Rose of Sharon blooms on new wood: prune in late winter, wait out late leaf-out, fix bud drop and Japanese beetles, and pick a low-seed cultivar (zones 5-8).
How to grow lilies: set large bulbs under 4 to 6 inches of soil in full sun, stake tall types, leave the stem after bloom and keep every true lily from cats.
Is that red summer cypress kochia? It’s a noxious weed in WA, OR and AZ and not the burning bush shrub. How to identify it, grow it and get rid of it.
Gardening for beginners: pick a 6-hour-sun site, test your soil, plant one 4×8 bed, and follow a first-season roadmap counted from your last frost date.
UF/IFAS says cut only fully brown palm fronds; 9 and 3 o’clock is the limit, not the goal. Tools, Fusarium sterilizing, 8 palm species and indoor palms.
Fuchsias bloom on new growth. Cut hardy types back as growth starts, pinch tender ones at two leaf pairs, and stop pinching 6 to 10 weeks before bloom.
A cut bamboo culm never regrows its height, so order matters: thin old canes first, top above a node, then leg up. Timing for each bamboo type and pots.
Heavy rain garden prep for New Mexico and West Texas: the three spots that fail first, a ten-minute fix before Saturday, and what to check once the rain eases.
Plant snowdrops about 3 inches deep in early fall or divide them in the green after bloom. Compare four species, zones 3 to 9, and where they fade in the South.
Only Virginia bluebells are native to the US. Tell them from English and Spanish bluebells by stem, pollen and scent, then see how to grow each in zones 3-8.
Larkspur seed germinates poorly in soil above 55°F. Learn when to fall-sow by USDA zone, how long to chill seed, and how to tell larkspur from delphinium.
Tell white, green, black and blue ash apart by leaf scar and leaflets, see where emerald ash borer stands, and pick from 5 replacement trees by USDA zone.
Nandina bare at the base? Alabama Extension’s cut: a third of the canes to the ground, a third halfway, a third left. Timing by region, dwarf cultivars.
A weeping willow reaches 30 to 50 feet fast and is short-lived, to 30 years or so. See how far its roots spread and how far from septic and pipes to plant it.
Pampas grass needs about 10 feet between plants and one cut each late winter. Washington lists it as noxious; three more states list its look-alike, jubata.