jigyasachimra@tribunemail.com

This is the day for which gardeners work hard all through the year - Rose Festival is round the corner and many of you must have opted for home garden competition. It can be any day now that the judges come calling. So, get ready with these tips.

Let the garden be cleaned of all visible garbage, the remnants of plants, fallen leaves, twigs etc. Make sure there is no dead wood on the plants. This will show how active and involved you are with your garden. Do not drench the garden at the expected time of visit of judges.

At this stage we cannot say you should have good quality winter annual plants growing in your garden because you will have what you had planted during October. In case you have more than one species in a bed, cut and clip at places where these interfere with each other. Staking, wherever necessary, should be done and in no case the plants should be leaning on each other haphazardly. Let there be visible distinction between different types. Watering the flowerbeds keeps the bloom in good shape. Using cana border gives a bordering effect and aesthetic beauty.

Use of pots should be judicious. Keep them clean. It is better to leave them in their natural colour and unpolished rather than painting them with harsh blue, yellow or deep green. Make sure their display does not interfere with free movement. You can use pots to stretch your garden range to the portico or verandah. It is better to keep some fragrant plants near the sitting place and you can mention this to the visiting judges. It is allowed that you can discuss or show those spots to the judges that you think are your edge over others. Keep a watch and remove those pots that block the flow of excess water. It is better to provide support to the plants in pots by using cana and sutli. This ensures neat display of pots.

Baskets give your garden an elevation towards vertical. See that the baskets are hung in a way in the portico that they do not interfere with free movement. Also, these should be watered in the evening so that by the time the judges come next day, they don't drip. Needless to say, these should be full and fresh- looking. Use of artefacts, toys, statues, bells etc draws attention, but use them in a way that they do not look as if they are superimposed. They should be strategically placed. It is better to use them at places where you have a problem of growing any vegetation due to lack of sun. At such places you can also create rangoli designs with stones and pebbles, but make sure you do not overdo it.

Hollywood actor Kate Hudson was relieved that she did not have to spend hours in the make-up trailer getting ready for her role as a cancer patient in A Little Bit Of Heaven.

The Bride Wars star plays a woman dying of cancer in the film, which she admitted was a huge challenge, but meant she didn't have to worry about her looks or have people around doing up her face. "It was nice not to have to wake up and worry about bags under my eyes! Usually when you walk into a make-up trailer your make-up artist puts ice under your eyes, but in this film, we just threw all that stuff away.

"There was not a stitch of make-up on my face. It's fun when you haven't had it done in a while, but when you're working on a movie, it's just a lot of people poking at you," she said.

The 31-year-old actor, who is currently expecting her first child with boyfriend Matt Bellamy, also said she had to change her appearance during filming to reflect her character's battle with cancer, but not in the way most people would expect. "The one thing that I found really interesting was the process of what kind of treatment she would have had, and what her body frame would have looked like if she went through it.

"A lot of times people associate sickness with frailty and getting real skinny, and, in this situation we had to work with her not being too skinny but actually getting bloated, which was odd. I had to eat salty things on certain days," Hudson said. — PTI

Hollywood starlet Lindsay Lohan is going through some troubled times but she may have some happy news on the personal front as her on-off relationship with DJ Samantha Ronson is reportedly on again.

The 24-year-old who is facing felony charges for allegedly stealing a necklace from a jewelery store, was spotted leaving a hotel with Ronson and they then headed to the DJ's home.

And now, Ronson has hinted at the renewed romance on social networking website Twitter.

"Watching grey's anatomy my fav show...lindsaylohan sleeping next 2 me- should i wake her up to let her know her mom is going on GMA? (sic)" wrote the DJ on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Mean Girls star has denied reports that she is back on the party scene.

"I was just at roosevelt to meet Samantha and say happy birthday to a friend (sic)," the actor tweeted.

