Eight things you need to know about growing poinsettias

Every year, new trends and tricks pop up for holiday decorating. And this year, one holiday question that is perplexing us is: should you be washing your artificial Christmas tree?

Every fall, the United Nations holds a global meeting to discuss the state of climate change and necessary actions. This two-week gathering is for the signees of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and is called the Conference of the Parties, or COP, for short. Also in attendance are policymakers, NGOs, lobbyists, scientists and more.

It is claimed that some houseplants purify the air of our homes. They are said to rid the indoor environment of pollutants, in turn improving our breathing, our mood, and our overall health. So, is it true, and, if so, how many plants does it take to clean a room?

Who doesn’t love a gorgeous arrangement of snapdragons in the spring? Not only do these flowers keep their blooms for several months, but they often come in beautiful bold colors and gentle ombre varieties.

If you're curious about whether your home's boiler room—which contains your furnace and water heater—can serve as a storage space for common household items, the answer in most cases is no, pros say.

Dreaming about a snake can be a startling and vivid experience, often leaving many of us wondering about its deeper meaning.

You know that old saying that “friends don’t let friends grow annuals”? I now ignore that sentiment. Some of the best plants in my garden are annuals, and they are more than worth the effort of growing them every year. Annuals add bold color to my containers and beds, fill in spaces beautifully, and bloom for longer than any coneflower (Echinacea spp. and cvs., Zones 3–9) or phlox (Phlox spp. and cvs., Zones 3–9), so they bridge the flowering gaps between my perennials’ bloom times. But over the last few years as I’ve strolled the ever-more-homogenized aisles of the garden centers in my area, I’ve found myself bored silly, and in sticker shock. I always buy a few standard sweet potato vines (Ipomoeabatatas cvs., annual), calibrachoas (Calibrachoa cvs., annual), and coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides cvs., Zones 10–11), of course, but if I want something a little different, I grow it from seed.

If you're planning an IKEA trip in the next couple of months, you'll want to ensure that you're making the most of your visit, no matter whether you've frequented the retail store just once or have shopped there dozens of times.

For some people, holiday decorating begins the moment the Thanksgiving dishes are put away. The joy of the holiday season sweeps through their homes, but in the midst of the festive fervor, it's easy to overlook all of the stuff around your home that should probably not be around your home. 

Gardeners will most likely need to lime their lawn at some point. Lime is a soil amendment used to increase the soil’s pH, making it less acidic. When soil pH is too low, many lawn grass species cannot make use of nutrients in the soil, including those added through fertilizer. Liming your lawn enhances nutrient availability, which promotes healthy root and leaf growth. However, not all lawns require liming. Get to know the species of grass in your lawn as well soil characteristics to determine if your lawn needs liming.

As inextricable from mass festive wares as tinsel and paper hats, the poinsettia blazes red in most shops and homes during December. Being such an omnipresent sight makes it unappealing for many of us, but, thankfully – if the standard scarlet species makes you wince – there are less common forms available that are well worth buying to brighten the house this Christmas.

The USDA recently released a new Plant Hardiness Zone Map, and although you may have used the interactive map in the past, it got its first full revamp in over a decade.