Making life a holiday with interesting vacation and adventure ideas.

A 'thank you' gift, made 60 years ago, from the Netherlands to Ottawa, Canada, of 100,000 tulip bulbs, was used to start the Canadian Tulip Festival. The festival has since grown into a kaleidoscope of color, with more than three million tulips decorating Canada's Capital each spring.

Reckoned to be the largest Tulip Festival in the world, all events are free and it is described as the 'festival without fences'. Canadian Tulip Festival May 2 to 19, 2008.

Labels: 2008, Canada, festival, flowers, Horticulture, Ottawa, Tulips

The Activity Holidays Guide team have learned that a major soup manufacturer have succeeded in producing a genetically modified tomato. They plan launching a new range of soups based on the plant, which has been called a Tomash, and the soup is expected to be of particular interest to mountaineers, since initial field trials have indicated that participants reach new highs.

A special thank you to Zager and Soultga from Stock.XCHNG, whose expertise was invaluable in allowing me to obtain this exclusive image of the Tomash plant.

Labels: Horticulture, soup, Tomash

Stuart Robinson from Busselton, Western Australia, has launched blotanical.com, a directory of gardening blogs which offer gardening tips, gardening info and heaps of ideas to help gardeners of all experience get more out of their hobby and out of their gardens. Stuart describes himself as a non-academic but passionate gardener with a real love of gardening, and observes that like most people who potter around, he gardens because it gives pleasure, a sense of satisfaction and a retreat from an insanely busy world.

Blotanical.com has some particularly interesting mashups showing the location of gardening blogs around the world. All gardeners have to retreat from their garden at some time and they will find this a most browsable resource. Well done Stuart, I am sure it will grow :-)

Labels: blog, gardening, gardens, Horticulture, World

The dates for this year's Chelsea Flower Show are 22-26 May, 2007.

Regarded as the greatest flower show on earth, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show sets the latest trends in horticulture and garden design, it attracts worldwide media attention and has long been the favourite place for plant breeders to unveil new plants.

As in previous years, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show web site is offering 360-degree panoramic tours of all the show gardens, videos of show gardens, small gardens and new plants, plus Webcams.

Labels: 2007, Chelsea Flower Show, England, gardens, Horticulture, RHS