With the world’s continuing economic problems affecting most of us one way or another, one of the most common questions we’re asked here at Direct2Florist is ‘what are the longest lasting cut flowers?’.

While no flowers will survive for very long if placed above a radiator, in direct sunlight or without clean water, here’s a selection of five flowers with the all-important long-lasting x-factor.

Chrysanthemums
Chrysanthemums are tough flowers that are available in a multitude of colours. Spray chrysanthemums have numerous smaller flowers on each stem, with bloom chrysanthemums stealing the limelight with one single flower per stem. Chrysanths will last for up to three weeks making them great value for money.

Alstroemeria
Alstroemeria will last over two weeks. English gorwn varieties are good ones to look out for as they will usually last longer than imported flowers, if bough tin season from spring through to autumn.

Cymbidium Orchids
Despite their exotic feel, all orchids have a long shelf-life, but cymbidiums last particularly well as they don’t damage easily like other more delicate orchids. Florists will stock pink, white, yellow, red and green colours, which will survive for up three weeks – sometimes longer of submerged in a glass vase.

Carnations
After years in the wilderness, carnations are back in fashion, with hundreds of colours to choose from. It’s no wonder they’re in vogue either, as they’re great value to buy and last for around two weeks.

Proteas
Now for something much more exotic. Proteas are very long lasting, as they look great right up to the point when they start to dry out. Varieties range from small pincushion proteas to huge king proteas with heads up to 250mm across! White, pink, red, orange and yellow proteas are widely available.

Pizza is always a hit with the modern family, and when made with the right ingredients, it can be both healthy and delicious. So, what better way to keep the children – whether big, small or just young at heart – amused in the garden. Tomatoes, fresh herbs such as oregano and basil, peppers, chilies and even garlic can all be grown in your garden or on a balcony.

The downside is that any grow your own pizza project is one for the long-haul, starting pretty much now or certainly within the next few weeks. However, if you don’t have a greenhouse or the time to do it all from scratch, you can buy herbs and vegetables ready to plant out in pots or flower beds, and experience for yourself the joy of seeing how tomatoes, peppers and chili plants respond to care.

After a couple of months of green-fingered attention, the fun begins. With fresh vegetables and herbs at your fingertips, it’s a simple matter to make your own pizza with homemade tomato sauce and home-grown herbs. Pick the fresh tomatoes and prepare an enchanting tomato sauce with fresh oregano and garlic – the smell alone is redolent of sunshine and summer. Let the children help to decorate the pizza with fresh basil and peppers, and you can be sure that they will scrape their plates clean that day!

To make the base from scratch, here’s a simple and straightforward recipe that’ll help your pizza go down a treat.

Ingredients (serves four):
25 g yeast
200 ml water
1 tbsp. oil
½ tsp. salt
330 g flour

Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water. Mix the remaining ingredients and knead the dough well. Allow to rise for half an hour. Roll out and cover with the topping. Allow to rise again for 20 minutes. Bake at 220 degrees for 25 minutes.

The RHS has launched an exciting series of new gardening podcasts to be issued fortnightly on iTunes. The podcasts have been hugely successful and have shot up the iTunes popularity charts making it into the top ten most listened to podcasts in the UK as well as peaking at number one in the UK Games & Hobbies podcast charts.

Aimed at gardeners of all levels, the podcasts will provide advice, inspiration and practical solutions direct from experts at the Royal Horticultural Society. The first podcast, recorded at RHS Garden Wisley, will focus on problem solving and will provide valuable tips and hints on how to deal with seasonal challenges – more information below.

The free podcasts will be available to download from iTunes or can be accessed via the RHS online, all part of an exciting new RHS website that will be coming in the Spring.

It’s now less than a month until International Mother’s Day – so don’t forget to order your flowers today. While Mothering Sunday has been and gone in the UK, in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and a whole host of other countries around the world, Mother’s Day will this year be celebrated on Sunday 12th May.

Thanks to its international appeal, flowers will be in short supply come May 12th, so it pays to order early, with Direct2Florist’s global network of local florists able to deliver a floral gift guaranteed to put a smile on your mum’s face – whatever your budget.

And remember, 100% of the flower value of your order goes to the florist as we don’t believe in taking a commission, meaning bigger bouquets and better value.

To order, simply click through to www.direct2florist.com and select the country and destination where your flowers need to be delivered to. From there, you’ll be able to select the florist of your choice, after reading real customer reviews and seeing what each individual florist has to offer. It’s as simple as that!

Finally, if you’re unsure of when Mother’s Day takes place around the world, here’s a list of countries and dates for you:

There is no shortage of daft ‘national’ days dedicated to certain items, products and services. For example, April 13th is Blame Someone Else Day, April 19th is Garlic Day and May 4th is National Candied Orange Peel Day! In fact, there are very few days that don’t celebrate something or other, with a quick Google search revealing numerous lists.

