How to Grow Smooth Hydrangea

A close up horizontal image of the white flowers of Hydrangea arborescens growing in the garden pictured on a soft focus background.

With snow-white pom-pom inflorescence and exfoliating, textured bark, wild hydrangeas are sure to wow any garden aficionado. Hydrangea arborescens attracts pollinators, stabilizes slopes, and is a natural border plant with showy blooms that make for an elegant cut flower. Learn how to grow wild hydrangeas now.

How to Grow and Care for Barberry Bushes

A close up horizontal image of different colored barberry shrubs growing in the garden. The one on the left has burgundy foliage and on the right, light green.

Found in most temperate and subtropical regions of the world, barberry bushes are robust evergreen or deciduous shrubs with bright green, red, orange, or burgundy foliage. Versatile and easy to grow, these shrubs are ideal as foundation plantings or standalone specimens. Learn how to plant and grow barberry in your garden.

Grow Mountain Laurel for an Impressive Garden Landscape

A close up horizontal image of pink and white Kalmia latifolia flowers pictured on a soft focus background.

Mountain laurel is a low maintenance shrub with spectacular clusters of blooms each spring and attractive evergreen foliage. It can be incorporated into any landscape and is a perfect choice for woodland gardens, hedges, or foundation plantings. Learn how to grow and care for mountain laurel in this guide. Read more now.

5 Tips for Pruning Forsythia

A close up horizontal image of the bright yellow blooms of a flowering shrub in the spring garden.

The bright yellow blossoms of arching and upright forsythia varieties are springtime favorites. To keep yours in top form, it’s important to know when and how to prune them. Read on to discover 5 tips that will help you hone your skills and have bushes that are healthier and more attractive than you thought possible.

How to Plant and Grow Red Tip Photinia

A close up horizontal image of the bright red foliage of P. x fraseri growing in sunshine.

Red tip photinia is a broadleaf evergreen shrub with vibrant red and dark green foliage. Tough and vigorous, these ornamentals are easy to grow, and provide year round interest and functionality in the landscape as a hedge or privacy screen. Learn how to plant and grow red tip photinia in this guide. Read more now.

9 of the Best Varieties of Oleander Shrubs to Grow in Your Garden

A close up horizontal image of delicate white oleander flowers growing in the garden pictured on a soft focus background.

Oleanders are drought-resistant shrubs with colorful blooms in shades of pink, red, or white. These robust plants thrive in poor soil and warm weather conditions. There are a number of different types available – from dwarf shrubs to large trees and hedges. Learn about 9 of the best oleander varieties for your landscape.

How to Manage Forsythia Gall Disease

A close up horizontal image of the bare branches of a forsythia shrub suffering from gall disease that creates unsightly cankers on the stems, pictured on a dark soft focus background.

Forsythia is a spring-blooming shrub that is best known for its profusion of bright yellow blossoms. While they are generally quite healthy, this sturdy and fast-growing shrub sometimes develops knobby bumps along its stems. Read on to find out what these unattractive growths are and why you shouldn’t ignore them.

How to Grow Beautiful Hydrangeas from Cuttings

A close up horizontal image of glorious hydrangea flowers in blue, red, pink, and purple growing in the summer garden surrounded by deep green foliage.

Hydrangeas are perennial flowering shrubs that make a bold statement in the summer garden. If you can’t get enough of these beauties why not try propagating them yourself, instead of buying expensive potted shrubs? Learn how easy it is to propagate hydrangea cuttings in this step-by-step guide. Read more now.

11 of the Best Forsythia Varieties for Glorious Spring Color

A close up horizontal image of the bright yellow flowers of spring-blooming forsythia pictured in bright sunshine on a blue sky background.

Forsythia is a deciduous shrub with bright yellow flowers that have become synonymous with spring. One of the earliest bloomers, it is sure to chase the winter blues away. Learn about 11 of the best forsythia varieties and choose your favorites, for sturdy plants that will reward with vivid color for years to come.

