About Fuchsia Flowers Fuchsias look exotic. This fascinating flower offers blossoms that look like little hanging lanterns. You can get fuchsias that flower in shades of red, magenta, pink, purple and white. In fact, there are many kinds of fuchsias. The genus contains over 100 species of fuchsias, many with pendulous flowers. Their growing habits can be prostrate (low to the ground), trailing or upright. The fuchsia plants most familiar to many gardeners are those that are planted in hanging baskets, but other types of fuchsia flowers that are upright are also available in commerce....

How Much Light Does a Staghorn Fern Need? In the wild, staghorn ferns grow in the nooks and crannies of trees in tropical forests. This means that they are adapted to the bright but dappled sunlight that filters down through the branches of the trees. You can recreate this setup easily by hanging your own staghorn fern outdoors on the trunk of a large tree. While dappled sunlight is good, staghorn ferns also do extremely well in bright, indirect light....

With the arrival of summer conditions, the regional gardening list is filled with chores that will help ensure the garden is kept healthy and productive from summer into the fall. July Garden Tasks Ohio Valley gardening in July can be challenging. First and foremost, growers will need to take precautions to ensure that they are able to keep themselves safe. Make certain to avoid working on the hottest of days....

Help, My Marigolds are Not Blooming! Marigold plants not flowering? In order to get more blooms on your marigolds, it helps to understand the most common reasons for no flowers on marigolds. Fertilizer – If your soil is moderately rich, no fertilizer is needed. If your soil is poor, limit fertilizer to an occasional light feeding. Marigolds in excessively rich (or overfertilized) soil may be lush and green but may produce few blooms....

About Mickey Mouse Plant Propagation Mickey Mouse plant (Ochna serrulata), or carnival bush, is a semi-evergreen shrub to small tree that grows to about 4-8 feet (1-2.5 m.) in height and 3-4 feet (about a meter) across. Native to eastern South Africa, these plants are found in a variety of habitats, from forests to grasslands. The glossy, slightly serrated green leaves are accented with fragrant, yellow blooms from spring to early summer....

Oatmeal Uses in Gardens Below are the most common uses of oatmeal in gardens. Oatmeal pest control Oatmeal is nontoxic and slugs and snails love it – until it kills them by swelling up inside their slimy little bellies. To use oatmeal as pest control, just sprinkle a little dry oatmeal around your plants. Use oatmeal sparingly, as too much can swell and become gooey and packed around stems if the soil is moist....

Symptoms of Oats with Halo Blight Halo blight in oats presents as small, buff-colored, water-soaked lesions. These lesions usually occur just on foliage, but the disease can also infect the leaf sheaths and chaff. As the disease progresses, the lesions expand and coalesce into blotches or streaks with a characteristic pale green or yellow halo surrounding the brown lesion. Halo Bacterial Blight Control Although the disease is not fatal to the overall oat crop, heavy infections do kill off the leaves....

Pasilla Bajio Information What is a pasilla pepper? Also called pasilla bajio, this chili’s name in Spanish literally means “little raisin.” This is a slight misnomer, since the pepper is much bigger than a raisin, usually reaching 6 to 9 inches (15-23 cm.) in length and 1 inch (2.5 cm.) in diameter. It’s the color of the pepper, which turns a very dark brown when it matures, that earns the plant its name....

Broccoli Plant Types It is no doubt that seasoned gardeners know the joy of early and late season broccoli cultivars. However, many may not realize that experimenting with different broccoli plant types can add diversity to the garden, as well as help to produce a consistent harvest of fresh produce for several weeks at both the beginning and end of the growing season. From Chinese broccoli to Romanesco broccoli, the addition of different kinds of broccoli can add a new and interesting dynamic to your harvest basket, and to the kitchen....

Growing Lavender in Pots Lavender can be grown from seed or from cuttings. The seeds should be placed on top of sandy soil and covered lightly with a layer of perlite. They ought to sprout in two to three weeks. Cuttings should be taken from plants just below a node (where a set of leaves join the stem), dipped in root hormone, and stuck into warm, moist, sandy soil. No matter how you start your container grown lavender plants, it’s important to choose the right container and potting mix....

