A smoke tree rewards you with summer haze and fiery fall color, but only if you get its two quirks right: lean soil and the pruning that decides the smoke.
Seed starting mix is a fine, sterile, soilless medium for sprouting seeds – what it is, how it beats potting mix and garden soil, and how to use it right.
The sedum plant is the ultimate low-care perennial, but most failures come from too much water and rich soil. Learn how to grow stonecrop the right way.
What is a seedling heat mat? It is a waterproof pad that warms your seed tray from below so warm-season seeds germinate faster and far more evenly indoors.
The serrano pepper runs two to five times hotter than a jalapeno, yet one compact plant is easy to grow and yields 50-plus pods from seed to harvest.
Sassafras is a striking native tree with three leaf shapes, fiery fall color, and aromatic roots, but it suckers fast and carries a safrole caveat.
Sandalwood is a prized fragrant tree, but it is a slow hemiparasite that must tap a host plant’s roots and takes 15 to 30 years to harvest. How to grow it.
The saguaro cactus is among the slowest plants you can grow. Learn to start one from seed, grow it in a pot, give it the right care, and buy it legally.
The salvia plant blooms all summer with little fuss, yet one type returns each year while another dies at frost. How to plant, water, and deadhead salvia.
Rutabaga is a dense, sweet fall root that improves after frost. Learn how to grow rutabaga from seed, thin and water it, dodge brassica pests, and store it.
Sago palm care looks easy until overwatering rots the roots or a curious pet finds the deadly seeds. Here is how to grow Cycas revoluta safely.
Sagebrush dies fast from rich soil and overwatering, unlike most shrubs. Learn how to grow this silvery, aromatic native of the western high desert.