Plant Basics

If you own a home with a yard or garden, chances are good that you're anxious to spruce up that land with flowers, plants, vegetables or a lawn. Plants, flowers and vegetables can also be grown...

You love gardening. What you don't love is organizing the many seeds you have for your garden. You buy seeds when they are on sale and sometimes you forget what you have at home. One way to...

Save money by harvesting seeds for next year. Give gifts of seed packets to gardeners, or trade them for other types of seeds. Take the right steps to gather good quality seeds, pack them...

White licorice plants have long, green leaves, grow to 1 to 2 feet tall and wide and do not produce flowers. They are most often used to offset other plants and for edging around gardens. The...

Leftover seeds and seeds harvested from heirloom and other favorite flowers and vegetables should be stored in a sealed paper or plastic envelope, and labeled clearly to ensure that they will be...

For many people, gardening is one of the most relaxing and beautiful experiences in their lives. Every garden is an individual statement about who its owner is as a person and what her tastes are....

Viable seeds are the products of successful fertilization in flowering plants using sexual reproduction. In many plants, a seed will have two individual parents; and in others it will have only...

Broccoli sprouts are highly nutritious and are crunchy and tasty in salads and sandwiches. Although they are sometimes available in health food stores, they can be difficult to find in grocery...

Asparagus fern, also known as lace fern, emerald fern or sprengeri, is not a true fern, but rather a member of the lily family. The fern forms whitish green tubers that resemble tiny garlic...

Sowing your own seeds is an economical way to have a gorgeous flowerbed every season without the cost of buying them. Anglelonia is a native plant in Mexico and the West Indies. The leaves smell...

You can make money off of Agave. Agave, or century plant, are a plant that is closely related to the lily, but if you've ever seen an agave, you know you aren't going to be picking it and placing...

You can call them angel's trumpets, brugmansia, or just plain pretty. Angel's trumpet flowers bloom in shades of yellow, pink, orange, red and white, from spring to fall. Although the seeds...

Using indoor bedding plants is a strategy that allows gardeners in northern climates to extend their growing season. Plants that require a longer growing season than nature has provided are...

Growing stevia from seeds requires a bit of preparation and some attention to your newly planted seeds, but with planning and preparation, you can produce successfully germinated stevia plants...

Daylilies are popular landscape perennials. They range from short and compact to tall mounds of grass-like foliage. Their bloom colors include red, white, yellow, peach, purple, and nearly black...

Calaloo is a native plant that grows in the Caribbean Islands and it originated with the African slaves. In 1839, Captain Geoffroy imported it to Europe. Calaloo, called Indian spinach or Chinese...

Mock orange is a large and beautiful perennial shrub. During the spring, it is covered with thousands of blooms that smell like orange blossoms. The flowers feed an entire array of beneficial...

Jatropha is a tropical perennial that grows as a shrub or bush. It grows to a height of up to 15 feet, with a canopy that can spread to equal its height. The 1-inch blooms are clustered, and are...

Heat mats placed under seeding flats promote quicker germination of seeds, and healthier, stockier seedlings. They also help prevent damping off, which can kill an entire flat of seedlings...

Pond gardening is a fun and different way to grow beautiful plants. Water gardening is fun because it combines the fun of the water with the art of traditional gardening. Thousands of pond plants...

Most people associate wintergreen for its minty flavor, used in items such as chewing gum and toothpaste. However, it is not widely known that the wintergreen plant has a multitude of medicinal...

If you have the gardening space, growing pumpkins can be very rewarding. Pumpkins are a large, versatile squash that can be used in many savory dishes, soups, puddings, sweets and baked goods. If...

Wheat grass is full of vitamins and minerals, and has a reputation for curing and preventing disease. While there is a debate on just how healthy wheat grass really is, there is no denying that it...

Harvesting plant seeds is not only a way to save money on next year's garden or a way to continue your garden from one growing season to the next. Harvesting plant seeds has become an important...

Leeks (Allium ampeloprasum) are a member of the onion family but are milder in flavor. You can eat them raw, but most cooks use them used in soups, stews and casseroles. Gardeners have been...

