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I’m going to introduce you to a selection of 35 of our favorite poinsettia cultivars and fill you in on some of the defining features of these ornamental holiday houseplants. If the word “poinsettia” conjures up one color and one color only – red – you are in for a treat: a whirlwind tour of 35 different poinsettia cultivars, in many different beguiling hues. Poinsettias, the favorite holiday houseplant, have been bred into a wide selection of cultivars, with over 100 different varieties to choose from....

However, when a normally green shrub’s leaves fade to yellow during the growing season, something is amiss in the garden. This yellowing phenomenon is called “chlorosis.” Forsythia (Forsythia spp.) is a deciduous woody shrub suited to USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 8 that is covered in bright yellow flowers in late winter to early spring. There are many cultivated varieties. Some have variegated leaves of green and yellow. Others shade from green to yellow, bronze, red, or purple as the weather cools down in autumn....

When stepping into a new year, everything sounds and seems new. From the chirp of the birds to the growling of a cat, everything seems to have a touch of fresh start altogether. It is as if even nature itself in its own way cherishes the new beginning of a kind. So be it anything, like from engraving down new resolutions to buying some fancy new things. The start of the new year always seems to be like the best time to have a brand and fresh start for whatever you do or at least plan to do....

The following is a simple design, but it can serve to provide a home for those in need of one. Construction is simple, but take your time and remember – measure twice and cut once! Got bats? If conditions permit, adding a bat box to the garden is a great way to invite our flying friends into a safe home. It is a project that requires some basic carpentry skills, but once you’re finished, it is such a rewarding experience....

If you’ve ever driven past or visited a farm with rows of tall blueberry shrubs, those were probably highbush plants. Of all the available species and varieties, northern highbush is the most common type cultivated commercially. Vaccinium corymbosum To heck with apples, eating some blueberries each day is what keeps the doctor away! Or at least that’s what professor of nutrition and epidemiology Dr. Eric Rimm and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School announced, based on the results of a study published in 2013....

Garden tools that have been properly maintained will allow you to work more efficiently and you will also save more money in the long run. Letting your equipment fall into a degraded state is always a waste since you will simply have to purchase new if yours deteriorate to the point that the various devices can’t be brought back into shape. Before giving tips for maintaining your garden tools, we will provide a few important shopping hints....

The addition of fresh flowers to my kitchen windowsill lifts my spirits every February. The promise of crocuses soon to bloom would make me positively delirious with joy. Around February of each year, snow is still falling up here in Alaska. Moose are trampling through yards, chomping all bits of soft willow branches and baby birch tree limbs they can find. (Yes, I’m still mad that they ate my birch tree....

You know what has gone into your food and you won’t have to worry about toxic chemicals being absorbed into your body. Spring is just around the corner, and now is the time to start planning your garden. Planting a garden can be a very rewarding activity. Not only do you get off your butt and out of the house, you get some exercise and you get to appreciate the natural beauty of growing your own food....

It is a wonderful feeling when we realize that the days are longer, and the weather is not so cold. We can finally get outside and start to work in the garden! The temptation is to pull on a jacket, take a spade out there, and get started. But you need to stop yourself from jumping straight in without thinking – and make sure the soil is ready for working first, along with a few other important spring preparations....

Whether you are adding it to a collection of prayer plants or if this is your first Marantaceae specimen, I’ll share everything you need to know to grow and care for this species. Goeppertia insignis (aka Calathea insignis) With its long leaves and striking pattern, rattlesnake plant should be an essential member of your prayer plant collection. What? You don’t have a prayer plant collection? What a feat of restraint!...

In time I came to appreciate their ease of maintenance as much as their soothing foliage and drip-dropping flowers. Lamprocapnos spectabilis, formerly Dicentra spectabilis In the world of garden plants, few stick out as immediately identifiable as Lamprocapnos spectabilis, commonly referred to as bleeding hearts. I remember these flowers from my youth, as I’m sure many other gardeners do. It took a long time for me to grow and tend for my own, but I’ve since wasted no effort fostering these springtime lovelies since they’ve found their way into my gardens....

