From annuals and perennials to flowering trees and shrubs, this is where your garden gets its color. Browse planting guides, bloom-time tips, and care advice for the ornamental plants that give a yard its structure, fragrance, and year-round interest.
Hibiscus comes in three types with very different needs. Here is how to grow hibiscus with the right sun, soil, water, food and pruning for nonstop blooms.
Growing irises looks tricky, but most failures trace to one fix – bearded iris rhizomes are planted shallow with the top exposed, not buried deep.
Lupines look fussy but are easy once you nail the basics. Learn how to scarify seeds, pick the right spot, fix shy bloomers, and keep the spires coming back.
Clematis seems fussy, but it comes down to planting the crown deep and pruning by group. Learn how to support, feed, and bloom it reliably for years.
Geranium care comes down to a few basics done right. Learn the light, watering, feeding, and deadheading routine, plus three ways to overwinter your plants.
An aster lights up the fall garden, but watering, pinching, and mildew trip people up. Learn to plant, grow, and divide asters for blooms until frost.
Begonias fail when every type gets the same care – drowned tubers, bleached rex leaves. Learn to sort wax, tuberous and rex by light, water and feeding.
A holly bush rewards you with winter berries only if the site, soil, and male-female pairing are right. Here is how to plant, prune, and fix no berries.
Hens and chicks thrive on neglect, but overwatering rots them fast. Learn the sun, gritty soil, and dry care that keeps Sempervivum multiplying for years.
Heuchera dazzles with amber, lime, and near-black leaves, but its shallow crown rots in wet soil and heaves out in winter. Learn to grow coral bells right.
A hawthorn tree gives four seasons of beauty in a small package, but thorns and fire blight scare gardeners off. Learn to plant, prune, and pick a variety.
Hellebore blooms when nothing else does, but tattered leaves and shy flowers frustrate growers. Learn to plant, cut back, and propagate this shade perennial.