How to Grow Tulips in Water They say hunger makes the best sauce, but I am too impatient to wait for results in my landscape. Growing tulips without soil is a DIY favorite trick to get these Dutch darlings faster into the home. Tulips have a chilling requirement of 12 to 15 weeks, which they get outside naturally unless you purchase pre-chilled bulbs. You can also do it yourself in your refrigerator at any time and be that much closer to a bounty of blooms....

Using Lobster Shells in the Garden A home garden’s compost pile will be localized and personalized by its gardener. In the Midwest, where everyone loves their lush green lawns, a gardener’s compost pile will probably contain a lot of grass clippings; but in arid desert-like areas, grass clippings can be sparse in a compost pile. Coffee lovers, like myself, will have plenty of coffee grounds and filters to compost; but if you start each day with a healthy, homemade smoothie, your compost bin may contain a lot of fruit and vegetable peels....

Can You Garden While Traveling? While keeping a garden in a moving vehicle may sound unwieldy and even impossible, many rovers do it with style and success. Start small and then work your way up to edibles. Even a cache of succulents can brighten the interior of a motor home and are low-maintenance. Choose what your goal is and get cracking on some of these traveling garden ideas. If you once had a garden and find yourself missing it as you wander the world, there is hope....

Help! My Garden Tools are Rusted Prevention is the best solution for rusty garden tools. Try to clean your tools well after each use with a rag or brush, water, and dish soap or pine sol. Be sure to remove any sap or sticky residue. After cleaning your tools, dry them and then spray them with WD-40 or rub them down with mineral oil. Store your tools hanging on hooks in a dry airy location....

What is Canola Oil? Canola refers to edible oilseed rape, a plant species in the mustard family. Relatives of the rapeseed plant have been cultivated as food for millennia and were used as both food and fuel oil since the 13th century throughout Europe. Rapeseed oil production peaked in North America during the World War II. It was found that the oil adhered well to moist metal, ideal for use on marine engines crucial to the war effort....

Naturally, maple tree sales have increased because not only do they provide good shade but, like ash, they put on spectacular displays of fall color. However, maples oftentimes have problematic surface roots, which make them unsuitable as street or terrace trees. A more suitable option is the Aristocrat pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Aristocrat’). Continue reading to learn more about Aristocrat flowering pear trees. Flowering Aristocrat Pear Tree Info As a landscape designer and garden center worker, I am often asked for suggestions of beautiful shade trees to replace ash trees that were lost to EAB....

Growing Bronze Dutch Clover Bronze Dutch clover is easy to grow as long as you can provide well drained, lightly moist soil. The plants tolerate both full sunlight and partial shade, although afternoon shade is beneficial for growing bronze Dutch clover in hot climates. However, too much shade will produce green plants, and a few hours of daily sunlight brings out the red in the leaves. Bronze Dutch Clover Lawns Bronze Dutch clover spreads by runners both above and below ground, which means bronze Dutch clover plants expand easily, choking out weeds and controlling erosion in the process....

Using Liriope as Lawn Liriope (commonly referred to as monkey grass) is a clumping to spreading plant that is sometimes called a border grass. It is useful in barricading regular turf grasses from garden. There are several species, any of which would be excellent groundcover or substitute for traditional turf grass. Liriope plants are adaptable to many types of growing conditions, which is another plus when using them for a lawn....

What is a Cat Whiskers Plant? Cat whiskers (Orthosiphon aristatus) is an evergreen member of the mint family and its showy white blossoms set it apart from the crowd. The flowers stand above the plant’s shiny, dark-green leaves, and the color contrast sets off the snowy blooms beautifully. The long, elegant stamens look just like white cat whiskers, which is how the plant got its name. A cat whiskers plant is an upright plant that looks stunning beside trailing and mounding plants....

Cauliflower Growing Problems Cauliflower has two phases of growth– vegetative and reproductive. The reproductive phase means head or curd growth and any number of conditions during the reproductive phase such as unusually hot weather, drought, or low temps can result in small premature heads or “buttons.” Some people think of this as a headless cauliflower. If you have no head on your cauliflower, it’s undoubtedly stress affecting the plant. Stresses that affect cauliflower development may be overly cold soil or air temps in the spring, lack of irrigation or nutrition, root bound plants, and insect or disease damage....

