Ornamentals

Geraniums are popular ornamental plants grown for their attractive foliage and flowers. Apart from attracting pollinators, they have another valuable attribute that is often ignored.  Geraniums are an excellent natural insect repellant against pests, keeping them from laying eggs and even fumigating them. In this article, we will explain how this attractive plant can play […]

Tired of endless flower lists that don’t live up to their pollinator-friendly claims? Look no further. Our ultimate list of 51 flowers, complete with pictures, is based on a UK study (Rollings & Goulson, 2019) that ranked the popularity of 111 ornamental plant cultivars amongst pollinators based on 9,000 pollinator visits over five years. Our

Mycorrhizal fungi are getting increasingly popular for improving plant health and growth naturally.  Evidence has shown that it works well with succulents and cacti. But does it also work with roses? Mycorrhizal fungi benefit roses by increasing the water and nutrient uptake, improving drought resistance, increasing the rooting of cuttings, and increasing flower production. In

The various types of roses can be confusing for anybody, even for rose lovers. “Tea roses” have single fragrant showy blooms on each long stem, and both the “Grandiflora” and “Floribunda” are more disease-resistant with clusters of flowers on the same stem and longer blooming time. Apart from that, there are many more differences.  Here

It can be frustrating to propagate rose cuttings.  Even though new leaves have grown, they can still turn black and rot. What could be the problem? Cuttings that have turned black from the bottom or from the top are both infected by the Black Spot fungus (Diplocarpon rosae) which can spread easily in warm, humid weather.

It is easy and fun to make seed bombs to start a wildflower patch to attract bees and other pollinators to your vegetable and fruit garden.  In this article, we will show you some recipes and simple steps to make seed bombs using clay, and even flour and recycled papers. Seeds – What seeds are

Plants with irregular variegated patterns on different leaves are unique and beautiful. But such variegation is unstable, and it will revert back to its all-green state.  Plants with unstable variegation are cultivars that do not have the same variegated patterns on all the leaves.  To prevent the variegation from reverting back to green, adequate lighting

If you like mottled and striped patterns of green and white on plant leaves, you may be interested in plants with variegation that is stable and will never revert. Plants with stable variegation have the same variegated pattern on all the leaves of the entire plant.  They can be naturally variegated with variegation encoded in

It’s true – not all plants have flowers.  And even though they don’t flower, these plants can still reproduce. In fact, they have adapted to live in harsh environments where they do not require a partner to reproduce. Plants that do not flower can reproduce sexually through cones with naked seeds (e.g. conifers, ginkgos, cycads)

Plants with variegated colored patterns are rare, beautiful gems for any plant collection.  How to induce variegation in your plants? The best way to induce variegation in plants is to propagate a genetically variegated plant or the variegated parts of a plant with mutated plant cells that lack the green pigment.  Inducing changes artificially by