Ornamental Gardens

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

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.

Close-up of a faded orchid plant in a white pot with long, glossy, narrow leaves, thick aerial roots, and a slender brown dried stem with small clusters of dried flowers.

Flowers

What to Do With Brown, Dried Orchid Stems

Orchids make great houseplants, but they're not without their issues. When something looks amiss, like brown stems, it can be distressing if you don't know the cause. Orchid enthusiast Melissa Strauss goes over the potential causes, and how you should deal with brown orchid stems.

A shot of a composition of several different flowers that showcases what wildflowers winter sow February

Flowers

13 Wildflowers We’re Winter Sowing in February

Winter sowing is a cheap way to start seeds. All you need to start are some old milk jugs, some soil, and wildflower seeds. These 13 species are perfect for winter sowing since they require cold stratification to germinate. Start them in February for early spring blooms!

Pale pink and cream flowers with soft petals, golden stamens, and unopened buds clustered around.

Flowers

7 Reasons Your Hellebore Plants Are Not Blooming

Hellebores bring lovely late winter blooms and handsome foliage worthy of mass planting in optimal garden locations. If your beauty isn’t blooming, there are a few key cultural conditions to explore and adjust for future color. Garden expert Katherine Rowe examines the primary reasons for a lack of hellebore blooms and how to revive the (mostly) carefree perennials.

Winter snowy garden with dormant or dead trees and shrubs, showcasing bare branches and dry, brown leaves.

Trees

Are My Trees and Shrubs Dead or Dormant? 5 Ways to Tell

In mid to late winter, we cross our fingers that our bare trees and shrubs endured the seasonal extremes and any late cold blasts, merely resting before spring’s warming conditions. During this quiet time in the landscape, it can be difficult to discern a dormant plant from a dead one. Garden expert Katherine Rowe explores visual and physical cues to hone in on the viability of your dormant tree or shrub.