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.
Flower types make more sense sorted by life cycle, bloom season, sun or shade, and use – cut flowers, pollinators, containers – with examples in each group.
A eucalyptus tree gives you silvery foliage, peeling bark, and fragrance, but the wrong species turns huge and invasive. Learn how to choose and plant one.
Elephant ears deliver giant tropical leaves, but Colocasia and Alocasia need opposite care. Get planting, watering, feeding and winter storage right.
The eastern redbud dazzles with rosy-pink spring blooms, but wet soil and bad pruning cut its life short. Learn how to plant, prune, and keep it thriving.
An elephant ear plant turns a garden tropical fast, but those huge leaves need the right water, light, and winter plan. Here is how to grow them by zone.
Dipladenia rewards little fuss with nonstop trumpet blooms, but soggy soil and frost kill it. Learn to water, feed, overwinter, and tell it from mandevilla.
A dogwood tree rewards good placement and punishes bad. Learn how to choose the right type, plant it at the right depth, water it, and fix one not blooming.
Dusty miller brings frosty silver foliage that shrugs off heat and drought. Learn how to plant, water, prune, overwinter, and propagate this easy favorite.
Dianthus care comes down to full sun, sharp drainage, and a shear after bloom. Learn which pinks return each year, overwinter by zone, and renew woody plants.
Dahlia flowers bloom from midsummer to frost, but rotted tubers and floppy, flowerless plants frustrate gardeners. Learn to plant, feed, stake, and store them.
Delphinium has a name for being fussy and short-lived, but the right soil, sun, and early staking turn these towering spires into a border star for years.
The deodar cedar is a fast-growing, drought-tolerant Himalayan evergreen, but soggy soil kills it fast. Learn how to plant, site, and care for this conifer.