The first time I rubbed a lavender stem between my fingers, I honestly didn’t expect the smell to stay on my hand for hours. That little moment is what got me hooked on this plant, and it turns out there is a lot more to lavender than the purple rows you see in postcards from…
Mums, short for chrysanthemums, are one of the most diverse flowers in cultivation. There are between 150 and 200 known chrysanthemum species, and thousands of cultivars bred from them, according to Clemson University’s horticulture research. If you only know the round, bushy mum from the garden center, you are missing most of the story. This…
Plum tree problems are more widespread than most home growers expect. Oklahoma State University Extension notes that a wide range of serious fungal, bacterial, and viral diseases affect stone fruit trees, plums included, and every home grower should be aware of them. The ATTRA program at the National Center for Appropriate Technology also points out…
Roses are rewarding, but they are not carefree plants. I have watched a healthy-looking bush turn yellow and drop half its leaves within two weeks, and it caught me completely off guard. If your rose bush looks off in some way, you are probably searching for a straight answer. This guide gives you one. Why…
Peonies belong to the genus Paeonia, the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae. This genus is native to Asia, Europe, and small pockets of western North America. Breeders have spent centuries crossing wild species with cultivated ones. The result is an enormous range of colors, shapes, and growth habits. Penn State Extension explains that peonies…
I used to think perennials meant one glorious bloom, then months of green foliage doing nothing. Then I learned the trick: most spent flowers are just plants trying to make seed, and you can interrupt that process. Deadheading tricks the plant into believing it needs to keep blooming to reproduce. Iowa State University Extension confirms…
I once inherited a yew hedge that had been trimmed the same way for thirty years. It looked fine from the street, but underneath the green shell, half the branches were bare wood. That is the strange thing about yews — they hide their problems well, until they don’t. Yews are famously tough. They tolerate…
I have watched a healthy-looking peach tree turn into a gummy, leaf-dropping mess in a single wet spring. It is disheartening. You water it, you feed it, and then one morning the leaves are puckered and red, or the bark is oozing something that looks like amber jelly. The good news? Almost every peach tree…
Ferns fascinate me every time I walk through a shaded garden or a rainforest trail. They were around long before flowers existed, and they still cover the earth in more forms than most people realize. There are roughly 12,000 fern species known to science today, spread across about 225 genera worldwide. That number keeps shifting…
Grabbing “any old oil” for your mower is one of the fastest ways to shorten its life. I learned this the hard way years ago, after pouring leftover car oil into a push mower and watching it struggle to start every spring after. Lawn mower engines are small, but they are also unforgiving. They run…