SUN Ideas, Tips & Guides

Decorating a windowsill might seem like a simple way to add a bit of flair and personality to your living space. After all, a well-decorated sill can act as a mini-showcase for your style, housing everything from cute trinkets to treasured mementos. But before you start lining up your favorite possessions along that sunny ledge, it's important to remember that not everything plays nice with sunlight. 

Most flowering plants bloom once a year or less. Some even take decades to produce a single flower that lasts for a day before withering away. But with our selection of perennials that bloom multiple times a year, your garden will never lose its floral charm.

Venus fly traps (also called Venus flytraps or just a flytrap) are among the coolest plants you can grow. In their native habitat, Venus fly traps live for years. Unfortunately, they are often short-lived plants in cultivation, but this is only because most people don’t care for them properly. In this article, you’ll learn all the essential basics of Venus fly trap care. Varieties of Venus fly traps There is only one species of Venus fly trap, Dionaea muscipula, and it is native to a small

Boxwood (Buxus) are slow-growing shrubs that lend year-round evergreen symmetry and structure to a space. Popular as hedges and topiaries, poor practices like over-shearing have made it unviable and vulnerable to disease. Here are the best alternatives to the quintessential boxwood, which is likely more manageable and natural to your setting!

Perhaps your lush summer blossoms have begun wilting, and you dread a barren garden as winter approaches! However, with our list of the best flowers to plant in September, you’ll have a garden teeming with deep, warm blooms—some as early as fall and some through spring!

Some shade is essential in warmer zones, but even in the North, Virginia persicaria (P. virginiana) appreciates afternoon shade and wind protection.

Dead and forgotten? Far from it! These perennials have a life cycle that barely lasts a few years. Most of them bloom in the first few years of planting itself—and then they perish! So, what’s the point in growing such short-lived specimens? Won’t it mean more work? You have the questions, and we have the answers!

Spinach is a cool weather favorite, with leaves that sprout up and grow rapidly in both spring and fall. It has a relatively short growing season, but its yield is impressive—if it has the right companion plants by its side to help it thrive.

Potted plants can add greenery and softness to patios, porches, stoops, decks, and fire escapes. Bare or bland outdoor areas are instantly transformed with tall greenery in giant tubs and climbing vines, hanging blooms, and even smaller plants in quirky-cool pots, adding interest and whimsy. The possibilities are endless!

The arrival of autumn is the perfect time to get plants in the ground. Early-season rainstorms and cooling temperatures can help plants establish roots, meaning your outdoor fall to-do list isn't limited to just raking leaves.

While a guest bedroom is by no means a top-tier hotel, you can make it feel like one by equipping it with all of the essential features that will impress your guests and ensure that they feel right at home during their stay with you.

You don’t need a big backyard or orchard to enjoy the fruits (or vegetables) of your gardening labor! For an abundant fall and winter harvest, you just need pots and some empty space open to the sun, like a balcony, patio, or rooftop!

Perhaps you have gone without washing your dishes or left them in the sink while traveling and returned home to find them covered with mold.

Clueless about what to do with your orchids after they bloom? Don’t let the anticipation of the next set of blooms overwhelm you. Instead, prepare! We share steps to keep your orchids healthy and ripe for recurring blooms in the coming season.

Garden furniture can be a big investment – with sofas, tables, umbrellas and the like often taking up a large chunk of your overall garden budget.

When it comes to perennial vines, it’s hard to top the beauty of blue passion flower (Passiflora caerulea, Zones 7–11). This South American native plant is well-suited for the heat and humidity of the southeastern United States. One of the hardiest passion vines, it will reliably overwinter in Zone 7, or even Zone 6 when provided with extra winter protection. Learn more about choosing the right passion flower vine for your garden here.

What’s a snake plant without its bright, glossy green leaves and bold yellow stripes? But sometimes, with neglect and unsuitable conditions, even this hardy succulent may succumb to dullness. We share simple tricks that help you unlock its full aesthetic potential and nurse it back to glory! Check it out.

A few strategically chosen plants can turn any boring concrete pool area into a lush tropical retreat.

Be it ferns, trailers, vines, or any other kind, plants in hanging baskets take home decor to the next level! But watering them the wrong way could quickly lead them to wilt, dry up, or perish entirely. To water plants in hanging baskets, it’s essential to consider various factors.

It seems like the majority of the most popular native garden perennials are sun-loving meadow denizens. It can be difficult to find native flowering plants to brighten shadier spots. The following selection of perennials are not only vigorous shade growers, but also appeal to both people and pollinators alike, and look good while doing it.

With fresh yellow petals and near-black centers, Rudbeckia hirta is a pioneer plant that blooms profusely from early summer to late fall. So, adding flowers that look like black-eyed Susans means you can enjoy golden abundance and a seamless line-up of cheery blossoms through the seasons.