Pale yellow, almost perfectly round fruits with a flavor somewhere between and apple and a pear, Asian pears have a light, crispy texture that delights the palate. For the gourmet gardener,...

Ornamental grasses include a wide variety of plants that suit a wide variety of needs in the garden. From small accents to large privacy screens, these plants are utilized in almost every fashion...

Green beans contain enzymes that eventually destroy nutrients within the beans and change the color of the seeds. To preserve the color in green bean seeds, this enzyme action must be slowed or...

Growing seedlings in potting soil indoors is an ideal way to get a jump start on your garden's growing season. Plants such as tomatoes, peppers and broccoli will give you an earlier harvest when...

Many varieties of pumpkin seeds are available today that produce an array of pumpkins, including miniature, ornate, oversized, prize-winning and pumpkins produced strictly for canning.

Over the last 6,000 years, humans have planted and harvested bean crops. Technically, most beans humans eat are the essentially seeds or seed pods of the plant. Composed of roughly 20 percent...

When sprouting wheatgrass, it is common to find mold also trying to sprout on the wheatgrass. One way to help avoid or get rid of mold is by using a product called Citricidex. Citricidex is a...

The Portulaca plant is also known as the Moss Rose. The plant originated in South America near Brazil. Many parts of the United States cannot grow the moss rose because of its need for hot, dry...

For thousands of years, various cultures worldwide have grown gourds for use as water vessels, containers and decorative items. The fibrous center of the luffa gourd, also known as the sponge...

Germination occurs in plants when water is absorbed into the seed, causing enzymes to build plant cells. When the seed becomes too large, it breaks through the shell and begins to grow as a plant.

Homemade seed starters are amongst the best way to germinate plants from seed. Using seed starters has a few obvious advantages: first, it lets you control the environment. You can keep them in a...

Watching things grow is at once the simplest and most profound of pleasures. If you live in a colder climate, the only way to do this year round is to start seeds in potting soil and sprout plants...

Seeds, however large or small, contain all the parts of an adult plant and enough food to nourish it through the beginning stages of development. The germination process varies depending upon...

Seed packets can be saved for future planting; however, germination rates drop significantly each year of storage. Most seed packets provide a packaging date and the anticipated germination rate...

Some home gardeners find that they have seeds left over after planting. Others gather seeds each year with the intent of planting them the next season. Both may wonder how long seeds can be kept...

Drying fruit seeds for future propagation is an economical method for initiating new fruit trees. An advantage in starting new trees from seed is not only the cost, but being able to choose fruit...

Cantaloupes are not generally grown commercially in the United States. What you purchase at your local grocery store or farmer's market is actually a muskmelon. Honeydew, crenshaw and casaba are...

Starting plants from seed gives you access to a greater variety of both vegetables and flowers as well as saving money over buying nursery grown seedlings. Seeds come in all sizes, ranging from...

Drying and storing your own seeds is a good way to save you money from buying new seeds for future plantings. It protects new varieties of your plants that may not be available elsewhere, and the...

Harvesting seeds from your plants is quite easy and will save you money by allowing your plants to continue to produce its own offspring. There are many different types of plants out there that...

Growing grass in a fully shady area of your property can be difficult. If the soil also has a little sand mixed into it, growing grass there may be even more of a challenge. The secret to lush...

Pre-sprouting, also called chitting, seeds is done with older seeds, seeds that have a poor germination rate and to speed up the germination process. Pre-sprouting takes two to four days, whereas...

Queen Anne's lace is the plant that our current garden carrots were originally cultivated from. The seeds of Queen Anne's lace have appeared in works as a natural contraceptive as early as...

Hibiscus flowers, annual plants that belong to the Malvaceae family, come in a vast array of colors and sizes. The Hibiscus, with an equally wide range of uses from aesthetic to medicinal, can be...

Stephanotis is known as the "bridal veil vine" because the fragrant blooms are often used in bridal bouquets. It has also been called Madagascar Jasmine. Stephanotis has leathery, thick leaves and...