13 Top Tips on How to Revive a Stunted Houseplant

Have you ever been working in your garden and been interrupted? This has happened to me many times. I left my tools, thinking I would come back to finish the job but get sidetracked. Hours or days later, I start looking for the shovel, rake, or pruners and cannot find them. One way to alleviate the problem is as easy as purchasing a can of brightly colored spray paint.

If trapped under a solid sheet of ice, decomposing plant material and wastes from fish or other inhabitants can create a building of noxious elements such as ammonia, nitrites and carbon dioxide, all of which can harm (or suffocate) any life overwintering in the pool, and also taint the water.Make a plan now to keep a hole in the ice; never let the pool freeze completely over. Depending on the pool size and your wintertime lows, maintain at least a small hole in the ice with an appropriate wattage level of floating pond de-icer (that’s one of

WHAT WERE GARDEN READERS interested in in 2015? As is often the case, it’s usually about solutions–like when to sow seed or pull your garlic, tips for growing a great tomato, or how to prevent spindly seedlings, or whether to worry if conifer needles turn brown. Have a look at 2015’s top-40 stories over all (including not just ones published in 2015 but also those from the archive, often found by searchers), and also a list of the top-10 new-in-2015 topics: new-in-2015 top 10do home weed and pest remedies work? with Jeff Gillmanpoison ivy with Dr.

You might remember Don from his last visit to the program, when he taught me how to grow onions like a pro from seed, one of the most popular subjects ever on my show and website. Well, apparently Don had somehow heard what was on my mind, because he wrote to suggest a conversation about what he calls Brassica success tips. Serendipity.Don Tipping has been growing and selling wholesale seed on his farm called Seven Seeds for about 20 years, and in 2009 started a retail seed company as well, Siskiyou Seeds, offering his own seed and also the best varieties from a number of organic seed-farming frie

Carefully choose your varieties for each season, sowing faster-maturing varieties for spring and slower-maturing varieties for summer plantings for fall harvest and storage.2.Direct sow for success: Growing root vegetables can be especially challenging because they require direct seeding to grow strong, unhindered roots and some grow rather slowly from seeds, especially in cooler spring soils. Beets are an exception that can be transplanted, with care taken to get them planted at the right time. (Some farmers are experimenting with planting radishes, beets, and even carrots with the Paperpot Transplanter to give them a jump on the weeds.)3. Don’t skimp on sunshine—select a full-sun location. Too much shade means your plants may struggle, and under-perform.4.

Even though my own garden is put to bed, the wheels in my gardener brain are still whirring. I’m looking for the seeds of ideas for the year to come, so to that end lately I’ve been rereading a book published just a few months ago, “Nature into Art: The Gardens of Wave Hill,” (Amazon affiliate link) and from it and its current Director of Horticulture, I got some practical inspiration. Louis Bauer is just the third director of horticulture in Wave Hill‘s history, though the garden in the Riverdale section of the Bronx was founded in 1965.He shared tips on upcycling prunings into plant supports; how easy hedges can create serious architecture; how to encourage desirable self-sowns like poppies, larkspur and others to flourish; how repeating shapes (not just colors) ca

“Now what was I supposed to do with this one?” we say, scratching our heads while not-so-accidentally turning away to some other task, and leaving the botanical sprung mattress innards just hanging there. Boing! I asked Dan Long of Brushwood Nursery to help me (us!) get past our “pruning fears and misconceptions,” as he calls them.The how-to pruning story is below in Q&A format, plus pruning diagrams … and a podcast full of more vine-growing tips beyond the subject of pruning.the clematis-pruning q&a with dan longQ. On the Brushwood website, and in other Clematis references, pruning instructions always refer back to three types, or groups. Ca

That’s today’s topic: top tips I got from 2019’s most popular interviews—like whether to use black or clear plastic to smother weeds, or how to diagnose the presence of dreaded invasive Asian jumping worms. And on a brighter note: when exactly to cut those peonies to have the longest-lasting blooms in a vase, and how to get maximum performance out of our familiar annual flowers.Read along as you listen to the bonus show from the week of January 6, 2020 of my public-radio program and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).So: On to the tips!flo

“Nature Into Art: The Gardens of Wave Hill” lets us feast on the design daring, the color plays, the garden pictures captured in its extravagant photography by Ngoc Minh Ngo, but at the same time it tells us how they were accomplished, teaching us the tenets of the Wave Hill way of gardening that we can put into practice at home.Tom Christopher, a graduate of New York Botanical Garden School of Professional Horticulture and longtime garden writer and friend, wrote the new book, and along the way even Tom, with all his prior training, enjoyed a sort of insider’s advanced course in garden making and maintaining. He shared some of

I got both lessons from Don Tipping, a seed breeder and farmer who’s “been a samurai warrior for” some exceptional Allium varieties, along with a number of other crops with names like River Spirit Rainbow flour corn, and Alive Vates kale and ‘Mideast Peace’ cucumber. Don spearheads the Siskiyou Seeds effort from his home farm in southern Oregon (with help from the occasional sleepy assistant, above, working in the greenhouse).Read along as you listen to the Jan. 19, 2015 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. Come away with a new reverence for the contents of every seed packet, and as promised: Learn to grow onions from seed like an expert. No, bigger bulbs are not always better as a goal, it turns out, and planting on the traditional

Winter brings short days, fluctuating cold temperatures, low humidity, and limited sunlight, making it tough for indoor plants to grow. Here are some essential steps that you can take on toKeep Houseplants Alive in Winters.

Have a growing house plant collection and not sure about their care when you take off for vacation? The best way is to have a family or friend come over to help, but sometimes this may not be possible. Many indoor plants can survive a week without their parents' care, but you’ll want to consider some factors, such as lighting, and giving them a thorough watering before you leave. There are several tips and tricks to ensure your plants manage without you. We asked Southern horticulturists for their best plant care tips while you’re away