Hibiscus Transplant Info There are two tasks you want to complete before moving hibiscus plants: Start digging the planting hole in the new location. Getting the shrub quickly planted in the new location reduces moisture loss and the chance of transplant shock. You will probably have to adjust the size of the hole when you are ready to plant, but getting it started gives you a head start. The planting hole should be as deep as the root mass and about twice as wide....

How to Grow a Maple Tree In addition to planting nursery-grown maple trees, there are a couple of ways to go about maple tree growing: Growing maple trees from cuttings Growing maple trees from cuttings is an easy way to get free saplings for your garden. Take 4-inch (10 cm.) cuttings from the tips of young trees in midsummer or mid-autumn, and remove the leaves from the lower half of the stem....

Some of the deciduous types may leave the landscape looking a little sad in winter when they lose their leaves, but the vast number provides the gardener with more color and foliage opportunities than their counterparts. Deciduous vine care may be a bit more difficult than hardy evergreens but will be worth it when they come back in all their glory in spring. What are Deciduous Vines? Deciduous vines are often noted for their spectacular spring color....

Guava Disease Identification For lucky gardeners who can grow tropical fruits in their home landscapes, there’s little that beats a good guava. Fragrant and tidy, it’s an easy-care plant, most of the time. When you do have sick guava trees, they can become dramatically ill, so guava disease identification with haste is vital. Learning how to treat guava diseases is par for the course if you’re a guava owner, as is being able to detect signs of guava sickness....

How Cold is Too Cold for Plants? The lowest temperature a plant can withstand without damage varies from one type to another. Gardeners and horticulturists describe a plant’s ability to tolerate lower temperatures as cold hardiness. Most hardy plants go dormant during the winter and come back in spring. Exceptions include evergreens, which keep growing. In North America, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) zones describe cold hardiness by listing the regions in which a plant can grow outside year-round....

Window Box Watering One of the reasons window box watering can be such a pain is that the containers by nature are not particularly deep, meaning they dry out more rapidly than plants growing in the ground. This also means remembering to water more frequently which, while optimal, isn’t always the case. A self-watering window box system on a timer will remember to irrigate the plants for you. Window boxes are sometimes difficult to keep consistently watered due to their placement....

Water Quality in Gardens When a plant is watered, it absorbs the water through its roots, then through a vascular system similar to the circulatory system of the human body. The water moves up the plant and into its stems, leaves, buds, and fruit. When this water is contaminated, that contamination will be dispersed throughout the entire plant. This is not such a concern for plants that are purely ornamental, but eating fruits or veggies from contaminated plants can make you very sick....

Different Types of Garden Designers Landscape architects, landscape contractors, and landscape designers are the most common types of garden designers. Landscape architect A landscape architect is someone who has a college degree in landscape architecture and is registered or licensed by your state. Landscape architects have training in engineering, architecture, land grading, drainage, design, etc. They may or may not have extensive knowledge about plants. They create architectural landscape drawings for both commercial and residential landscapes....

Meadow rue growing in the wild has compound foliage with lobed leaflets, which look somewhat akin to columbine leaves, upon which clusters of white, light pink, or purple flowers are borne during May through July. Thalictrum meadow rue is dioecious, that is it bears male and female flowers on separate plants, with the male flowers tending to be a bit more spectacular in appearance. A member of the Ranunculaceae family (Buttercup), meadow rue growing in the wild or home garden also has wing-like seeds, giving it a year-round ornamental look....

What are Medicinal Plants? First of all, did you know that 25 percent of all prescription drugs are derived from plants and 70 percent of pharmaceuticals are resultant from components found in plants? Eighty percent of the world’s population uses botanical medicines as their principal means of health care. In this, medicinal plants are often more than curatives. They are often embedded in the cultural fabric of social groups. Medicinal plants can be used as herbal baths and teas, powders, herbal extracts, poultices, salves, or syrups alone or in conjunction with each other....

