Plants

Red birds captivate with their fiery plumage, showcasing vibrant shades of crimson, scarlet, and vermilion that ignite landscapes from forests to urban gardens. Their bold colors, ranging from deep ruby to blazing red, stand out vividly against green foliage or clear skies, making them a striking presence in any environment. These birds embody nature’s passion … Read more

Small greenhouses for the backyard have become one of the fastest-growing categories in home gardening, driven largely by shrinking suburban lot sizes and a growing interest in extending the growing season without committing to a sprawling, permanent structure. Most small to medium backyard greenhouses under about 120 square feet do not require a building permit … Read more

Trees that grow well in Indiana benefit from the state’s position at what its own motto calls the Crossroads of America, a description that applies just as well to Indiana’s forests as it does to its highways, since the state sits at the meeting point of several major North American ecological regions. This convergence is … Read more

Trees that grow well in Utah have to contend with the second driest state in the country, a landscape shaped by an elevation range spanning from roughly 2,180 feet along the Utah-Arizona border to the 13,528-foot summit of Kings Peak in the Uinta Mountains, one of the most dramatic vertical spans found within any single … Read more

Trees that grow well in Pennsylvania benefit from a landscape that remains one of the most heavily forested in the eastern United States, with woodlands covering nearly 58 percent of the state’s total land area today. This extensive forest cover reflects Pennsylvania’s favorable growing conditions, including a humid continental climate with well-distributed rainfall averaging around … Read more

Trees that grow well in Tennessee benefit from a state so ecologically diverse that Great Smoky Mountains National Park, straddling the Tennessee-North Carolina border, is often cited by botanists as home to more tree species than the entire continent of Europe, with well over 100 native tree species documented within the park’s boundaries alone. This … Read more

Trees that grow well in New Jersey benefit from a genuinely surprising contrast, since the nation’s most densely populated state is also home to the Pinelands National Reserve, a sprawling 1.1-million-acre expanse of pine and oak forest covering roughly 22 percent of New Jersey’s total land area, making it the largest body of open space … Read more

Prairies once covered an estimated 170 million acres of North America, stretching in a vast, largely unbroken band from the Rocky Mountains east to Indiana and from the Canadian prairie provinces south into Texas, making grassland one of the continent’s largest and most significant ecosystems before agricultural conversion dramatically reduced its extent. Despite their reputation … Read more

Trees that grow well in North Carolina benefit from one of the most botanically diverse states east of the Mississippi River, shaped by a landscape that rises from sea level along the Atlantic coastline to more than 6,600 feet atop Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the eastern United States. This elevation range, combined with … Read more

Trees that grow well in Illinois have to adapt to one of the more surprising climate gradients found within a single state, since Illinois stretches more than 385 miles from north to south, placing Chicago in a climate similar to southern Wisconsin while the southern tip near Cairo sits at roughly the same latitude as … Read more