Home And Garden

While a roof protects one of your largest investments—your home—from the elements, it also serves as a design statement. If you’re building a home or having your roof redone, just know there are many material options out there. Here are some tips on how you can make the right choice for you and your home. Your location and climate The location of your home and the climate have as much to do with the materials available as your personal preferences. For instance, a wood shingle would not survive in a hot, humid climate, as it’s prone to rot. However, if you’re set on a specific look, but the materials aren’t suited to your area, there are other options. Concrete tiles are now being made that resemble wood shakes but without the rot, insect, and fire risk. Your home’s structure If you are replacing your existing asphalt roof and want to upgrade to something like a clay tile or slate, you must take your home’s structure into account. Tile is wonderfully weather resistant but...

Common Names: angel trumpet, brugmansia, angel-star Family: Solanaceae (nightshade Family) Description Brugmansia suaveolens is a semi-woody shrub or small tree that gets 6-15 ft (1.8-4.6 m) tall, usually with a many-branched single trunk. The leaves are generally oval in shape, up to 10 in (25.4 cm) long and 6 in (15.2 cm) wide, and even larger when grown in the shade. The overall plant has a coarse texture but the flowers are remarkably beautiful. They are sweetly fragrant, about 12 in (30.5 cm) long and shaped like trumpets. The corolla has five points that are slightly recurved. The flowers are usually white but may be yellow or pink and are pendulous, hanging almost straight down. The cultivar, 'Plena' (which may or may not be this species) has double flowers: a trumpet within a trumpet. B. X insignis is a second generation hybrid created by back-crossing B. suaveolens with a B. suaveolens - B. versicolor hybrid. It has huge, sometimes six-pointed, bell-shaped flower...