Why Hydrangea Color Changes After you have decided that you want to make your hydrangea change color, it is important to understand why hydrangea color can change. The color of a hydrangea flower depends on the chemical makeup of the soil it is planted in. If the soil is high in aluminum and has a low pH, the hydrangea flower will be blue. If the soil has either a high pH or is low on aluminum, the hydrangea flower color will be pink....

What is Chinese Witch Hazel Plant? Native to China, this witch hazel plant is most popularly known for its oddly shaped blooms and fragrance. In fact, Chinese witch hazel is among the most fragrant of all witch hazel types. Each spring, plants produce a profusion of bright yellow flowers. Before shedding their leaves for the winter, you’ll be rewarded with showy yellow-orange fall foliage that’s especially attractive in landscape plantings....

Chive Seed Propagation Chives are grown primarily for their culinary uses, but the herb may also be grown for its lovely, light purple flowers and flourishes in containers as well as in the garden proper. A member of the onion or Amaryllidaceae family along with garlic and leeks, chives are native to northern Europe, Greece, and Italy. This hardy, drought tolerant perennial grows to between 8 and 20 inches (20-51 cm....

How to Make Christmas Cactus Bloom When you want to force a Christmas cactus to bloom, you need to understand the Christmas cactus bloom cycle: little water, dormancy, light, and temperature. Begin by limiting the amount of water the plant receives. This generally takes place sometime during fall, usually around October or the first part of November (in most places). Cut down on watering just enough to allow the soil to remain slightly moist....

Christmas Cactus Fungal Issues Rots, including basal stem rot and root rot, are the most common problems affecting Christmas cactus. Stem rot- Basal stem rot, which generally develops in cool, damp soil, is easily recognized by the formation of a brown, water-soaked spot at the base of the stem. The lesions eventually travel up the stem of the plant. Unfortunately, basal stem rot is usually deadly because treatment involves cutting the diseased area from the base of the plant, which removes the supportive structure....

What is Coastal Leucothoe? This is a small, easy maintenance bush that has a few specific requirements for optimum growth and development. Glossy, alternate leaves are toothed with sometimes serrated margins. Clusters of white, bell shaped blooms sprout in axillary racemes from leaf axles in spring. These are not showy. This weeping evergreen bush grows in a variety of Hardiness Zones and conditions. It can take the cold as far north as Zone 5, but will flourish when it’s afforded cold weather protection from wind and provided with a substantial layer of mulch in winter....

Codling moths are common pests of apples and pears, but may also attack crabapples, walnuts, quince, and some other fruits. These small unassuming moths are dangerous to commercial crops and can cause extensive fruit damage. Actually, it is the moth’s progeny, the larva, which cause the damage while feeding. Controlling codling moths is important to prevent the spread of the insects and widespread orchard damage. Fruit trees need to be treated according to the codling moth life cycle to be the most effective....

Types of Naranjilla Plants There are no truly wild naranjilla plants. Plants are usually propagated from seed collected from previous crops, resulting in only three varieties of naranjilla, Solanum quitoense. While several South American countries cultivate naranjilla, it is most common in Ecuador and Columbia where the fruit is known as ‘lulo.’ In Ecuador, there are five different varieties of naranjilla recognized: agria, Baeza, Baezaroja, bola, and dulce. Each of these bears some slight difference from each other....

Daylily Companion Plants There are a few basic guidelines to consider when choosing companions for daylilies. First of all, daylilies prefer full sun or at least very light shade, so any companion plants for daylily plants should have similar requirements. Be careful, though – don’t plant anything taller than your daylilies, or else you’ll accidentally create shade in your sunny spot. Daylilies also like well-drained, rich, slightly acidic soil, so stick to plants that like the same....

What to Plant with Flowering Quince Chaenomeles speciosa is the botanical name for flowering quince. These attractive plants can be espaliered for maximum vertical impact or simply left to grow into a natural form. The deep rose red of the blooms looks impressive when combined with golden foliage and floral tones. The flowers form before the plant leafs out, so evergreen flowering quince companion plants complement the stark grayish brown stems decorated with wicked spines....