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About Colorful Houseplant Foliage Nearly every color imaginable is available through foliage plants alone, without the brilliant blooms of accompanying flowers, though these make exceptional additions too. From yellows, golds, reds, and oranges to silver, creams, purples, and various shades of green, there’s a foliage plant that will easily blend into your indoor decor. Popular Foliage Plants for the Home There are a number of plants with colorful foliage, far too many to name....

Azalea Plant Pest Control Some of the more common azalea plant pests include the following: Azalea Bark Scale – This azalea plant pest occurs most often in the eastern United States. Shrubs affected by azalea bark scale may be covered with sooty mold or appear as white, cottony masses within the forks of branches. These branches should be removed and destroyed. Treatment with horticultural oil can help. Azalea Caterpillars – These azalea pests are reddish to brownish black with white and yellow stripes....

Protecting Yuccas from Frost Damage The best way to help a yucca during cold weather is to make sure that as little damage as possible happens to the yucca plant during a frost or freeze. Cold-sensitive yuccas must be protected to avoid damage from frost and cold weather. Hardy yuccas may need protection if the weather has been warm and an unexpected cold spell happens quickly. The yucca plant has not had time to prepare itself for the freezing weather and may need protection for a little while until it hardens up some....

Why You Should Be Deadheading Your Flowers Deadheading is an important task to keep up within the garden throughout the growing season. Most flowers lose their attraction as they fade, spoiling the overall appearance of a garden or individual plants. As flowers shed their petals and begin to form seed heads, energy is focused on the development of the seeds, rather than the flowers. Regular deadheading, however, channels the energy into the flowers, resulting in healthier plants and continual blooms....

How Art Fits into Gardens Art has the ability to draw the eye. It can be cleverly designed to blend in with its surroundings and bring out the background. This versatility means garden art is the perfect way to jazz up your landscape. Placing works of art in gardens highlights the beauty of surrounding plants and flowers. The definition of “art” is up to you. Whether painting, sculpture, funky furniture, mirrors, or even repurposed household items, art is meant to lead the eye....

Different Types of Milkweed With monarch butterfly populations having dropped more than 90% in the last twenty years because of a loss of host plants, growing different milkweed plants is very important for the future of monarchs. Milkweed plants are the monarch butterfly’s only host plant. In midsummer, female monarch butterflies visit milkweed to drink its nectar and lay eggs. When these eggs hatch into tiny monarch caterpillars, they immediately begin to feed on the leaves of their milkweed host....

Do Coleus Plants Have Flowers? Many gardeners are charmed by the spikes of tiny blue or white flowers produced on coleus at the end of the season. These little blooms make a charming cut flower or may be left to enhance the beauty of the plant. Once a coleus has flower spikes, though, it may become leggy and develop a less attractive form. You can stop this in its tracks with a little word of advice or enjoy the new display made by the energetic blooms – whatever you prefer....

Eggplant Seed Preparation Eggplants, with dramatic foliage and colorful fruit, are not only a great choice for a veggie garden, but an ornamental specimen as well. Native to Asia, this tender annual requires full sun, well-draining, slightly acidic, fertile soil and a long growing season. There’s no particular eggplant seed preparation necessary prior to sowing. Eggplant seeds germinate at temps between 60-95 degrees F. (15-35 C.) and seedlings will emerge in seven to 10 days....

About Firethorn Plants Firethorn is a tall shrub or small tree at 6 to 16 feet (2 to 5 m.) tall and almost as wide. There is a variety of conditions suitable for planting firethorn. This versatile and colorful shrub may be used as an espaliered specimen, in containers, as a hedge, or just as a bright season-long addition to a border or bed. Enjoy the shiny leaves year around with small, white flowers appearing in early summer....

About the Best-Smelling Roses Among the most popular of all flowering shrubs is the rose. People have been enjoying these flowers for thousands of years and changing them too. Selective breeding has led to thousands of varieties with different sizes, petal types, colors, and fragrances. Not all roses have a fragrance; some have been bred simply for appearance. Here are some other interesting facts about great smelling roses: The fragrance of the bud is different from the fully-opened bloom....

