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We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. The plants produce copious quantities of tiny flowers from late summer to fall. Mainly white, there are also pink and blue varieties. You’ll find a broad overview of aster flowers in our main growing guide. Additional guides delve into topics like individual species, troubleshooting pests and diseases, and maintenance through the years....

We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Diseases include several serious bacterial leaf pathogens, along with a number of fungi that can infect the plants. Many types of insects can afflict kale, ranging from cabbage butterflies to thrips and flea beetles. You can help protect your plants by using floating row covers. These covers prevent splashing water – that may contain pathogens – from touching the foliage, and can prevent insects from laying their eggs on crops....

It requires optimal conditions, including nutrient-dense soil, consistent moisture with good drainage, cool temperatures during head maturation, and minimal temperature fluctuations. Without an ideal environment, a variety of head disorders may occur. In this article, we will discuss why heads that should be smooth sometimes look fuzzy. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

Bee balm (Monarda spp.) is a perennial favorite in the garden, with several different species and hybrids available in various shades of purple, red, white, pink, and everything in between. Plants usually flower in July and August, with some species that may bloom as early as June (M. didyma) and some as late as September (M. punctate). We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

Like celery, this plant features a firm petiole, or stalk, which is edible. Oh, so very edible. Especially when you add lots of sugar to it. However the leaves are not edible, as they contain high amounts of oxalic acid as well as calcium and potassium oxalate salts, collectively called oxalate. While it’s technically a vegetable, it’s almost always used as a fruit in cooking, used in sweet, or sweet-and-tart recipes....

Sedges are one such plant. For the most part, they’re nearly maintenance-free, and they can grow in areas where other plants would simply wither and die. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. There are dozens of sedges out there to choose from, but who has the time to figure out how they all differ from each other and which are best?...

They make a tidy anchor piece in beds, islands, and foundations and are simply mesmerizing when mass planted. They’re also striking for barriers, borders, butterfly and cottage gardens, flowering hedges, rockeries, woodland edges, zen gardens, and beside ponds or reflecting pools. Plus, they make superb specimens in patio containers and are outstanding as bonsai trees as well. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

With all these choices, even the most ardent veggie-phobes or demanding foodies will find a lettuce to love. Most of the leafy greens we put in our salad bowls are varieties of Latuca sativa. Have you ever noticed what the flowers look like when your lettuce goes to seed? They might remind you of ornamental asters – and for good reason, as these plants are members of the Asteraceae or aster family....

We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. If you think you don’t have the right conditions to grow these fruits, or have been underwhelmed by melons in the past, maybe it’s time to consider some new varieties. I’m going to provide you with a selection of sweet and delicious melons that will please many different palates, including cultivars adapted to a variety of climates....

Clearly, the part of the plant that we often think of as only being valuable for its looks can be incredibly tasty as well. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Begonias have a fresh citrus crunch and carnations are as sweet as can be. Daylilies taste like green peas and honey, and gardenias are far too delicious to waste in corsages....

While the occasional brown leaf tip is to be expected, if your houseplant is making this a habit, it might be a cry for help. In this article I’m going to discuss some of the most likely causes of brown leaves on prayer plants, so that you can come to your beloved plant’s assistance – and answer its prayers, so to speak. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....

After blooming, the foliage feeds the bulb so it can store energy for next year’s flower. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Let’s begin with a summary of the elements needed for successful cultivation. Cultural Requirements In our article on how to grow and care for tulips, we talk about the ideal growing environment for these flowers....

It is true that growing some leafy veggies such as lettuce from leftover scraps can yield a new, albeit small, edible crop. But what about root veggies like parsnips? We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. What to Expect Is it possible to grow new parsnips from kitchen scraps? Sort of… If replanted after being partially cut, new leaves may start to sprout and tiny roots may form, but the plant will not grow a whole new root....

It looks like a white carrot, but is sweeter and richer in heart-healthy folate. If it is not harvested, the plant flowers in the second year and sets seed, which can be collected and stored for planting the following growing season. 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’ll find all you need to know about when and how to dig up mature, ready-to-eat parsnips....

Contrary to what you might think, these plants don’t naturally die after the holidays, but they do go through a cycle that we tend to misunderstand at first glance. After their brightly colored holiday show – produced by colorful modified leaves called bracts, rather than actual flowers – poinsettias go through a period of dormancy, which to us, makes them look dead or dying. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....

Many weeds are hosts to this virus. This makes the situation worse for growers of cole crops, since aphids are a key source for this virus. The weeds can harbor both the aphids and the virus. Since there is no cure for turnip mosaic virus, control is of paramount importance. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

A member of the genus Codiaeum in the Euphorbiaceae, or spurge, family, it is not to be confused with the “true croton” species of the genus Croton, also in the spurge family. If you’ve vacationed where it’s warm and humid, you’ve probably been awed by this brightly-colored shrub. There are many cultivars with glossy, leather-like leaves in various shapes. Colors range from yellow and green to red and almost black, with patches, speckles, or veins of contrasting colors....

She was head of the African Violet Society chapter in the city where I grew up and she assured young me, as she lovingly watered and cared for her elegant and clearly happy plants, that raising African violets was a piece of cake. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. I could barely keep the leaves from turning soggy and falling off, let alone coaxing the plants to bloom!...

A long-time favorite of Southern gardeners, boxwoods have been grown in the States for centuries. In fact, you’ll find many of these shrubs growing on historic estates, including Middleton Place in Charleston, South Carolina, a National Historic Landmark and home to the oldest landscaped gardens in the US. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

Taking up less than a cubic foot of space at maturity with glossy, heart-shaped leaves, Hemionitis arifolia is an unusual yet stunning specimen. Hailing from tropical regions of Southeast Asia, this evergreen plant has been used historically to treat diabetes and certain types of cancer in its native range. A fun piece of trivia for anyone who asks about it, wouldn’t you agree? We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....