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My Crown of Thorns Has Spots Crown of thorns is a semi-evergreen plant that produces small leaves, a lot of spiky thorns, and pretty little flowers throughout the year in warm climates. In colder climates, crown of thorns makes a good houseplant. Unfortunately, it can be impacted by a disease called bacterial leaf spot, caused by bacteria called Xanthomonas. Spotted crown of thorns plants may be suffering from this bacterial disease, but spots can also be caused by fungal infections and injury....

Staghorn Fern Chain Support Small staghorn fern plants are oftentimes hung from tree limbs or porches in wire baskets. Sphagnum moss is placed in the basket and no soil or potting medium is used. In time, a happy staghorn fern plant will produce pups that may cover the whole basket structure. As these staghorn fern clusters grow, they will become heavier and heavier. Staghorn ferns that are mounted on wood will also grow heavier and multiply with age, causing them to be remounted on larger and heavier pieces of wood....

Standard Plant Guidelines Can you make a plant into a standard? Yes, you can as long as you learn the basics of standard plant training. Training shrubs to a standard plant shape is a formal way of growing ornamental shrubs. The idea of standard plant training is to bring the bulk of the ornamental growth into the line of vision, most commonly by creating balls on sticks. Not every plant can get standard plant training....

Zone 3 Seed Starting Starting seeds in zone 3 indoors is sometimes the only way to get a plant to reach maturity in the cold, short growing season of this region. If you look at the back of most seed packets, you’ll see a recommended number of weeks before the average last frost date to start the seeds indoors. These seeds can more or less be grouped into three groups: cold-hardy, hot weather, and fast-growing hot weather....

What is a Sweet Almond Bush? Sweet almond (Aloysia virgata) is a popular garden plant, especially in southern states. It can be evergreen, semi-evergreen, or deciduous depending on where you grow it. The shrub is hardy to U.S. Department of Agriculture zone 7. In cooler areas, it grows as a deciduous dwarf plant. In perpetually warm climates, it never loses its stiff, scalloped leaves, even in winter, and it can rise to 15 feet tall (4....

Swiss Cheese Plant Info Though commonly confused with Monstera deliciosa, Adanson’s monstera plant (Monstera adansonii) is also referred to as Swiss cheese plant. Though both types of plants appear somewhat similar, the stature of this plant is much smaller and better suited for tight spaces. Monstera adansonii, which is native to Central and South America, can reach lengths of up to 65 feet (20 m.). Fortunately, for those wishing to grow this plant indoors, it is unlikely to reach those lengths....

The ability to teach and interest them in growing beautiful green things will allow them to develop a love for the world and the natural hum of its cycles. Small children are endlessly fascinated with plants and the growing process, but gardening with teens poses more of a challenge. Their self introspection makes outside garden activities for teens a hard sell. Interesting garden activities for teens will bring them back to this wholesome family activity....

Are Thimbleberries Edible? Thimbleberries are great for wildlife but are thimbleberries edible to humans too? Yes. In fact, they were once an important food of the native tribes of the region. So, if you have berries on the brain, try growing thimbleberry. This native plant is a deciduous shrub and a thornless wild species. It is found wild in disturbed sites, along wooded hills, and near streams. It is one of the first plants to reestablish after fires....

Thinning Apricot Trees Although it’s great to see a tree laden with juicy apricots, branches can easily break under the excess weight. Apricot thinning ensures that the remaining fruit receives more sunlight and air circulation, which improves the size and quality of the fruit and benefits the overall health of the entire tree. Crowded fruit places the tree at risk of diseases and insect infestation. Thinning apricot trees is best done in early spring when the apricots are about ¾ to 1 inch (2-2....

Choosing Containers for Your Xeriscaped Container Garden When you begin choosing suitable containers for your garden, you should consider size and material carefully. Since container gardens are essentially self-contained, the larger they are the less watering is needed. For example, a larger pot holds a larger volume of soil, which in turn can store more moisture than a pot half its size. As for their material, plastic and glazed clay will retain water better than unglazed terra cotta or wood; however, as long as the container provides adequate drainage, nearly any type of container can be used....