Autumn is a magical time in the landscape. Leaves sparkle on tree limbs like gemstones and flowering plants gear up for their season finale. The cool nights and crisp clear days of fall rejuvenate flowering annuals and perennials that may have languished in the heat of summer. The result is a riot of blooms that gives the trees a run for their money. Among the spectacle are gorgeous annuals for the fall garden that bloom well into autumn.

The physical structure of these flowers closely resembles an artistic representation of a heart and, hence, will be a unique addition to your plant collection. The best part is that along with their peculiar beauty, they are also easy to grow! So let these flowers be the “heart” of your garden!

Mowing may be time consuming but is a critical part of maintaining a vigorous lawn. Healthy, well-managed grass not only looks better, but is more resilient to drought and other stresses. Proper mowing practices promote lush, dense turf by stimulating shoot and root growth. Lawn mowing encourages lateral shoot growth, resulting in a thicker lawn that is better able to combat weeds. These benefits are impacted by how often you mow the lawn. Mowing at regular intervals based on plant growth makes your ongoing maintenance faster and easier and ensures your lawn remains healthy and vibrant.

Scent is powerful, triggering memories from long ago and transporting us to faraway places. In the garden, fragrant perennials often connect us to childhood walks through our grandparents’ gardens or summer days spent gathering bouquets. Aromatic flowers and foliage also play upon our emotions. Some scents are soothing and can be used to enhance outdoor seating areas to help us unwind after a long day. When planted near the front door, fragrant perennials make an alluring first impression. Fragrant blooms also attract a diversity of pollinators to the garden.

Just like how a little cortisol keeps us on our toes, a little stress can bring out the best hues in your succulents! We share varieties that respond to changes in their habitat by changing colors. If you want rainbow foliage in your home with the least effort, these are perfect!

Acers are beautiful ornamental trees that come in an array of colours and sizes. To properly care for your Acer, there are some common issues that can arise such as leaf scorch, fungal diseases, and pests. Here are our guides for combatting these Acer issues.

We’ve all been here—when we casually step out to admire a bloom-filled garden in shorts and cuppa in hand, only to be ravaged by bloodthirsty mosquitoes! But this fear ends now! We give you plants that mosquitoes really hate—grow them and naturally repel these dreadful twilight monsters!

Michaels | Design: Better Homes & Gardens

Flanking our waterways in great mops of silver green, the willow is the most poetic and mysterious of trees. In many cultures – including ancient Egypt and ancient Greece – it was associated with immortality, death, and the underworld; old English folklore states that if you sit beside a willow and shed tears, the tree will cry with you. In China, where the weeping willow hails from, it represents strength and resilience, reflecting the instruction in the Tao Te Ching to have a flexible attitude: 'A tree that won't bend, breaks easily in storms.' Being pliant and strong, willow is used for weaving, and its light weight and hardness make it the best wood for cricket bats.

Heucheras are shade-loving plants, native to the woodlands of North America. Grown for their foliage, their leaves come in a huge range of colours from red, purple, vivid green and even silver, and they bear attractive flowers in summer, too. Heucheras make excellent ground cover plants, and work well in winter pot displays. Members of thesaxifrage family, heucheras are also known as coral bells and alumroot.

When tapped to design a series of planters for our2024 Idea House in the Kiawah River community on Johns Island, South Carolina, plant pro Steph Green of Contained Creations in Richmond, Virginia, knew exactly what the waterfront property needed. “We wanted to create the most beautiful and biggest statement container gardens, but they needed to be durable and last a long time with minimal upkeep,” says Green. “That’s why picking evergreens or really tough perennials from the Southern Living Plant Collection was kind of the launching point for each individual design.”

While most plants struggle to survive when it’s time for frost, these ones thrive! So, as you layer up in wool and fur and ready your fireplace, these plants shed their shyness and burst into the prettiest blooms in fall; some of these even continue their show in winter! We present to you the best cool-season flowers that love chilly weather. Dig in!

29 of the Best Blue Succulent Plants

Ohio straddles the line between a continental climate in the north and a subtropical climate in the south. According to the region, it experiences all four seasons in wavering levels of intensity: cold, frosty winters, hot and humid summers, and a wholesome spring and fall. We share the best fruit trees to grow in Ohio across its climes and soil types!

Well, I did it, got out our stepladder and climbed up to cut some of the mammoth sunflowers for today’s vase! Joining them are several stems of Rudbeckia ‘Cappucino’ which work brilliantly with the sunflowers as they are all on the same colour palette. The sunflowers, ‘Velvet Queen’ and ‘Earthwalker’, are both shades of copper, and the rudbeckia range from pure to two-tone copper in various coppery degrees.