
This style is common as in nature, so in the art of Bonsai. The trunk grows upright in the shape of a letter ‘S’ and at every turn there is branching. Tapering of the trunk should be clearly visible, and the base of the trunk is thicker than the higher part.
Slanting or Leaning
When the wind is blowing in one dominant direction or when a tree is in the shadow and must curve toward the sun, the tree will also lean in one direction. In case with Bonsai, the tree must grow at an angle of 60 - 80 degrees to the ground. Because of the growing conditions, the roots are well developed on one side to hold the tree standing. The first branch grows in the other direction to that the tree is leaning to balance the tree. The trunk can be bent a little bit or completely straight, but should be thicker at the bottom.
Cascade
In the nature a tree can tend to grow downward on a steep cliff as a result of such factors, as snow or falling rocks, for example. This style can be difficult to maintain as the direction of growth opposes the tree’s natural way of growing upright.
Cascade Bonsai are planted in tall containers. The tree should grow upright a little bit but then bend downward. The crown of the tree grows as a rule above the rim of the pot, but the next branches alternate left and right. These fronds should grow horizontally to be able to maintain the balance of the plant.
Semi-Cascade
The semi-cascade style is similar to the cascade. The trunk grows upright at first and then turns downward. Unlike the previous style, the semi-cascade trunk will never grow below the bottom of the container.

Broom style
This style is good for deciduous trees which have broad branching. The trunk is straight and upright, but does not grow to the top of the tree; branches grow out in all directions. This style helps to create a ball-shaped crown.

Literati
This very style is the sample of trees that have to struggle to survive. In nature this style of tree can be met in areas densely planted by many other plants and competition is so violent that the tree can survive only by growing taller then all other trees around it. The bare trunk of the tree grows awry upward because the sun is enough only for the top of the tree. Such trees are generally grown in small, round containers.

Double Trunk
The double trunk growing is frequently met in nature, but is not actually that usual in the Bonsai growing. As a rule, both trunks originate from one root system, but there is also possibility that the smaller trunk grows out of the larger one just above the ground. Both trunks differ in their thickness and length, the thicker and stronger trunk grows almost upright, while the smaller one will grow out a little bit frequent.

Roots over the rock
In nature trees grown in mountains and rocky areas have to search for good soil with their roots - and good soil is often found in clefts and holes. The roots are naked and unprotected, so this promotes to appearance of a special thick bark. The tree over the rock can also be grown in another style, although some styles may look unnatural.

For decoration of walls, fences, creation of arbours and vertical walls, decorations of balconies and terraces mainly climbers are used. Lianas are plants with flexible unsteady stems which need support for the growth in a height. They always attract attention and make your dwelling cozy. At the same time, they don’t need much time and care.

Living fence
Green arboreal planting is not only an instruments for oxygen making, but also create aesthetic pleasure, make a landscape more attractive. In planting of greenery of lots and houses leading role belongs to the decorative deciduous, evergreen and coniferous trees and bushes.