AMERICAN GARDENER

Primroses are among the first flowers of spring, and their name says as much. It comes from the Latin word for “first,” a reference to how early many of them bloom. The group includes the pale yellow wildflower of English hedgerows as well as tall, colorful bog plants, tiny alpines and potted flowers sold in … Read more

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

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