A Quick Latin Lesson

Happy Thursday! As many of you may or may not know, in the professional world of horticulture all plants and flowers are generally classified by their Latin names, and not the common ones we are all familiar with. This means that our daily trips to the nurseries for your beautiful gardens are almost like traveling back to Ancient Greece! (emphasis on ALMOST)

That said, we thought we would take some time today to teach you the proper Latin names of the early Spring bloomers we are all currently seeing pop up around the city.

First up we have a newly flowering Apricot tree, otherwise known as Prunus armeniaca. This literally translates to "stone fruit", and is a very close relative of the peach tree (Prunus persica). 

 Another flower that has taken NYC by storm this Spring is the Daffodil. The proper Latin name for these are Narcissus. The flowers were named for the vain star of Greek mythology because it has been said that after Narcissus drowned from his obsession with his own reflection in a pool of water, a Daffodil sprung up in the place where he died.

Finally, we've also been seeing some pretty Pansies popping their heads up lately. These flowers are called Violax wittrockiana (say that ten times fast!), and bloom in both the Spring and Autumn.

...And that wraps up your Latin vocabulary lesson for today! As more flowers begin to bloom throughout the season, we will continue to teach you about the origins and proper names of what you're seeing, and hopefully by the end of this season we'll all be writing our own flowery renditions of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey".... or something similar ;)

Vade in pace!

Spring Cleanup, Part 2

Hello Again from the ADO Crew! As the days gradually get warmer, Spring cleanup means not only raking and pruning, but power-washing, too. Our power-washing specialists here at ADO have been waiting impatiently to end their winter dry spell, and finally got to get a little wet this week! Below is a client's backyard garden prior to the treatment:

Our power-washers then spent about 4 hours perfecting their cleaning technique of detail orientation and efficiency:

...After which we were all able to enjoy the final product!

Happy Spring from All Decked Out!

We don't know about you, but the recent and unexpected warm weather has been keeping us very busy over these past few weeks.

We've called in all troops ahead of the usual schedule to start cleaning up and preparing our gardens for Spring planting and blooming, and we've been finding some interesting surprises....

Tulips have been popping up over a month ahead of time all over the city! These happy guys are part of the reason that our Spring cleaning has not only included the usual removal of mulch and autumn leaves, but turning on irrigation systems as well!

We've been pruning all bushes and grasses, removing their dead leaves and ends to give the new green shoots plenty of room to bud and bloom over the next few weeks.

Time to get back outside to enjoy this beautiful weather and continue to prep our gardens so the spring flowers can enjoy it as well! See you soon...

Chelsea Roof Deck with Arbor

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Brand New Arbor

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Upper West Side terrace

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View from Sheridan Square

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