What is Oca? Oca is beginning to show up in Latin American markets in the U.S. It is a fruitful perennial that produces brightly colored, rough, waxy tubers that are best harvested in early winter. It is used as a season-extending crop in many areas. Growing oca plants requires a long growing season. Contrary to its other common name of New Zealand yam, oca is neither related to potato or the sweet potato....

Why are There No Strawberries? There are several reasons for poor strawberry production, everything from poor growing conditions to improper watering. Here are some of the most common reasons for strawberries with no fruit: Poor growing conditions – Although they’ll usually grow just about anywhere, strawberries prefer well-draining, organic soil and a combination of warm and cool growing conditions in order to produce adequate fruit. These plants grow best on warm days and cool nights....

Small Ornamental Grass Varieties Like its taller cousins, small ornamental grass varieties are highly resistant to pests and disease that can overtake other, less hardy plants. They make great accents in a garden border. When planted in mass, short ornamental grasses create a groundcover that few weeds can penetrate. Below are some popular types of ornamental grass that stay small and make great additions to the landscape: Dwarf Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon spp....

Consider Your Outdoor Seating Options Resin chairs are easy to care for and cheap, but outdoor seating options can be so much more with very little expenditure. Of course, you can peruse the stock at a high-priced garden furnishing center if that is your taste. There are gorgeous garden seating ideas for the outdoors but many of them are pricey. Make sure you have a budget in mind before you start shopping and look outside the box if your budget is puny....

How to Winter Peppers Indoors A note — if you plan on overwintering pepper plants, realize that doing this will keep the plant alive, but it will not produce fruit. In order to produce fruit, peppers need a certain temperature and amount of light that the average house in the winter cannot provide. If you want to grow peppers for fruit in the winter, you will need to do so in a greenhouse with supplemental light....

The consciousness of plants is a topic of study. How do plants learn, or do they? Do plants have memories like we do, or do they just get on with their innate needs? Humans have memories and we keep them for most of our lives. And our memories help us learn and evolve. Plants may have similar impulses that help them survive. Can Plants Learn? Out of all the characteristics a botanist or plant scientist could study, whether a plant has a learning ability has long been at the bottom of the list....

The very act of carrying in your new poinsettia plant during the winter months can cause it to have foliar problems. Poinsettia leaves shrivel and die in incorrect temperatures. These cold-sensitive plants do not tolerate fluctuations in temperature and respond by shriveling and dropping leaves. Treating a shriveling poinsettia starts with the diagnosis of the problem, and then with methodical treatment measures and patience. Diagnosing a Poinsettia with Shriveled Leaves Cold damage, under watering, and changes in other site conditions will shock the plant, and poinsettia leaves shrivel and die....

Don’t rush to give up on sweet, healthy honey just yet though. Chances are good that the honey you enjoy is fine. Let’s learn more about what makes honey toxic and toxic honey plants. Can Honey Be Poisonous? Poisonous honey is not something new. In ancient times, honey from toxic plants nearly destroyed armies fighting battles in the Black Sea region of the Mediterranean, including the armies of Pompey the Great....

About the Queen Anne’s Lace Plant Queen Anne’s lace herb (Daucus carota) can reach heights of about 1 to 4 feet (31-120 cm.) high. This plant has attractive, fern-like foliage and tall, hairy stems that hold a flattened cluster of tiny white flowers, with a single dark-colored floret just off its center. You can find these biennials in bloom during their second year from spring on into fall. Queen Anne’s lace is said to have been named after Queen Anne of England, who was an expert lace maker....

Recognizing Alternaria of Watermelon Leaves Alternaria leaf blight is caused by the fungal agent Alternaria cucumerina, whose spores are carried on wind and water, when weather conditions become favorable for its spore growth. These favorable conditions are usually late spring to midsummer when cool, wet spring weather quickly turns to warm, humid, summer weather. Leaf blight of watermelons can overwinter in garden debris. As spring or early summer temperatures rise steadily between 68 and 90 degrees F....