AMERICAN GARDENER

White flowers with yellow centers create one of the most recognizable color combinations in gardens. The bright white petals provide a clean, fresh appearance, while the yellow center adds a warm focal point that makes the flowers stand out against green foliage. This combination occurs across many different plant groups, from familiar garden annuals and … Read more

Lime green foliage can instantly brighten a garden, making plants stand out even when they are not in bloom. Unlike flowers, which may appear only for a limited season, colorful foliage can provide visual interest for much longer and can become one of the most noticeable features in a planting scheme. Plants with lime green … Read more

Flowers with red and white petals Red and white flowers combine the two most dramatic colors in the garden in a single bloom, whether that means a white petal flamed with red, a red petal splashed with white, or a white flower with a bold red heart. They’re popular for holiday plantings, for patriotic color … Read more

Black Krim Tomato: The Dark, Salty Heirloom From the Black Sea Black Krim is a dark, brownish-purple heirloom beefsteak tomato that arrived in American gardens in 1990 and has been a favorite of flavor-minded growers ever since. Its fruit ripens to a deep red-brown with green shoulders, turns almost black in strong sun, and delivers … Read more

Beefsteak Tomato: What the Name Really Means and How to Grow One Beefsteak is the name gardeners give to the biggest slicing tomatoes, the thick-fleshed, sandwich-covering fruits that can weigh a pound or more. It describes a type rather than a single variety, and the type includes everything from hybrids like Big Beef to heirlooms … Read more

Big Boy Tomato: The Hybrid That Started the Modern Tomato Era Big Boy is a large, smooth, red slicing tomato that Burpee introduced in 1949, and it changed how Americans grew tomatoes. It was a hybrid that outgrew and outproduced the open-pollinated varieties gardeners had been planting for generations, and its popularity hasn’t faded in … Read more

Early Girl Tomato: The Short-Season Hybrid That Became a Dry-Farming Star Early Girl is a medium-sized, red, globe-type hybrid tomato that has been one of America’s most dependable early tomatoes since the 1970s. It ripens in roughly 50 to 63 days from transplanting, sets fruit in cool weather, and carries resistance to two major wilt … Read more

Brandywine Tomato: The Heirloom Everyone Grows for Flavor and Forgives for Everything Else Brandywine is the heirloom tomato that taught a generation of gardeners to care about flavor, a large pink beefsteak with potato-leaf foliage and a reputation for tasting like what a tomato is supposed to taste like. It’s also one of the slowest, … Read more

Big Beef Tomato: The Hybrid That Set the Standard for Home Gardens Big Beef is a red beefsteak hybrid that has been a fixture in home gardens since it won an All-America Selections award in 1994. Its fruits are large, globe-shaped, and meaty, with the rich, slightly acidic flavor gardeners associate with old-fashioned tomatoes. What … Read more

Mortgage Lifter Tomato: The Heirloom That Paid Off a House Mortgage Lifter is one of the most famous heirloom tomatoes in America, a huge, meaty pink beefsteak with a story as big as its fruit. According to legend, a self-taught West Virginia gardener bred it in the 1930s, sold the seedlings to eager neighbors, and … Read more