All plants that flower do so at a particular time according to their kind. However, it is possible to make a plant flower at a time other than its naturally occurring time when the proper, artificial conditions are created. This process is known as forcing and is often used by commercial flower growers. Certain cultivars […]

The giant amaryllis flowers commonly grown as winter-blooming houseplants are generally carefully bred hybrids derived from various species in the Hippeastrum genus, a group of tropical plants from Central and South America. These plants have strappy leaves and huge flowers shaped like trumpet lilies. The blooms are typically are a deep red, pink, white, or blend […]

A beautiful holiday plant, the Christmas cactus unsurprisingly blooms at Christmas and sometimes around Easter if cared for properly. A month prior to Christmas you’ll be able to watch the tips of the leaves beginning to grow. The tips grow darker as each day passes until a bud forms. At Christmas time, as if by […]

The lemon cypress tree, also called Goldcrest after its cultivar, is a variety of Monterey cypress. It gets its common name from the powerful strong lemon scent that its branches exude if you brush against them or crush their foliage. You can start growing lemon cypress trees indoors or outside. Lemon cypress care is not […]

Norfolk Island pine is not an actual pine tree, but rather a relative of the monkey puzzle tree, and often cultivated as a landscape tree in subtropical climates in North America and grown indoors elsewhere. It has a very straight trunk and pleasingly symmetrical branches covered with short, inward-curving needles, also called leaves. In other […]