Wake-Up America, Climate Change Is Real, Take Action
Heat tolerant plants keep growing, flowering and looking healthy when summer temperatures climb into the 90s and beyond. Many common garden plants stall in that kind of weather. Their leaves wilt or scorch, their flowers drop, and their pollen stops working. Heat stress happens when high temperatures last long enough to damage a plant’s cells. … Read more
Croton plants are some of the most colorful foliage plants grown anywhere. Their thick, leathery leaves are splashed, spotted, veined and banded in red, orange, yellow, pink, purple and green, often all on one plant. Gardeners grow them for leaves alone, since their small, star-shaped flowers are easy to miss. Nearly every garden croton belongs … Read more
Plants with milky white sap ooze a thick, sticky fluid called latex whenever a leaf, stem or root is broken. About 10% of all flowering plants produce latex, from tiny garden weeds to towering rainforest trees. It is stored under pressure in long, specialized cells that run through the plant like a network of pipes. … Read more
Houseplants are plants grown indoors for their foliage, flowers or simply the pleasure of tending something alive. Most of them are not special indoor species at all. They are tropical and subtropical plants whose natural homes stay warm all year, which is why they tolerate the steady temperatures of a living room. Many popular houseplants … Read more
Plants that can survive in office lighting are the shade-loving species that evolved under the canopy of tropical forests. Most offices are lit by overhead fluorescent tubes or LED panels instead of sunlight. Those lights are designed for people reading screens and paper, not for plants making food from light. The light levels are low … Read more
Air purifying plants became popular after a 1989 NASA study tested common houseplants in sealed chambers. Scientists found that the plants, their roots and the microbes in their potting soil absorbed indoor pollutants such as benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene. NASA’s researchers later suggested one healthy plant in a 6- to 8-inch pot for every 100 … Read more
One of the most common reasons people avoid keeping houseplants is the assumption that every plant needs a bright, sunny windowsill to survive. In reality, a surprisingly large number of plants have evolved in the shaded understories of dense tropical forests, where direct sunlight rarely if ever reaches the forest floor. These plants have developed … Read more
The many types of jade plants include one of the world’s most familiar houseplants and a long list of its relatives. The true jade plant is a succulent shrub from the stonecrop family, and it is also called the money plant, lucky plant and friendship tree. It belongs to a genus of about 200 succulent … Read more
Fruits come in an enormous range of shapes, colors and flavors, but botanically they all have the same job. A fruit is the ripened ovary of a flowering plant, and it exists to protect seeds and help spread them. Animals eat the sweet flesh and carry the seeds away, which is why so many fruits … Read more
The many types of gardenia plants are prized above all for their fragrance, which ranks among the sweetest in the garden. Gardenias belong to the coffee family, and the genus holds more than 200 species of shrubs and small trees. The genus is named after Alexander Garden, an 18th-century physician and naturalist in Charleston, South … Read more