Ornamental Gardens

Learn how to cultivate beautiful ornamental gardens and how to troubleshoot common pests, diseases, and growing problems!

A close-up showcases butterfly bushes with spiky purple blooms and lush green leaves against a serene garden backdrop of towering trees, capturing the charm of these vibrant botanical specimens in their tranquil environment.

Trees

11 Trees and Shrubs to Plant in February

February is a great time to plant many of the beautiful trees and shrubs that we enjoy during the warmer months. As long as the ground is workable, you can start putting them in the ground. Gardening expert Melissa Strauss talks about some great February additions to the garden landscape.

Creamy yellow camellia with dense, ruffled petals and a golden center, surrounded by dark green leaves.

Flowers

9 Lookalike Alternatives for Difficult-to-Grow Roses

Roses are enchanting in the garden, but some of them can be difficult to care for. Fortunately, there are some great, lower-maintenance alternatives to those difficult varieties. Join gardening expert Melissa Strauss to talk about easy replacements for those fussy roses.

A cream-colored Patricia’s Pride Lilium with dark maroon centers and six broad petals. The petals curve slightly outward, revealing dark stamens with pollen-covered anthers. Glossy green leaves surround the flower.

Bulbs

7 Bulbs We’re Planting Now for Summer Blooms

Summer blooming bulbs offer gorgeous blossoms after many other plants finish flowering. They’re easy to care for, lying dormant from fall through winter. Seasoned grower Jerad Bryant shares these seven favorite bulbs; plant them in late winter for midsummer blooms!

Close-up of flowering plants with tall, branching stems, deeply veined narrow green leaves, and ruffled, rose-like double blooms in soft pink, red, and purple hues arranged along the stems.

Ornamental Gardens

How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Garden Balsam

Garden balsam is an old landscaping treasure! It’s a heat-loving annual that thrives in the shade, offering gorgeously colored flowers for bees, hummingbirds, and gardeners’ enjoyment. Though largely cultivated in the 1900s, these annual flowers are making a comeback! Learn how to grow, care for, and plant them with this simple guide.

Wearing a jacket and colorful gloves, a gardener carefully prunes the branches of a dormant rose shrub with green pruning shears on a cold February day.

Trees

11 Trees and Shrubs You Should Prune in February

Break out those loppers and pruning shears. It's time to get back to work! Many shrubs and trees are ready for their annual trim around February while they are dormant. Here are 11 you might have in your yard that are perfect for pruning this month.

Close-up of blooming northeast native spring wildflowers featuring small, delicate flowers in shades of blue with rounded, lobed green leaves, growing on thin stems in a forest setting.

Flowers

17 Spring Ephemeral Wildflowers Native to the Northeast

Spring ephemerals emerge from the ground as the weather warms, bloom, and then disappear until the following year. Although their bloom time is short, their beauty is remarkable. Join wildflower enthusiast Briana Yablonski to learn 17 plants that brighten Northeast forests each spring.

Person holding a bundle of freshly cut Inch Plants, roses, and daisies wrapped in white paper.

Flowers

7 Tips to Make Your Valentine’s Flower Bouquets Last

Fresh flowers are a joy to receive on Valentine's Day, but they seem to stick around for such a short time. Cut flower gardener Melissa Strauss has some great tips for extending the life of that beautiful bouquet so that you can enjoy it for as long as possible.

Several green stems with small thorns emerge from soil covered in light brown mulch.

Shrubs

5 Signs of an Unhealthy Bare-Root Rose

Roses are durable and resilient, rising from a bundle of sticks and roots to flourish into leafy, blooming specimens. To experience the magic of bare-root selections, we can hone in on what makes them viable. Garden expert Katherine Rowe explores what to look for in a healthy bare-root rose (and what to avoid).

Lupine plants with tall, slender stems, dry seedpods, and faded leaves are covered in a blanket of snow, ideal for winter sowing in the garden bed.

Flowers

How To Winter Sow Lupine: 5 Pro Tips

Lupine brings distinctive bloom spikes in a sweep of color in spring and summer. Sowing them in winter is an easy way to give seeds the conditions they need to germinate. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe explores how to winter sow lupine for a successful show of warm-season blooms.

Close-up of rich red-burgundy Cymbidium orchid clusters blooming among green strap-like leaves, highlighting the differences between Oncidium and Dendrobium orchids.

Flowers

Oncidium, Dendrobium, and Cymbidium Orchids: Key Differences

Orchids comprise a great number of genera and an enormous number of species. With such a wide range available, it's nice to know what you're looking at and how that affects its care. Orchid enthusiast Melissa Strauss examines three popular genera and describes how to tell them apart and how to care for them.