Life Style & Travel

Most of the favorite houseplants are grown for dense evergreen foliage. Stems of Chinese evergreen, anthuriums, bromeliads and most ferns should never be seen. Yet, there are many houseplants that grow like small trees or coarse vines. Various ficus, dracaenas and philodendrons can get too big for their situations if not pruned. Palms can not be pruned down, so...

Just three weeks after Christmas, many of us are already wondering what to do with poinsettias, cyclamens, Christmas cacti, hollies and living Christmas trees. Christmas cacti and hollies are perhaps the easiest of these to accommodate. Christmas cacti do not even need to leave the home as their flowers eventually deteriorate, since they are happy as foliar houseplants or...

Everyone knows that flowers provide color in the garden, particularly through spring and summer. As blooms become less abundant in autumn, fall color of deciduous plants and trees becomes more prominent. After most plants are finished blooming, and most of the fall color is gone, the garden may seem relatively bleak for winter. Only evergreen foliage remains. This is...

It may not seem like the middle of winter is a good time for much gardening, but now that any unsold Christmas trees have been removed from nurseries, bare roots plants are moving in. They should be available through the rest of winter, until warming spring weather prompts bloom and emergence of new foliage.As the name implies, 'bare root'...

UNITED STATES—Only months after the horrific massacre in a Colorado movie theatre, the unthinkable has happened again with a deranged gunman committing mass murder. This time, the victims include an entire kindergarten class and school personnel in Connecticut. Despite the outpouring of support to survivors and their loved ones from communities throughout the country, there is no way to relieve...

UNITED STATES—The vast orchards of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys are there for a reason. California is one of the best places in the world to grow fruit trees. However, whether they are in vast orchards or compact urban gardens, even the happiest and healthiest of fruit trees need considerable and specialized attention. Most of the classic deciduous fruit...

The vast orchards of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys are there for a reason. California is one of the best place in the world to grow fruit trees. However, whether they are in vast orchards or compact urban gardens, even the happiest and healthiest of fruit trees need considerable and specialized attention. Most of the classic deciduous fruit trees...

LOS ANGELES—Early planning is always important when it comes to major tasks. Whether it’s about buying a car or simply fixing your deck, planning is always essential in order to avoid problems later.  And it’s no different when it comes to buying your dream home or simply your first one. It’s all about planning. Thinking ahead and using common sense...

My rhubarb really has been around a while! My father's father's father and mother grew it quite some time ago, and shared some shoots of it with my father. He then shared it with my maternal grandmother, who shared it with her mother, another of my great grandmothers, who thought it was something really exotic. Along the way, it...

Lily of the Nile is so easy to propagate by division of congested old plants that not many of us bother to grow it from seed. No one wants to leave the prominent but less than appealing seed pods out in the garden long enough to turn brown and ripen after the blue or white flowers are gone anyway....