April 24th, 2013 however marks one national day that’s both serious and really should be celebrated more, and that is Administrative Professionals Day. Big in the US but less so in the UK, the day, which was formerly known as Secretaries Day, as you’ve probably guessed, celebrates the work of secretaries, receptionists, administrative assistants and all those involved in administrative support.

The idea of the day, which is often marked by sending flowers, all started when a lady called Mary Barrett, who was President of the National Secretaries Association, along with C King Woodbridge, of the Dictaphone Corporation approached a PR firm to publicise National Secretaries Week to address a shortage of available admin staff.

After plenty of lobbying, US Secretary of Commerce, Charles Sawyer, brought in the first National Secretaries week in 1952. The first ever Secretaries Day, funded by the National Secretaries Association soon followed, gaining the support of the large US corporate firms.

From then on, National Secretaries Week was celebrated in the last week of April, until 2000, when the name was changed to Administrative Professionals Week in recognition of the growing responsibilities of admin professionals. The Wednesday of the week became the big day of celebration and is now one of the biggest workplace rituals, with flowers, gifts, lunch and time off given to relevant staff.

So, in a sea of daft national days, don’t miss Administrative Professionals Day on April 24th. I’m sure you know someone who deserves a big thank you!

Despite the snow, ice and torrential rain that has a hold over the UK at the moment, Direct2Florist’s are doing whatever they can to ensure flower orders are delivered on time.

We’ve heard stories of florists personally walking deliveries to addresses cut off by snow, through to others catching a ride on the back of a tractor, all in the name of getting flowers and the personalised messages that go with them to the recipient on time.

Direct2Florist’s MD, Simon Stirling, says: “Everyone at Direct2Florist, from our head office staff right through to our network of local florists, know just how important every flower order is. Flowers share emotions and are usually sent to mark a special occasion such as a birthday or anniversary, or to share thoughts at time of sympathy. Therefore, it’s important that we do everything we can to ensure flowers are delivered on time, to the right address.

Simon continues: “Because our florists deliver Direct2Florist orders, and not couriers, we can go the extra mile, literally. We often hear of stories where the local florist has drafted in the help of a neighbour, local farmer or a friend with 4×4 to enable delivery. You wouldn’t get that with flowers delivered in a cardboard box by a courier.”

However, sometimes it’s just not possible to deliver flowers. For example, when roads are blocked, the trucks transporting flowers from Holland can’t make it through, meaning the florist has nothing to work with. When this happens, we’ll see if there’s any other way of sourcing flowers, but sometimes it’s just not possible.

So, please bear with us while the weather problems persist – we’ll do all we can to deliver flowers for you, wherever and however.

With longer days and (slightly) warmer temperatures waking up the wild woodlands and forests of the UK, now is the time to start planning for a trip to see Britain’s native flora and fauna at its best. Here’s our list of the top places to see spring flowers in the wild, in the UK.

Priestley Wood, Suffolk
Some 130 flowering plants have been recorded in the woods, which have been designated a site of special scientific interest. Healthy populations of the twayblade orchid, the common spotted orchid, wild garlic, broad-leaved helleborine, herb Paris, primrose and the ever-popular bluebell co-exist happily. A healthy proportion of Suffolk’s nettle-leaved bellflowers and woodruffs can be found here, as can the single wild pear, one of only two in the county. Beware however – the small brown fruit are inedible.

Killaloo Wood, County Derry
The steep pathways through this valley woodland just outside the city of Derry are awash with bluebells, wood anemone, wood sorrel and wild garlic. The name Derry derives from the Gaelic word for oak grove, so no prizes for guessing the trees that you’ll see. Wild goats roam the valley while visitors should keep their ears open for the screaming call of the jay.

Carstramon Wood, Dumfries and Galloway
An incredible display of bluebells is a spectacular sight during May. That’s not all you can see however, with wood violet, primrose, honeysuckle and wood sorrel commonplace. Look closely amid the bracken and you’ll spot  the climbing corydalis, which is the only food source for a rare weevil that lives here and which was once thought to be extinct.

Duncliffe Wood, Dorset
This wood near Shaftesbury is a special place thanks to diverse ground flora. In spring, you’ll find the woodland floor covered in a thick carpet of bluebells. Then there’s yellow archangel, early purple orchids and the long-flowering wood speedwell, whose tiny lilac flowers provide important early nectar for bees. At dusk, you should be able to catch a whiff of the musky scent of moschatel, also known as the Good Friday plant.

Lumb Brook Valley, Cheshire
A carpet of bluebells, lords-and-ladies, white wood anemones, sunshine-yellow lesser celandine and candy-pink dog rose, benefit from the additional light that reaches the woodland floor before the canopy fills in with newly opened leaves. Gradual removal of rhododendron have provided space for the flowers to breath.

