If your Christmas cactus has been happily growing for 20 years without ever being pruned, well, congratulations… not all of us are blessed with such a cooperative plant. If yours looks great, leave it alone! Some plants clearly have their lives together better than the rest of us. But when yours starts looking overgrown, lopsided, crowded, or just plain…
Perennials are wonderfully reliable, but by September, some of them start looking like they’ve had enough of summer. Spent flowers, floppy stems, yellowing leaves… the garden goes from lush to slightly exhausted surprisingly fast. That doesn’t mean everything needs a dramatic haircut, though. Get the timing right, and they’ll come back next spring looking healthier,…
If you’ve been giving your Christmas cactus all the love in the world only for it to reward you with a whole lot of green and absolutely no flowers, you’re definitely not alone. These plants can be a little dramatic when it comes to blooming. They don’t just need decent light and the occasional drink of…
Pruning hydrangeas has somehow earned a reputation for being ridiculously complicated. It really isn’t, once you know what kind of hydrangea you’re growing. Some bloom on old wood, some on new wood, and some on both. Get the timing wrong and, yep, you can accidentally cut off next season’s flowers. So let’s make this simple. I’ll…
Some perennials look completely harmless when you first plant them, but give them a few seasons and you may start wondering why they’re suddenly showing up everywhere except where you wanted them. Not all of these are invasive everywhere in the U.S., but they can still become a real headache. So, let’s look at 9 perennials you…
You spent all of July and August strutting around the yard showing off your fiery tropicals like you personally invented photosynthesis. But bragging season is officially winding down. By September is where real gardeners prove their worth, and to save the rhizomes for next year, you need to step between them and the first frost….