Grown as an annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial, this species is enchanting when mass planted in borders, containers, edging, or rockeries, and throughout butterfly, cottage, and courtyard gardens. Dianthus chinensis A long-time favorite, China pink dianthus is beloved for its adorable fringed flowers in deeply saturated and patterned colors with a heavenly, spicy-sweet fragrance. Delightful throughout the garden, the flat-faced flowers beguile in colors and combinations of burgundy, crimson, maroon, mauve, salmon, scarlet, pink, and white, with a soft, lightly rounded fringe....

Think I’m overselling them a bit? Let me take a minute to share some of their benefits and special characteristics: Ribes uva-crispa and R. hirtellum When people think of berries, I find most tend to imagine the seductive strawberry or the bountiful blueberry, but the gooseberry rarely even gets an honorable mention. While they get more love in the UK than in the US, even there they take a backseat to their raspberry and blackberry brethren....

Highly nutritious, easy to grow, and excellent for long-term storage, the rutabaga is one of those rarely talked about crops that really deserves more attention from the modern gardener. Brassica napus var. napobrassica If you are looking to spice up your garden and grow something new this year, look no further than the rutabaga! We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

Whatever the reason, transplanting blueberries is easy to do. As an easy to grow perennial that can produce reliable crops of sweet and juicy fruits each year, it’s no wonder the blueberry is a popular choice for home gardeners. Occasionally, these relatively low maintenance shrubs may benefit from being relocated. Perhaps you’ve propagated new bushes. Or they have outgrown their space or are not thriving in their current location. Or maybe you’re moving and don’t want to leave those well cared for bushes behind!...

Humans would of course suffer a similar fate due to lack of moisture. Water is essential. Without good ol’ Adam’s ale, the glorious poinsettia would look like nothing more than a rather sorry-looking clump of foliage, eventually succumbing to an untimely death. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. I know I would spend far too much time trying and failing to swallow pills, for example, all the while looking as if I were in dire need of the Heimlich maneuver....

This article will teach you how to winterize the fruit trees in your yard, as well as those planted in containers. There is always so much to do to get ready for winter. With the mad rush to harvest the last of the crops, mulch and cut back perennials, and surround the cool-weather vegetables with hoop houses, it can be so easy to forget about the trees! But while fruit trees may seem resilient, they are still susceptible to damage from frost and cold temperatures, and it is important to take steps to prepare them for winter....

That’s where this guide comes in. We’re going to go over nine of the most common causes and their symptoms to help you figure out what’s turning your hostas yellow, and how to fix it. There are some gorgeous hostas out there with golden leaves – I’m looking at you, ‘Fort Knox’! But yellow leaves aren’t a good thing if the foliage should actually be green. The good news is that there are lots of ways to fix the issues that can cause the foliage on your hostas to turn yellow....

Usually, they prefer a sunny location and organically-rich, well-draining soil. There are exceptions, as you will soon discover. Aster is a catch-all name for a range of flowering plants in the large Asteraceae family that includes coneflowers, chicory, daisies, sunflowers, yarrow, bachelor’s buttons, and zinnias. It refers to a number of different species including China (Callistephus chinensis), New England (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii), and Tatarian (Aster tataricus). Perennial asters are suited to gardens in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 8, while annuals grow in any temperate zone....

Many of these selections are award winners. Some feature semi-double or double flowers, and some are bicolored. They are all gorgeous, each in a different way. Don’t tell my zinnias, but cosmos are my absolute favorite summer flowers. These members of the sunflower family attract butterflies, make wonderful companion plants, and will keep blooming up until your first frost, providing wonderful late summer color. And there are many different types of cosmos – not only different cultivars, but different species – giving us even more ways to enjoy them in our gardens....