Tag Archives: plant

Puzzle: Summer Fruits by W. Hammer


Size: 1000 pieces
Producer: Jumbo
Artist: W. Hammer (1821-1889)
Painting: photo
Notes: In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.

The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state, such as apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, juniper berries and bananas. Seed-associated structures that do not fit these informal criteria are usually called by other names, such as vegetables, pods, nut, ears and cones.

Fruits are the means by which many plants disseminate seeds. Most plants bearing edible fruits, in particular, coevolved with animals in a symbiotic relationship as a means for seed dispersal and nutrition, respectively; in fact, many animals (including humans to some extent) have become dependent on fruits as a source of food. Fruits account for a substantial fraction of world’s agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Manicured Gardens, San Diego


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 39cm x 60cm
Producer: Impressions, Sure-lox
Notes: San Diego, named after Saint Didacus (Spanish: Diego de Alcalá), is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California, after Los Angeles, with a population of 1,307,402 (2010 Census) within its administrative limits on a land area of 963.7 km2. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. The urban area of San Diego extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 2,880,000, making it the third-largest urban area in California. San Diego is the 33rd richest city in the world. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Bellingrath Gardens, Alabama


Size: 500 pieces
Producer: MB Puzzle, Little Big Ben series
Notes: Bellingrath Gardens and Home is a 26 ha botanical garden and mansion located on the Fowl River in Theodore, a suburb of Mobile, Alabama. The gardens include a bridal garden, a conservatory, a great lawn, a nature walk, an Oriental garden, a rose garden, a chapel, the Mermaid Pool, Mirror Lake, an observation tower, and a river pavilion where river cruises are provided on the Southern Belle and the “Kingfisher”.

The garden pathways are composed of flagstone that had been obtained from the old city sidewalks in Mobile, where they had been in place since arriving as ballast in sailing vessels collecting loads of cotton for the mills at Manchester, England.

The gardens feature live oaks, camellias, azaleas, roses, and chrysanthemums year round. Plants featured in winter are tulips, snapdragons, pansies, ornamental cabbage and kale, daffodils, poppies, primroses, and many varieties of narcissus. Plants featured in spring include the more than 250,000 azaleas, hydrangeas, Easter lilies, impatiens, salvia, fuchsia, and Pelargonium geraniums. Plants featured in summer are the more than 2000 roses, allamandas, hibiscus, copper plants, begonias, ornamental peppers, bougainvillea, caladiums, coleus, vinca, and marigolds. Plants featured in fall are over 8,000 bedded, potted and cascading chrysanthemums, hibiscus, and copper plants. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Field of Dreams


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 86.36cm x 30.48cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, Panorific series
Notes: A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants (grassland). It may be naturally occurring or artificially cleared. It may be cut for hay or grazed by livestock such as cattle, sheep or goats.

A transitional meadow occurs when a field, pasture, farmland, or other cleared land is no longer farmed or heavily grazed  and starts to overgrow. Once meadow conditions are achieved, however, the condition is only temporary because the early colonizers will be shaded out when woody plants become well-established.

In North America prior to European colonization, Algonquian, Iroquois and other Native American people regularly cleared areas of forest to create transitional meadows where deer could find nutrition and be hunted. Many places named “Deerfield” are located at sites where Native Americans once practised this form of land management. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Floral Vista


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 86.36cm x 30.48cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, Panorific series
Notes: The tulip is a perennial, bulbous plant with showy flowers in the genus Tulipa, which comprises 109 species and belongs to the family Liliaceae. The genus’s native range extends from as far west as Southern Europe, North Africa, Anatolia, and Iran to the Northwest of China. The tulip’s centre of diversity is in the Pamir, Hindu Kush, and Tien Shan mountains. A number of species and many hybrid cultivars are grown in gardens, as potted plants, or to display as fresh-cut flowers. Most cultivars of tulip are derived from Tulipa gesneriana. [Wiki]

Puzzle: River of Life Triptych by Steven Michael Gardner


Size: 1500 pieces (3 puzzles of 500 pieces each)
Dimensions: 91cm x 91cm
Producer: MasterPieces
Painting: photo
Artist: Steven Michael Gardner is a native of San Diego, California, and I really loves all animals, the beauty of nature and the wonder of life itself. His love of the animal kingdom and passion for preserving our environment has given him the inspiration and basis for the subjects of his artwork. He has been drawing and painting as a full time artist since the age of 20. Many of his original designs have been widely published in magazines and books, and for many years he has created designs for zoos across the country. These are still available as signed and numbered prints, posters, jigsaw puzzles, notecards, and apparel wear. [Gardner Gallery site]

Notes: Find 13 eagles, 14 wolves, 10 bears [Puzzle box]. This puzzle consists of 3 separate puzzles that, when put together, create one large picture encompassing the land, the river, and the sky.

Puzzle: Summer’s Delight


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 50.8cm x 50.8cm
Producer: Springbok, by Hallmark, PZL2443
Photographer: Phil Smith
Notes: Summer is the warmest of the four temperate seasons, between spring and autumn. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest, with day-length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice. The date of the beginning of summer varies according to climate, culture and tradition.

From an astronomical view, the equinoxes and solstices would be the middle of the respective seasons, but a variable seasonal lag means that the meteorological  start of the season, which is based on average temperature patterns, occurs several weeks later than the start of the astronomical season. According to meteorologists, summer extends for the whole months of June, July and August in the northern hemisphere and the whole months of December, January and February in the southern hemisphere. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Grand Teton Mountain, Wyoming, USA


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: Big Ben, MB Puzzles
Notes: Grand Teton, at 4,199 m, is the high point of the Teton Range, and the second highest peak in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The mountain is entirely within the Snake River drainage basin, which it feeds by several local creeks and glaciers.The Teton Range is a minor range of the Rocky Mountains, which extend from southern Alaska to northern New Mexico.

The origin of the current name is controversial. The most common explanation is that “Grand Teton” means “large teat” in French, named by either French-Canadian or Iroquois members of an expedition led by Donald McKenzie of the North West Company. However, other historians disagree, and claim that the mountain was named after the Teton Sioux tribe of Native Americans. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Middleton Place Garden


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.69cm x 39.37cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Puzzlers Collection series
Notes: Middleton Place is a plantation in Dorchester County, directly across the Ashley River from North Charleston and about 24 km northwest of Charleston, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. Built in several phases throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the plantation was the primary residence of several generations of the Middleton family, many of whom played prominent roles in the colonial and antebellum history of South Carolina. The plantation, now a National Historic Landmark District, currently functions as a museum, and is home to the oldest landscaped gardens in the United States. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Garden Party


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.4cm x 35.5cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, Wonderful World series
Notes: A garden party is a social gathering with food provided, in the open in a park or a garden. Unlike a picnic or barbecue, which are informal, a garden party can be a prestigious event. For example, invitations to parties of the British Sovereign, held at Buckingham Palace Gardens, are a great honour, and are very rare except for those in traditionally invited high offices.

Many games are traditionally played at garden parties. In Champs-Élysées, Paris, there is an annual Garden Party on 14 July on the occasion of Bastille Day. [Wiki]