Geraniums (Pelargonium) rank among the most dependable container flowers, blooming for months with regular deadheading and very little else. They are also among the easiest plants to multiply at home: one healthy plant can produce a dozen or more new plants from stem cuttings, which means next year’s window boxes and porch pots cost almost […]
Fallen leaves split yards into two camps every autumn. The leave-the-leaves school argues that foliage should stay where it drops so insects and soil organisms can use it, and for garden beds and wooded areas that argument holds. On a lawn that is expected to stay green and dense, though, a thick, wet carpet of
Onion sets and slips planted in autumn spend the cool months building roots and green tops, then go dormant through the worst of winter. When spring temperatures rise and day length increases, those established plants turn their energy to bulb growth instead of starting from zero. That head start is why fall planting produces stronger
More than 700 species of eucalyptus exist, and a handful are small enough to spend their first years indoors. The young leaves, round gray-green discs that growers call juvenile foliage, are the most attractive part of the plant, and they release a sharp menthol fragrance when bruised. Indoors, eucalyptus rarely flowers, so the appeal rests
The brain cactus (Mammillaria elongata ’Cristata’) earns its common name from the folded, ridge-like growth that makes each plant look like a small green brain. It is a crested form of the lady finger cactus, a desert species native to central Mexico, where it grows as a low succulent groundcover among rocky outcrops. The curling
Shrubs and bushes earn their place in a yard. They soften fence lines, screen out noise, hold soil on slopes, and give birds and pollinators a place to shelter. What they do not do is maintain themselves. A shrub that never gets trimmed slowly grows leggy, loses its lower leaves, and turns into a tangle
The variegated string of hearts (Ceropegia woodii var.) packs the easy habits of a semi-succulent into the showy form of a tropical vine. Heart-shaped leaves in pink, cream, and green trail from stems that can reach 13 feet long, and small pink trumpet flowers open along the vines from spring through summer. The plant is
The lemon meringue pothos (Epipremnum aureum ‘Lemon Meringue’) is a sport mutation of the global green pothos discovered by Costa Farms, and it trades the plain green leaves of the parent for small leaves variegated with bright golden yellow. Like other pothos varieties it is low-maintenance, forgiving, and happy with plenty of indirect light and
Macadamia trees are subtropical evergreens native to Australia, and they produce one of the most expensive nuts in the world. The catch is that they are notoriously stingy with their harvest, which makes them a landscape decision as much as a crop decision. Before you commit, the same landscape planning and tree care questions that
Coleus is a perennial, but only in the warmest climates. Botanically it is a tender perennial that survives year-round in USDA zones 10 and 11 and dies at the first hard freeze, so gardeners in most of North America grow it as an annual and replant each spring. The plant earns its popularity through foliage
