However, “that’s sick!” can turn from slangful admiration to an expression of concern all too quickly. When a Strelitzia becomes afflicted with disease, it’s only natural to fear for its long-term health and survival, especially if you raised it yourself from a wee lil’ seed or division. That bird of paradise is your baby… you’d do anything to keep it alive and well! We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....

With the first, you focus on the seeds themselves, and do all you can to grow the Cucurbita pepo, C. moschata, or C. maxima.varieties that produce the best seed harvest for roasting. The other way is to consider them as a secondary benefit, collecting them for consumption only after you’ve carved the jack-o’-lanterns, made the pies, or taken down the autumn display. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....

This translates to the food world, with blueberries and acai being labeled as “superfoods” and an increasing amount of plants being bioengineered to have this special hue. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. What Makes Fruits and Vegetables Purple? Fruits and vegetables get their colors from different phytochemicals. These compounds, made within the plant, also give them their taste and smell....

But much of the time, houseplants are adorably short, trailing down a bookcase or with just a few leafy stems coming out of a small pot. To truly feel like you are living inside an elegant forest, you need some tree-like, taller options. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Don’t worry if you’re not a pro indoor gardener – yet....

These tropical beauties can also be forced to bloom indoors during the winter holidays in all growing zones, and then guided through dormancy for blooms in successive years. In our guide to growing amaryllis indoors, we discuss how to care for potted plants. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Here’s what’s in store: Let’s start with a little background....

You might also call this picky eating. But one day, he started randomly wanting to eat carrots. Better yet, if I purchased a bunch of colorful organic ones from the grocery store, he’d say, “Purple carrot?” one day, and “Yellow?” the next. I’m just happy he’s finally eating more veggies. So happy, in fact, that I decided to start my own indoor carrot garden. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....

Bulb flowers such as allium, crocus, cyclamen, daffodil, fritillaria, iris, Siberian squill, and tulip should be planted in the fall, so they can undergo the winter chilling they need to bloom in the springtime. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. First, let’s talk about the word “bulb,” in both the strict and broad terms of its definition....

While it’s all very charming and beautiful, I start aching for color in February. So I usually run to the grocery store and pick up some candles that smell like spring – and flowers that look like it. But what if in addition to my stunning store bought flowers, I had crocuses growing in my garden to gaze at, too? We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....

If you’ve got barren areas crying out for color, it’s yarrow to the rescue! This hardy flowering perennial thrives in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 9. Some gardeners even have success as far north as Zone 2, and as far south as Zone 10. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Here’s the lineup:...

Some grow small and compact, others grow tall and provide shade, some produce cherries while others are strictly ornamental. All varieties of this flowering tree will grow well when planted in full sun and well draining soil, but certain varieties do better in certain climates and growing zones. These four are the best cherry trees to grow in the southern climate and soil. Weeping Cherry All varieties of the weeping cherry tree grow pendulous-style branches, but that is where their similarity ends....

This happened to me a couple years ago with the carrots I grew and forgot to fertilize regularly. It can happen with all sorts of plants, including other Umbellifers – like celery. And since it is already a strong-tasting veggie, the last thing you want is for those stalks to taste so acrid you can barely stand to eat them. What a sad culmination of your growing efforts! We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....

I garden the way I cook, and there’s nothing else like it. Diving in with a loose idea of what to produce is what it’s all about. The majority of the plants are either throwaways from job sites or rescues from the clearance rack at the garden center. I try to work with a particular palette of color, but in the end I plant by intuition alone. That’s what “Ish” gardening is all about....

And once your seedlings are coming along nicely, you’ll want to make sure you know how and when to best harvest these tasty Umbellifers. You have a few options as to when you can pick these veggies, but when it comes to how you pick them, you want to make sure you follow our recommended procedures. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

Plants are grown primarily for their reddish purple, red and white striped, yellow, or white edible roots, but the leafy tops, or beet greens, are equally delicious. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. In this article, we zero in on a fungal beet disease, Cercospora leaf spot. Here’s the lineup: What Is Cercospora?...

Many plants have been shown through time-lapse photography to produce some manner of movement. Known as tropisms, these movements occur to aid in growth, such as redirecting leaves to reach for sunlight. These movements are not typically visible to us without the aid of special equipment. But there are a few plants that have been observed to produce more rapid movements, such as those required to spread pollen or seeds with force, or to move parts to trap prey....

In fact, when I first heard of it, I was pretty sure that it wasn’t going to be a particularly pretty plant at all. But with bright purple, pink, white, and blue stars of flowers set against vibrant green foliage, it’s clear that the name doesn’t do justice to this delightful candy-colored plant (and perhaps I shouldn’t be so quick to judge!). We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....

Her Barberton daisies, as she called them, thrived in the same garden bed for almost 100 years until the current owner decided they had to go. I had a couple of hours to get there, dig them up, unceremoniously dump them into buckets, and drive them to their new forever home. It was an honor to be entrusted with such a beautiful symbol of my family’s history. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....

But cultivars of A. japonicum and A. shirasawanum are sometimes thrown into the mix as well – which are also native to Japan. And, with over 1,000 cultivars, hybrids, and varieties, you will, without question, find one to suit your every desire. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Upright or weeping. Tall and picturesque....

It is a member of the Acanthaceae family, which consists mostly of flowering tropical flora. With its unique iridescent purple leaves, S. dyerianus had no difficulty attracting the attention of US gardeners, and is now grown here as an annual, perennial, and houseplant. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. In this article, you will learn all you need to know to cultivate this delightful tropical foliage outdoors in USDA Hardiness Zones 10 to 11....

Norfolk Island pine is a living Christmas tree that you can keep as a houseplant and enjoy throughout the seasons, year after year. My husband and I have one of these trees among our houseplant collection. But this tree narrowly escaped becoming fodder for the compost pile! We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....