Houseplants bring a breath of fresh air to a stuffy winter indoor landscape. If you’re thinking about adding a few, you may wonder which houseplant to choose – especially if you lack a “green thumb”. This depends on your interior style, your personal taste, and few practical considerations including light, day and night temperatures, the [...]

It’s been snowy and drab for too long now. These months without a garden can be hard to bear. Dreaming about the garden and perusing nursery catalogs helps to sustain us through the dark days, but I seek a more practical outlet. Filling the house with green and flowering plants of all descriptions, varying the [...]

To my delight, I was given a cheerful red cyclamen plant as a gift from a neighbor last week. I think the indoor Florist’s Cyclamen, Cyclamen persicum, is about as pretty as anything you’ll find in a pot at this time of year. Florist’s Cyclamen have sweet scented small flowers in an intense range of [...]

In honor of President’s Day, I would like to present some plant names that pay tribute to our past presidents. It’s not uncommon for scientists to name plants or other organisms after people, as you can see here. For the benefit of my horticulture students, I’m including some plant family information, too. Washingtonia is a [...]

Anthurium, with it’s bright red, long-lasting, heart-shaped bract, says “I love you!” Valentine’s Day is a time when we express our affection in words and actions, and often through flowers. At the end of a long dark winter, the gift of fresh blossoms is most cherished. A dozen roses is the traditional symbolic romantic offering. [...]

I will be speaking at the Tri-State Green Industry Conference on February 4 at the Sharonville Convention Center. I’ll be talking about perennial plants – some that are tried and true, easy-care and low maintenance perennials for our area, and some that are newer selections of these plants. For example, the Purple Coneflower, Echinaceae purpurea ‘Magnus’ [...]