To grow Arabian jasmine, give the plant full sun, a loose well-drained mix, and a pot you can carry indoors, because this tropical shrub only survives outdoors year-round in USDA zones 9 through 11. A healthy plant reaches 6 to…
Start with a 20-gallon (76-liter) pot, full sun, and a plan to bring the tree indoors before hard frost. That is how to grow bilimbi outside the tropics: the tree stays small enough to wheel inside, and seeds grow into…
Start roselle seeds indoors 6 weeks before your last frost. Learning how to grow roselle in a temperate climate comes down to three moves after that: full sun, a large container, and picking the fleshy red calyces 100 to 110…
Five rules decide whether Australian native plants thrive in your garden: drainage, sun, local provenance, low-phosphorus feed, and mulch 75 to 100 mm deep. A native that gets all five thrives on neglect. A native that misses one fails while…
Pick the banksia that fits the space before you fall for the flower. The 15 picks below run from a 45 cm dwarf to a 25 m tree, and each one carries its mature height, its spread, its flower color,…
Pick a banksia that fits the space, the soil, and the summer humidity you actually have. The genus holds 173 species, from groundcovers under half a meter to trees that reach 25 m, according to the Australian National Botanic Gardens…
A spooky garden does not need a truckload of store-bought props. Most halloween garden ideas worth copying start with what the fall garden already produces: pumpkins, gourds, dried seed heads, cornstalks, and dark-leaved plants. This list gathers 150 of them,…
Black cardamom does not want what green cardamom wants. It grows on cool, wet, shaded slopes in the eastern Himalayas, and it will tell you quickly when your garden cannot copy that. Before you buy a single seed, know the…
Beginner gardening in Australia starts with 6 hours of sun, a ribbon test on your soil, and one small bed. A first garden fails when the gardener plants first and reads the site later. Read the site first and the…
Two seasons stand between the seed and the flower. Sow forget-me-not seeds in late summer and they flower the following spring. The seed wakes within weeks, but the plant spends a full year as a leafy rosette before it blooms.…
Buy a snake plant, give it bright indirect light, and water it only when the soil has dried through. Water it 2 times a month in summer and once a month in winter. In my experience, the snake plants that…
This is how to grow cosmos flowers: sow after the last frost, once the soil has warmed past 18°C (65°F). Seeds emerge in 7 to 21 days, and the first flowers open 8 to 12 weeks after sowing. That timing…
Check your state’s weed list before you sow a single kochia seed in Australia. That check takes 5 minutes and decides whether you are planting an ornamental or committing an offence. Kochia (Bassia scoparia) is Prohibited Matter in New South…
Tejpat is a tree. Say it plainly, because most first-time growers picture an herb. Indian bay leaf (Cinnamomum tamala) is an evergreen tree from the Himalayan foothills that reaches 12 meters or more in the wild, and even a pampered…
If you want to learn how to grow Rehmannia glutinosa, start with the seed packet, not the soil. The plant sold as “Chinese foxglove” seed is usually a different species entirely, while the true Di Huang of traditional Chinese herb…
Brown spots about a quarter inch across, ringed in purple or black, on your boxwood or hydrangea leaves are most likely Phyllosticta leaf spot. Here is the honest news first: on established shrubs this fungal disease is cosmetic, and a…
Australian grass identification starts with three photographs: the whole clump, one leaf pulled flat, and one seed head. Those three shots separate a lawn grass from a native grass and an ornamental grass in most cases. A grass that still…
You can grow perilla from seed in a single season and start picking leaves about five to six weeks after sowing. Perilla (Perilla frutescens) is a warm-season annual in the mint family, and the whole project, from seed packet to…
Gotu kola (pegagan) grows in 90 days from a rooted runner and belongs in a pot, not the open garden. This creeping tropical perennial sends out stolons that root at every node, so a wide shallow container holds it in…
Press lemon basil seed into damp mix 4 to 6 weeks before your last frost, and the first sprouts break the surface in 10 to 14 days at 70 to 85°F. That is how to grow lemon basil from seed:…
