In this article, we’ll discuss all you need to know to grow and care for your own artillery plant indoors. Pilea microphylla Ornamental artillery plant, Pilea microphylla, aka gunpowder or pistol plant, military fern, or rockweed, is an herbaceous perennial. It is one of about 600 types of non-stinging Pilea species in the Urticaceae, or nettle family. This tropical species thrives outdoors year-round in Zones 11 to 12 as a short-lived evergreen perennial....

It does make a difference, of course, in matters ranging from whether to pull plants at season’s end to how much to budget for seeds. Can I expect you back next year? Sunflowers can’t announce their intentions, but the perennial varieties will indeed return to your garden next season without involved effort from you. Other cultivars, of course, must be reseeded, but that does give you a chance to plant different varieties in new colors or heights....

Part of that reasoning is selfish; I genuinely love crawling around in the mulch and soil with my pruners and soil knife, snipping back perennials and investigating for new growth and funky critters. This is my own little tip for getting kids into the garden, but you can read more in our guide to gardening with children. I’ve got to admit, I have a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to gardening....

These wasps can keep stinging (unlike bees that die after one sting) plus large numbers of them can gang up on people. Vespula pennsylvanica / maculiforna / germanica / vulgaris / squamosa and Dolichovespula The dog days of summer…fresh water melon, ice cream, picnics, barbecue, festivals…and yes, yellowjackets. Yellowjackets are exceptionally troublesome wasps. They can become highly aggressive, especially when the available food is getting low later in the season when their colonies are getting larger....

When you grow your own melons at home, you get to choose from a delicious array of options. Embrace the taste of summer with sweet, juicy melons, from spice-flavored cantaloupes to crisp honeydews, there’s a variety to suit everyone’s taste. Discover 33 of the best melon varieties to grow at home in this guide. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

Many gardeners grow them purely as a decorative crop. But they are not just a treat for the eyes. Many varieties can also provide delicious and nutritious goodness for your family all winter long. Oh my gourd-ness! It’s easy to see why people go so crazy for ornamental gourds. Nothing says fall quite like harvesting a beautiful bumper crop of these lumpy-bumpy ornamental veggies from the garden. Coming in all manner of shades and shapes, gourds are perfect for adding a touch of autumnal color in the backyard beds, or to table settings and holiday decorations....

In our guide to growing fuchsia flowers, we cover how to cultivate these showy plants in your landscape. Fuchsias are undeniably fabulous, with their prolific and dramatic blossoms that seem to last all growing season long. But you can’t always just pop them in some soil and then sit back and enjoy the show. These plants take a little bit of work to maintain if you want to keep those flowers flowing as long as possible....

It’s especially gratifying when you cultivate them yourself in the dead of winter, with a process called “forcing.” There’s no better way to brighten up a dreary winter day than with a basket of bright flowers, or a vase of fragrant branches. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. What Is Forcing Blooms? To force the blooming process is to imitate what nature does outside, by doing it inside....

They feature narrow, linear leaves with a blue-green hue that appear opposite one another on narrow stems. Dianthus spp. A cottage garden favorite, Dianthus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. Of the 300 species, most are native to Europe and Asia, a few are indigenous to north Africa, and one alpine species is native to the arctic regions of North America. Many are herbaceous perennials, but there are some hardy annuals and biennials available, and even a few that are classified as dwarf shrubs....

While I’m off pampering my orchid and begging my fiddle-leaf fig to tell me why it’s dropping leaves, my dumb cane is off to the side looking fabulous without much input from me. Dieffenbachia spp. I don’t know about you, but there are days when I just want a houseplant that makes me feel like I’m the most talented gardener on the planet. Of course, I love the dramatic look of a fiddle-leaf fig, and I’m blown away by an elegant phalaenopsis orchid, but it can be exhausting trying to keep these more finicky types of flora thriving....

Popular for their clusters of colorful flowers, Lantanas are one of the best plants you can grow for a great display of colors. It also demands less attention and thrives all year round. Let’s have a look at How to Grow Lantana easily! USDA Zones: 8 to11 Other names: Shrub verbenas, Viburnum lantana, Raimuniya, Unnichedi, Red sage, Wild sage, Yellow Sage and Ghaneri. Here’s everything you need to know about growing Gerbera daisy Best Lantanas You Can Grow Lantana involucrata: Popular as buttonsage, it looks ravishing with its white blooms....

Fortunately for most Americans, the fungus only occurs in highly specific types of soils: Phymatotrichum omnivorum Cotton root rot, also known as Texas root rot and by its scientific name Phymatotricum root rot, is caused by the the soil-borne fungus Phymatotrichum omnivorum and is responsbile for serious and usually fatal root rots on more than 2,300 species of plants. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

But every now and then, even the toughest plant can fall prey to pests or disease. Chrysanthemums have earned their reputation as tough, maintenance-free flowers for the home garden and they’re extremely popular for this reason. If you want bright color without a lot of work or worry about diseases, mums are the way to go. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

For best results, they require a location that receives six to eight hours of bright, indirect sunlight, and well-draining soil. Peace lilies, Spathiphyllum spp. are easygoing houseplants that seldom suffer from disease issues when provided with the right care. In fact, they are so easy to grow that Dr. Leonard Parry, Horticulture Professor at the University of Vermont says that they have been called the “perfect houseplant.” In our guide to growing peace lilies, we cover how to cultivate these popular plants indoors....

Furthermore, this evergreen has two sides to its personality: in USDA Hardiness Zone 9 to 11 gardens, it tends to spread so vigorously that it is considered invasive in Florida, Hawaii, and Texas. Asparagus densiflorus, A. retrofractus, A. seaceus Asparagus fern is a member of the lily family, and the Asparagus genus. This evergreen herbaceous perennial bears no resemblance to either, and in spite of its name, is not a true fern....

So you sprouted, cut, and dried your seed potatoes in the spring. You dug your trenches, mounded your soil, watered, and waited. A fellow gardener once asked me if growing potatoes was worth it. Why waste the space, dig the trenches, mound the hills, interfere with tomato rotation, and risk battling with potato bugs for a vegetable that we often experience in ways that are far from special? Here’s why:...

Zucchini is a favorite among gardeners and foodies alike. The versatile squash can be blended or grated and baked into sweet bread, cakes, brownies, and muffins, slipped into pasta sauce, sliced into spears to be breaded and fried with garlic and parmesan, spiralized for a Thai peanut zoodle dish, added to a quick stir fry, and so much more. With so many culinary possibilities, gardeners are anxious to grow as much high-quality, powerfully flavorful zucchini as possible....

So how do you identify a lace bug problem, and what are your control options? Keep reading, because this guide includes everything you need to know about these sap-sucking pests. Tingidae Strangely beautiful and intricately designed, lace bugs are fascinating little plant pests. Not to be confused with the similarly named good guys lacewings, these doily-like insects aren’t a welcome sight, especially on ornamental trees and shrubs. The damage they do to foliage can be confused with that of thrips or spider mites....

Want to try your hand at saving your own okra seed? In this guide, I’ll share tips that will take you from pre-planning through collecting and on to storage. Okra is super easy to grow, and delivers abundant produce from just a few plants. The vegetable with botanical name Abelmoschus esculentus is just as generous when it produces seeds home gardeners can save for next year’s planting. Just a few pods will yield dozens, and they can be viable for two or three years in proper storage....

Continue reading to learn more about using straw mulch in your vegetable garden. The right mulch can do wonders to improve your veggie garden. Straw in particular offers a wide range of benefits that can make a drastic difference for the health and productivity of plants while saving you money and reducing labor. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....