Powdery Mildew on Barley Powdery mildew on barley is a fungal disease. You can recognize it by looking for fluffy white patches on the leaf surface of your barley plants. These spots get grayer as they mature. Barley with powdery mildew can appear as small, isolated areas of white. The disease can also cover the entire leaf surface as fungal spores germinate and infect the leaf. When you see powdery mildew on barley, remember that the spores are using up the nutrients the plant requires to grow, reducing photosynthesis....

Step-By-Step Drip Irrigation System Winterization Less than an hour of drip irrigation winter care is usually all it takes to ensure your system will be clean, intact, and ready to use again in spring. Ideally, you should go through these steps before the first frost. Draining drip irrigation systems is another chore for the garden, but it’s an important maintenance step. If you do nothing else to protect your irrigation system, do this....

What is the Alexandre Girault Climbing Rose? Those growing Alexandre Girault climbing roses are often lured to it by the large, bright pink flower blooms which feature a somewhat fruity scent. Reaching heights of nearly 20 feet (6 m.), rambling roses of this magnitude have the true ability to make a dramatic visual impact in the garden once established. This, along with its habit of repeat bloom, makes it an ideal candidate for growers who wish to add vertical appeal to the growing space....

Reasons for Dry Fig Fruit One of the more common reasons for tough, dry fig fruit may have to do with the weather. If you have had an especially long spell of excessive heat or drought, the quality of the fig fruit will be compromised, resulting in fig tree fruit that is dry inside. Of course, there isn’t much you can control about the weather, but you can make sure to irrigate more frequently and mulch around the tree with straw to aid in water retention and generally reduce environmental stress....

Maintaining Northwest Gardens in June Your gardening to-do list for June depends largely on your climate, but most areas of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho are seeing warmer temperatures and are finally beyond the last frost. Here are a few ideas to get you started. It’s safe to remove leaves from tulips, daffodils, and other spring bloomers as soon as they turn brown and you can easily pull the foliage. Gardeners in Central or Eastern Oregon may need to wait a little longer....

Rome Beauty Apple Info Introduced in Ohio in 1816, popular Rome Beauty apple trees are widely grown across North America. Rome Beauty trees are available in two sizes. Dwarf trees reach mature heights of 8 to 10 feet (2-3 m.), with a similar spread; and semi-dwarf, which reach heights of 12 to 15 feet (3.5-4.5 m.), also with a similar spread. Although Rome Beauty apple trees are self-pollinating, planting another apple tree in close proximity can increase the size of the harvest....

Romulea Iris Info Romulea flowers are members of the Iris (Iridaceae) family. And although they may be members of the family and commonly referred to as an iris, the flowers of Romulea plants resemble that of crocus blooms. Coming in a wide range of colors, these small flowers bloom very low to the ground. Due to their bloom habit, Romulea flowers look beautiful when planted together in large masses. How to Grow a Romulea Iris Like many lesser known flowers, locating Romulea plants may be very difficult at local plant nurseries and online....

Winter Pollen Issues Even though the usual pollen allergy suspects, blooming plants, are gone for the season, that doesn’t mean that pollen isn’t still a problem for susceptible individuals. Mountain cedar trees, found primarily in South and central Texas, are a type of juniper that pollinates in the winter, often triggering seasonal plant allergies. From December through March, these winter allergy plants send up great clouds of “smoke,” actually pollen, and it is a major cause of hay fever....

Tips on Installing Plants in Sandy Soil It can be tough finding shade-loving plants for sandy soil. This is due to the challenges with low light and poor soil. If you have just one of these challenges it would be easier, but with both a gardener has to get very creative. Shade and sand plants will not only receive little photosynthesis but will also live in a perpetually dry environment. Don’t despair if this situation is your garden....

How to Plant Standing Cypress Growing standing cypress is suitable for growing in USDA plant hardiness zones 6 through 10. This hardy plant prefers dry, gritty, rocky, or sandy soil and is susceptible to rot where the ground is moist, soggy, or too rich. Be sure to locate standing cypress plants in the back of a bed or wildflower garden; the plants can reach heights of 2 to 5 feet (61 cm....