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How to Find Your Hardiness Zone with Maps
Hardiness zone maps help you determine which garden plants will thrive where you live. The various hardiness zone maps indicate minimum and maximum temperatures that plants can tolerate, or growing seasons [more…]
How to Choose and Grow Perennial Flowers
Perennial flowers (or flowering perennials) bloom every year; you don't need to buy new plants each year as you do with annuals. The flowers on perennials don't last all season; most bloom for two to four [more…]
How Much Water Does Your Flower Garden Need?
How do you make sure your flower garden has the right amount of moisture? Relying on natural rainfall would be nice, but natural rainfall is hard to count on. Gardeners always seem to have to supplement [more…]
How Much Light Do Plants Need?
Every plant needs light to grow and flourish, but the right amount of sunlight varies. When choosing plants for your garden, look at the plant label to check its light requirements. No matter what light [more…]
How and What to Feed Flowers
Feeding (fertilizing) flowers keeps plants healthy and rewards you with great color and blossoms. But too much fertilizer can be bad for your plants, and applying the wrong type can be counterproductive [more…]
How to Choose Mulch for Your Flower Garden
Mulching flower beds is a good gardening habit. Mulch inhibits weed growth, holds in soil moisture, and moderates soil-temperature fluctuations. In cold-winter areas, mulching protects plant roots from [more…]
How to Combine Color and Scent in an Annual Garden
Gardening encourages creativity. You can design annual beds in eye-catching color combinations or grow fragrant blossoms to enjoy. Annuals are great for colorful or scented bouquets for the house or for [more…]
How to Time Flowering Perennials for All-Season Color
Although some perennials bloom all summer long, just like your favorite annuals, others don't. They have a period of glory that peaks for a week or several weeks, and then the show subsides. With proper [more…]
How to Plant Potted Roses
Plant a potted rose early in the growing season (late spring or early summer) — about the time you generally find them for sale. If your climate is cold, wait until after the last frost. But don't wait [more…]
How to Plant Perennials in Spring or Fall
Although you can plant some perennials in your flower garden in the fall, springtime is preferable. All the conditions that perennials relish and respond to are in place: warming soil, warm sunshine, longer [more…]
Protecting Perennials from Pests and Diseases
Perennials aren't especially pest- or disease prone if there's good air circulation and regular watering. But some pests and diseases can become perennial problems. Read on for their descriptions and some [more…]
When to Plant Bulbs in Your Garden
Some bulbs need to be planted in the spring; others do best when you plant them in the fall. When to plant bulbs depends a lot on when your bulbs will bloom. [more…]
How to Force Bulbs to Bloom Early
Forcing bulbs merely means encouraging the plants to bloom early by treating them in a special way. Some of the easiest and most popular bulbs to force are [more…]
How to Care for Bulbs
With a little tender, loving care, bulbs can do their thing and be wonderfully reliable. Bulbs come as a package of life — that is, with the embryonic plant and flower within, plus stored food to fuel [more…]
Unusual Planters for Container Gardens
Unusual containers for your plants can be a lot of fun and add unexpected pleasure or whimsy to your garden displays. If the container is not entirely suitable [more…]
How to Grow Herbs in a Planter
Herbs are perfect plants for container gardens. The pots contain their growth and make it easy to bring them indoors when nights are cool. Creating a container herb garden is a terrific way to raise edible [more…]
How to Plant Bareroot Roses
Deciding where to plant your bareroot rose is easy. Pick a spot where you roses can get at least six hours of full sunlight every day. Bareroot roses come partially or fully bagged or boxed. When you look [more…]
How to Plant Bulbs
Planting bulbs is simple. But before you start, be sure the chosen spot has good, well-draining soil. Bulbs rot in soggy ground and struggle in sandy soil; adding some organic matter eases these problems [more…]
Tips for Designing Perennial Beds and Borders
Perennials return each year to provide splashes of color and texture to garden beds and borders. Here are some basic garden layout tips and techniques used by professional garden designers that you can [more…]
How to Choose the Right Orchid
Choosing the right orchid for your home requires some consideration. Few beginning orchid growers take the time to consider their environment before they buy, but it's easy end up bringing home a gorgeous [more…]
How to Fertilize Your Orchid
Many people think fertilizer is some type of elixir that will save even the most abused orchid. Actually, if the orchid is in poor health, fertilizers are rarely the answer. Fertilizers are most useful [more…]
How to Help a New Orchid Adjust to Your Home
Bringing an orchid plant into its new home can be traumatic for both the plant and you! Most orchids you buy come from the very high-light, high-humidity environment of a commercial greenhouse. You bring [more…]
How to Water Orchids
Orchids are killed by improper watering (usually by overwatering) more likely than by any other practice. Discovering how to properly water orchids is one of the more challenging aspects of growing orchids [more…]
How to Rescue Overwatered Orchids
If you have overwatered an orchid, you can take steps to save it. If the orchid still has some healthy, firm roots, you can salvage it by cutting off all the soft, mushy roots with a sterile tool, like [more…]
How to Stake Blooming Orchids
Flowers and spikes of orchid blossoms can be heavy and, if they aren't staked properly, they'll open at an awkward angle. Orchid staking techniques vary somewhat with the type of orchid. The two major [more…]
