AMERICAN GARDENER

Bougainvillea plants are thorny tropical vines and shrubs famous for their explosions of color. What look like flowers are actually papery bracts, modified leaves that surround three tiny white or cream flowers. The bracts come in magenta, purple, red, orange, gold, pink, white and bicolors, and they can cover a plant so completely that the … Read more

Bromeliads are tropical plants known for their colorful flower spikes and stiff, often striped or spotted leaves arranged in a rosette. The family includes about 3,700 species in roughly 80 genera, ranging from the pineapple and Spanish moss to houseplants such as the urn plant and flaming sword. Their bright bracts can last for months, … Read more

Monstera Adansonii is a fast-growing tropical vine with heart-shaped leaves full of natural oval holes, and it has become one of the best-loved foliage houseplants in North American homes. Gardeners know it by many friendly names, including Swiss cheese vine, five holes plant, Adanson’s monstera and monkey mask. It comes from the rainforests of Central … Read more

Monstera Adansonii also commonly referred to as Swiss Cheese Vine is a highly popular versatile plant that will with proper care grow effective under many different conditions. It produces white arum-like flowers typical of the aroid family. Leaves are slightly rough in texture and heart-shaped. Foliage is mostly whole in young specimens and changes structure … Read more

Monstera plants are tropical climbing aroids known for their split and hole-filled leaves. Botanists recognize roughly 60 or more species, with new ones still being described. The best known is the Swiss cheese plant, whose glossy leaves can grow about 3 feet long and whose stems climb as high as 65 feet up rainforest trees. … Read more

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