"I take my sobriety seriously. Please dont believe this (sic) accusations. i know the rules and i wouldnt risk probation. xoxo L (sic)," Lohan continued.

Just last month, Lohan, 24, and Ronson dined at Joe's in Venice, California, to which a source commented that they "shared a friendly dinner." — PTI

Actor Kangna Ranaut, who plays a spirited small town girl in Tanu Weds Manu, says she was inspired by Madhubala's persona to develop her character. The film tells the story of two individuals who are thrown together by destiny and director Aanand L Rai had Madhubala in mind while conceiving Kangna's character.

"Aanand was very clear about the tone he wanted to adopt for the movie. He told me that he wasn't pitting me against the heroines of our times but instead had Madhubala in mind. Of course he didn't mean that in terms of the look or setting, but in the spirit of the film and the character," said Kangana.

The actress, who was last seen playing a arrogant fashionista in Anees Bazmee's No Problem, is happy to play a character rather than being concerned with the trappings of being a quintessential Bollywood heroine.

"My character in the film is not glamorous. She is audacious but very lovable character. She is from a very cultured Kanpur family, who has studied in Delhi University. But then she also likes to shock people and have a bit of fun."

The actress says unlike her past roles, she could easily slip into the spirit of a small town girl. "I come from the North, I have grown up with people who think like Tanu and also dress up like her. So it was not a role that needed too much research," she says.

Also starring R Madhavan, Deepak Dobriyal and Eijaz Khan, Tanu Weds Manu releases all over this Friday. — PTI

In a bid to simplify her lifestyle, Hollywood beauty Jennifer Aniston has decided to move out of her Beverly Hills estate and is selling it for a whopping USD 42 million. The Bounty Hunter star bought the house for USD 13.5 million in 2006 and spent over two years renovating it. She decided to sell her dream house after having an epiphany while on a recent trip to London, People online reported.

"My life felt really cluttered. I couldn't sleep and I sort of had one of those moments where I went, I really need to simplify, my life needs to be simplified... And along with that thought came, 'I should sell my house'. I had the realisation that this is just too much for me. I'm not this person," Aniston explained.

The sprawling mansion has not been officially listed making it accessible only to real potential buyers to view the property.

The blonde beauty insisted that she dreamed of moving out of Los Angeles to find a "little spot" in New York, where she recently celebrated her 42nd birthday. — PTI

Hollywood beauty Reese Witherspoon is all set to exchange vows with her real life leading man but the actress says that she is mesmerised by the charms of Hollywood's heartthrob Robert Pattinson.

The 34-year-actress who stars alongside Pattinson in their forthcoming movie Water for Elephants said that she finds the Twilight very good-looking, reported People magazine.

"I am so lucky. He's so amazing and wonderful and sweet and just the nicest guy too, so you can just add that to the soup. I mean, he's just so good looking and he's a really nice person," said Witherspoon. The Legally Blonde star said that her off-screen relationship with Pattinson was a humorous one in comparison to the armorous side depicted in the historical film.

"We'll probably just laugh the whole time, because all we do is just laugh and joke around," she adds.

In Water for Elephants, which arrives in theaters on April 22, Witherspoon, 34, and Pattinson, 24, play lovers involved in a triangle that develops between their characters and Witherspoon's onscreen husband.

Witherspoon currently engaged to talent agent Jim Toth, 40, and Pattinson continues a low-key romance with his Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart. — PTI

He won hearts with his portrayal of an engineering student in blockbuster 3 Idiots and Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan says the only reason he decided to act in the film was that its subject was education.

"I shouldn't have acted in 3 Idiots as in no way do I look like an 18 year old. The only reason I did the film was because it was about education," said Aamir. The Rajkumar Hirani-directed film is the story of three students in an elite engineering institute reeling under pressure from the current educational system to excel in their career.

The 45-year-old actor has been passionate about the cause of education ever since he made Taare Zameen Par, the tale of a dyslexic child's struggle to cope with the existing norms of education. — PTI