Coed Cefn, Powys
Known locally as Bluebell Wood for obvious reasons! Wood violets appear in April and, as the bluebells start to fade, red campion – showing off their dark pink-red flowers – take over.  The site of an Iron Age fort (look out for the mound in the centre of the wood) is visible too.

Big Wood, Cheshire
Located on the northern edge of Runcorn, this woodland is an oasis of calm in an urban stronghold.
The rampant rhododendron has been progressively thinned out in an effort to nurture the hundred or so other species of plants that carpet the glades, including bluebells, liverwort, bramble and bracken.

Heartwood Forest, Hertfordshire
Just 25 miles north of London, near St Albans, the Woodland Trust is busy with England’s largest new native forest. The site includes a number of small sections of ancient woodland, that are blanketed with bluebells in April.

Eridge Rocks, East Sussex
Rock climbers love these boulders, although some areas are off-limits thanks to the ferns, mosses, liverworts and lichens that grow in the nooks and fissures, notably the extremely rare Tunbridge filmy fern. Back in in 1086 at Domesday it was the most densely wooded area in England – and come spring you can enjoy primroses, green-winged orchids, sweet vernal grass, yellow archangel, wild garlic, common dog violet and cuckoo pink.

Vogrie Country Park, Midlothian
Just a stone’s throw south-east of Edinburgh, there are 6 miles of trails to explore in this lovely lush woodland that has a flourishing floor filled with blooms. Snowdrops are first to show, followed by bluebells.

Over the next few days, women will rightly be the centre of attention. As well as Mother’s Day on Sunday (in the UK, Ireland and a few other countries at least), there’s International Women’s Day, which takes place every year on March 8th.

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, International Women’s Day is a national holiday. International Women’s Day honours the work of the Suffragettes, celebrates women’s success, and reminds of inequalities still to be redressed.

To celebrate the day, numerous events are taking place around the world – with the UK, USA, Australia and Canada leading the way – check out the International Women’s Day website (www.internationalwomensday.com) for details of all events that are taking place.

Direct2Florist is a big supporter of International Women’s Day and supports all moves to eradicate gender inequality. So, let’s hear it for all women on this special day.

The British media is constantly telling us that Britain is a rip-off. Is this true or is it just a case of the newspapers sensationalising the real state of affairs in order to sell more copies?

When it comes to sending flowers, it’s easy to see why the media could get the wrong view. Take deliveries of flowers this Sunday for Mother’s Day. Some companies are charging whopping fees (up to nearly £15 in some cases) for delivering in the morning. That’s on top of taking a healthy commission of up to 25% for doing not a lot.

As with all stories though, there is another way. Direct2Florist don’t believe that these fees are necessary. So we don’t charge them! A flat service fee is all customers pay, with no additional fees for delivery on Mothering Sunday (or any other big occasion for that matter).

Unnecessary profiteering is what causes rip-off Britain, but as we can show, it doesn’t have to be that way.

While Bruno Mars laments that he was “too young, too dumb to realize that I should have bought you flowers” in his latest hit single, When I Was Your Man, it reminded us of a number of songs that have flowers in the title. Here’s our top ten but please let us know of your favourite flower-related songs.

Flowers in the Window – Travis
Co-written by Paul McCartney, this song from the Indie band was the third single from the album The Invisible Band

Bed of Roses – Bon Jovi
This 1993 song was apparently written in a hotel room by a hung over Jon Bon Jovi reflecting on his feelings.

English Rose – The Jam
This song was inspired by Paul Weller’s homesickness when he was touring America and the absence of his girlfriend at the time, Gill Price.

Hyacinth House – The Doors

The song was written at guitarist Robbie Krieger’s house, which inspired some of Morrison’s lyrics with its flowers (hyacinths) and cats (“lions”).

Tiptoe Through the Tulips – Tiny Tim
Ukulele player Tiny Tim’s one and only hit was his high-pitched falsetto rendition of the P

op standard “Tiptoe Through the Tulips”.

Sunflower – Lenny Kravitz
Kravitz recruited Canadian rapper Drake for this feel-good track, which sounds like it’s straight out of Carnival.

Lilies – Bat For Lashes
Bat For Lashes (Natasha Khan) opens her third album, The Haunted Man, with this song in which she’s thinking about her grandmother during the Second World War.

Desert Rose – Sting
Another of numerous songs with rose in the title! Sting sang this as a duet with the Algerian singer Cheb Mami and released it in September 1999. The song shot to popularity when it was used in a Jaguar car commercial in March 2000.

Build me up Buttercup – The Foundations
Before The Foundations made a success of this song, it was reputedly offered to a then unknown David Essex, who turned it down as he didn’t like the title.

Blue Orchid – The White Stripes
This song apparently draws from the Bible story about Eve taking the apple from the tree in the Garden of Eden.