Gardening for Winter Interest Many gardeners neglect thinking about winter interest simply because their perception of the garden in winter is that it is dead. This is actually as far from the truth as it could possibly be. As a matter of fact, your garden in the winter is merely sleeping. Like a sleeping child, the winter interest garden can be one that brings about feeling of peace and beauty. With a little planning and time, your garden can become something that is pleasing to look at 365 days a year....

Tips for Transplanting Monkey Grass If you look around and find that you have monkey grass growing here and there, you have a great starting point. All you need to do is dig some up, roots and all, and move it somewhere else. For instance, if you find that monkey grass grows well around the front walkway of your new home, you could pull a few sprigs of it up, including the roots, and transplant monkey grass under the bushes in front of the house....

Transplanting roses really is not much different than planting a budded and blooming rose bush from your local greenhouse or garden center, except that the rose bush to be moved is still in its dormant state for the most part. Listed below are the instructions for how to transplant roses. Best Time to Transplant Rose Bush I prefer to start transplanting rose bushes in early spring, around the middle to the end of April if the weather is nice enough to be able to dig the soil....

Growing from rather expensive seeds, it is easy to imagine that growers may become quite alarmed when faced with sick ginseng plants. Troubleshooting Ginseng Diseases Though ginseng can be cultivated throughout much of the United States, there are several plant disease issues that may occur. Like many plants, ginseng requires very specific growing conditions in order to truly thrive. When these conditions are not met, this may lead to various fungal issues....

Trimming a Hickory Tree When Young Learning how to prune hickory trees during their early years is a crucial step for healthy trees and greater nut yield. Other reasons for hickory nut tree pruning might be aesthetics and ease of maintenance. Removal of broken or diseased stems over the tree’s life can be done at any time but early training should occur when the tree is dormant. As with any tree pruning, sanitary practices and correct cut methods increase the benefits and reduce possible harm to the plant....

Why Trim a Cherry Tree? Pruning cherries, or any fruit tree for that matter, is of paramount importance. The primary reason for trimming cherry trees is to ensure the most optimal access to sunlight. Cherry tree pruning allows for aeration, allowing light channels to penetrate the tree, allowing a better fruit set, ease of harvest, and the ability to battle or thwart disease. So in essence, when you trim a cherry tree back, it will be allowed to develop a proper form, yielding higher quality fruit earlier in its life and remaining healthier overall....

Spider Plant Leaves Turning Black Spider plants are graceful foliage plants. They are from tropical and southern Africa and cannot tolerate freezing temperatures. In warm climates, they are sometimes grown outdoors but in most regions they are grown as houseplants. The plants thrive in almost any light, soil type, and temperature provided there are no freezes. Therefore, when a spider plant has black tips, water may be the most influencing factor....

Zone 5 Flower Bulbs When it comes to cold-hardy bulbs, there are actually a number to choose from. Here are some of the most commonly planted bulbs for zone 5 gardens: Daffodil – These bulbs are a popular standard in most gardens. A wide variety of daffodils are available in shades of white, yellow, and orange and in all kinds of sizes. Plant your bulbs in the fall, pointy end up, twice as deep as the height of the bulb....

Backyard Beehives It doesn’t take much time or money to begin keeping backyard beehives. Oftentimes, you can purchase a new hive complete with bees for less than $200. You may be able to recoup that amount the following year if you harvest and sell your honey. You’ll need three kinds of bees for backyard beehives: The queen, who lays all the eggs in the hive Drones, who fertilize the queen’s eggs Worker bees, who perform all the remaining functions– including nectar gathering and care of the eggs....

How to Use Cassava Cassava, also known as manioc, yucca, and tapioca plant, is a tropical plant cultivated for its large roots. It contains toxic hydrocyanic glucosides which must be removed by peeling the roots, boiling them, and then discarding the water. Once the roots are prepped in this manner, they are ready to be used, but the question is, how to use cassava? Many cultures use cassava much like we use potatoes....