Plant library
Flower growing guides
Flowers pull double duty in a garden: they feed pollinators that improve vegetable yields and fill vases all summer. Each page covers sowing or planting depth, spacing, sun, and when to expect bloom.
Flower
Zinnias
Easy annual flowers for sunny beds, cutting gardens, and long summer color.
Flower
Marigolds
Reliable warm-season annuals for beds, borders, and vegetable garden edges.
Flower
Sunflowers
Tall annual flowers grown for blooms, pollinators, and seed harvests in full sun.
Flower
Cosmos
Airy, fast-growing annuals that bloom for months with very little attention.
Flower
Lavender
A fragrant perennial for hot, sunny, well-drained sites and dried-flower use.
Flower
Coneflowers
Long-lived perennial flowers that bloom through summer heat and support pollinators.
Flower
Nasturtiums
Easy annuals with edible flowers and leaves, thriving in lean soil where others struggle.
Flower
Petunias
Long-blooming annuals for beds, borders, and containers in full sun.
Flower
Snapdragons
Cool-season spikes for spring and fall color and long-lasting cut flowers.
Flower
Dahlias
Tuber-grown showstoppers that bloom from midsummer to frost and reward staking.
Flower
Sweet peas
Fragrant cool-season climbers for trellises and cutting, best started very early.
Flower
Calendula
A cool-season annual with edible orange and yellow blooms that keeps flowering until hard frost.
Flower
Pansies
Cool-season flowers for spring and fall color in beds and containers, tolerant of light frost.
Flower
Cornflowers
Old-fashioned cool-season annuals with true blue blooms, also sold as bachelor's buttons.
Flower
Morning glories
Fast warm-season vines that cover trellises and fences with trumpet blooms by midsummer.
Flower
Foxgloves
Tall biennial spires for the back of part-shaded borders. Every part of the plant is toxic.
Flower
Hostas
Shade perennials grown for bold foliage, filling the dim corners where flowers struggle.
Flower
Impatiens
The standard shade annual, blooming nonstop in low light from spring until frost.
Flower
Daylilies
Nearly indestructible perennials that bloom for weeks and divide easily into more plants.
Flower
Garden phlox
Midsummer perennial clusters with a sweet scent, worth the airflow they demand.
Flower
Peonies
Long-lived perennials with huge late-spring blooms, often outliving the gardeners who plant them.
Flower
Sedum
Succulent perennials that bloom in fall, shrug off drought, and feed late-season pollinators.
Flower
Daffodils
Fall-planted bulbs that bloom reliably each spring and are ignored by deer and rodents.
Flower
Tobacco
Tobacco planting, spacing, and harvest guidance for home gardens, including curing basics and the plant's real toxicity.
Flower
Ice plant
A low succulent ground cover with neon daisy blooms for the hottest, driest, sunniest spots in the garden.
Flower
Cotton
Growing upland cotton as a summer ornamental: planting, heat and season needs, and the boll harvest.
Flower
Ferns
Shade perennials for the dim corners where flowers fail, from hardy groundcovers to the classic porch Boston fern.
Flower
Lantana
Nonstop hot-weather color and butterfly traffic; choose sterile cultivars where lantana runs wild.
Flower
Jasmine
The fragrant white vine most gardens call jasmine, plus the true jasmines worth knowing.