Cactus Frailea Information Rounded, flattish mounds of solitary to occasionally divided chocolate, purple-brown, or greenish brown Frailea make interesting contrasts to other succulents. This genus is named for Manuel Fraile, who once was in charge of the cactus collection of the United States Department of Agriculture. Growing cactus Frailea is not difficult, and these little plants are super starter plants for the novice gardener or just for someone who travels consistently but wants to come home to a living thing....

Golden Sage Information Sage is a historic herb with a long tradition of both culinary and medicinal use. Growing golden sage offers all these applications as well as a unique twist on the appearance. Its cream-colored leaves are decorated with an almost lime green patch in the center, which is irregular and varied on each leaf. The overall effect is striking, especially when combined with other herbs. Golden sage produces a small shrub-like plant that may grow up to 2 feet (0....

What are Chinese Chestnuts? If you plant a Chinese chestnut tree, your neighbors will probably ask the inevitable question: “What are Chinese chestnuts?”. A full answer includes both the tree of that name and the nut of that tree. Chinese chestnut trees (Castanea mollissima) are medium-tall trees with spreading branches. The leaves are glossy and dark green. The tree produces delicious and edible nuts called chestnuts or Chinese chestnuts. Chestnuts grow on the trees inside spikey burs, each about an inch (2....

Green Globe Artichoke Plants The Green Globe Improved artichoke is a perennial heirloom variety with silvery-green leaves. Hardy in USDA zones 8 to 11, green globe artichoke plants require a long growing season. When started indoors, they can be grown as annuals in colder climates. Green Globe artichoke plants grow to height of 4 feet (1 m.). The flower bud, the edible part of the artichoke plant, develops on a tall stem from the center of the plant....

For gardeners, growing Ruby Perfection cabbage is the perfect opportunity to not only add color to the dinner table but also increase the variety of vegetables growing in the garden. When selecting a red cabbage to grow, the Ruby Perfection variety is the one of choice! What is Ruby Perfection Red Cabbage? Ruby Perfection red cabbage is a mid to late season, medium-sized variety of hybrid cabbage. Ruby Perfection plants produce firm 4- to 6-pound (2 to 2....

Growing Schefflera Plants Outdoors When the sun is shining, it is tempting to mimic some of our favorite tropical vacation spots in our landscapes. Adding tropical flair to the garden evokes the sights and sounds of a sultry, humid rainforest in an exotic locale. If you live in an appropriate zone, you can grow Schefflera outdoors year-round. Outdoor Schefflera care differs somewhat from indoor plant maintenance. Plants can get bigger in the ground and may need supplemental support and nutrition as well as a regular watering schedule, but Schefflera plant care outside is low maintenance compared to many landscape plants....

Tips and Tricks for the Garden Here’s a list of useful gardening tips for gardeners you may not know about but could be worth a try: Smother grass and weeds with paper products. If you have places where you need to kill grass, you can do so without using harmful chemicals. Just put that old piled up cardboard or newspaper to use by smothering the grass. Also known as sheet mulching, it works the same for pesky garden weeds too....

When to Harvest Tapioca Root The roots can be harvested, cooked, and eaten as soon as they form, but if you are looking for a somewhat substantial harvest, you may want to hold off for a while. Some early cultivars of cassava can be harvested as early as six to seven months after planting. Most varieties of cassava, however, are typically of a plump harvestable size around the eight to nine month mark....

What Plants are Good for Making Tea? Although it is by no means comprehensive, the following is a list of plants that are good for making tea and which part of the plant to utilize: Mint — Leaves, digestive and calming Passionflower — Leaves, relaxing and soporific Rose Hips — Buds once the bloom has expired, boost of Vitamin C Lemon Balm — Leaves, calming Chamomile — Buds, relaxing and good for a sour tummy Echinacea — Buds, immunity Milk Thistle — Buds, detoxification Angelica — Root, digestive Catnip — Leaves, calming Raspberry — Leaves, female reproduction Lavender — Buds, calming Nettles — Leaves, detoxification Red Clover — Buds, detoxification and purify Dandelion — Root, blood tonic Linden — Flowers, digestive and calming Lemongrass — Stalk, digestive and calming...

Why Grow Natural Chicken Feed? Many people who raise chickens allow the chickens to roam free range. That’s great if you have sufficient land, but even so, during the winter months the chickens still need to be fed. This can get pricey, especially if using organic food. Then there are the burgeoning legions of city folks who are trying their hand at raising their own poultry. These folks can let their chickens run amok, but most people don’t....