Author: Dan Fletcher

Types of Blooming Houseplants Easy care flowering house plants. The best blooming indoor plants to grow for success with house plants. Types of houseplants for large and small spaces. Pictures. Phalaenopsis Flowering House Plant Picture With its exotic sometimes fragrant blooms, the orchid is the queen of flowering house plants. The orchid’s beauty is unrivaled in… Continue reading Popular Flowering House Plants

Begonia semperflorens Plants Wax Begonia care is simple as long as you understand how succulent these plants are. The leaves and stems of Begonia semperflorens (meaning everblooming) are full of water. Couple this with a relatively small root system and you have a plant that can only cope with modest amounts of water. The shade-loving wax Begonia is available in several color… Continue reading Wax Begonia Care

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana The popular Kalanchoe plant will grow well indoors in a pot for a few months. Once it begins to decline, it is best to cut Kalanchoe blossfeldiana back and plant it outdoors. In a warm climate, the plant will live and bloom for many years with little care. If you live in a climate too cold for… Continue reading Kalanchoe Plant

Repotting Christmas cactus is not the easiest part of growing one. How do you know when your Christmas cactus needs to be potted up? How big a pot do you use? What kind of soil mix is best? I will answer these and other questions about growing Christmas cacti. Christmas Cactus Care covers the growing needs… Continue reading Repotting Christmas Cactus Plants

Ruellia brittoniana The 3 foot tall Mexican petunia sports 2 inch wide, 5 lobed flowers from spring till frost. Ruellia brittoniana blooms in pink or purple. The leaves are arranged opposite one another on the slender stems. Katy Ruellia is a foot tall dwarf form of R. brittoniana that spreads less. This is a tough, drought and flood tolerant plant that… Continue reading Mexican Petunia

Egyptian Star Cluster Shrub Pentas lanceolata, commonly called Egyptian star cluster shrub, is a tender perennial from USDA zones 9a-11. In colder climates it is planted as an annual. Red Pentas in our back yard. A Swallowtail butterfly is enjoying the blooms. (The blue flower beside the Pentas is a Plumbago.) Pentas flowers bloom in white, pink, red, and purple. There is… Continue reading Pentas lanceolata

Wintering Begonia Bulbs The most demanding part of tuberous begonia care is wintering the bulbs. Begonia bulbs require a dormancy period. That means they need to go to sleep at certain specific times. Here’s how to put them to bed and how to wake them back up. These tuberous Begonias have been used to form the top of this… Continue reading Tuberous Begonia Care

Plumbago Plant – Blue Plumbago CarePlumbago auriculataThe plumbago plant, Plumbago auriculata, is a marvelous South African native that is covered in true blue flowers all season long. There are light blue and darker blue as well as a white selection. The scrambling growth habit of cape leadwort makes it hard to classify. Is it a shrub… Continue reading Plumbago Plant – Blue Plumbago Care

South Africa has not produced a more popular garden plant than the Agapanthus africanus. The African lily’s strap-like, evergreen foliage and dark blue to white blooms are beloved of gardeners the world over. Did You Know? Lily of the Nile Growing on a New Zealand Beach Agapanthus is salt tolerant and grows quite happily near the sea.… Continue reading Agapanthus africanus Blue Lily of the Nile

Wild Petunia Ruellia humilis is the night flowering wild petunia. It bears the small funnel-shaped purple flowers typical of a Mexican petunia but its stems and leaves are more like those of a petunia hybrid. Its drought tolerance and small stature (6-12 inches) are characteristics it also shares with Ruellia brittoniana, the dwarf Mexican petunia. It differs from R. brittoniana in… Continue reading Ruellia humilis