7 Reasons Why Forsythia May Not Bloom

A close up horizontal image of the bright yellow blooms of forsythia pictured in bright sunshine on a soft focus background.

Forsythia is a vigorous shrub that is best known for having bright yellow blossoms in early spring, when most plants are still dormant. But what happens when they fail to bloom? Learn about 7 of the most common reasons why your forsythia may not bloom, and what you can do about it in this guide. Read more now.

21 of the Best Cotoneaster Varieties for Ground Covers, Hedges, and More

Cotoneaster is a multi-season plant loved for its vivid fall colors, bright red winter berries, and wonderful versatility in the landscape. From ground covers to hedges to slope stabilizers and even bonsai, there’s a species suitable for most locations. Learn about 21 of the best cotoneaster varieties in this guide.

How to Grow and Care for Butterfly Bush

A close up horizontal image of a butterfly feeding on the nectar of a purple Buddleia flower pictured on a soft focus background.

Butterfly bush (Buddleia) is a colorful, low-maintenance perennial that attracts butterflies and other pollinators. Ideal for cottage gardens, beds, and borders, the cheerful, vibrant blooms grace the garden all summer long. Learn how to plant, grow, and care for butterfly bush in this guide. Read more now.

How to Plant and Grow Oak Leaf Holly

A close up horizontal image of the glossy green foliage of Ilex x ‘Conaf’ pictured in light sunshine and fading to soft focus in the background.

Oak Leaf holly is a hybrid cultivar with unique, shapely leaves and bright berries, that provides year-round interest to the garden. This stately, pyramid-shaped evergreen shrub is ideal as a specimen planting and can be pruned into a formal hedge or privacy screen. Learn how to grow Oak Leaf holly in this guide.

How to Change the Color of Hydrangea Flowers

A close up horizontal image of a flowering shrub growing in the garden with a park bench in the background, pictured in light filtered sunshine.

Certain species of hydrangea have the unique ability to change color from blue to pink and vice versa. With a bit of patience and diligent application of certain soil amendments, you can encourage your hydrangea flowers to change color. Learn why hydrangeas change color and how you can do it at home in this guide.

How to Grow and Care for Azaleas in Containers

A close up horizontal image of potted Rhododendron flowers growing at a plant nursery.

If you love the bright, elegant flowers of azaleas but don’t have room in your garden, why not try growing them in containers instead? You can also liven up your porch, deck, or patio with the luxurious bursts of color. Learn how to grow azaleas in pots and discover our top container-friendly cultivars in this guide.

How to Grow Cotoneaster

Cotoneaster is a showy, hardworking shrub that provides multi-season interest with deep green foliage and pretty flowers, followed by bright berries and fantastic fall colors. Attractive as groundcovers and hedges, in containers and rockeries, or against fences and walls. Learn how to grow cotoneaster in this guide.

Potted Bushes: How to Grow Shrubs in Containers

Are you short on backyard space, or simply looking to add some zest to your patio display? Try growing shrubs in containers! Versatile and fun, your options for potted bushes are virtually endless. Learn all about growing and caring for shrubs in containers, and add a whole new dimension to your garden. Read more now.

How to Grow Flowering Quince for Early Spring Color

A close up horizontal image of bright red Chaenomeles flowers growing in the garden, pictured in bright sunshine on a soft focus background.

Flowering quince is an easy-care shrub that produces vibrant flowers in late winter to early spring. Shades of pink, red, orange, and white adorn the thorny branches, signaling the end of winter, and some varieties even produce edible fruit. Learn how to plant and grow flowering quince in your garden. Read more now.

How to Grow Hydrangea Flowers in Containers

A close up horizontal image of a dark gray planter with bright blue and pink flowers pictured in bright sunshine on a soft focus background.

If you love the big, colorful blossoms of hydrangeas but don’t have room in your garden, why not try growing them in containers instead? You can even bring the luxurious bursts of color to your porch, patio, or deck. Learn how to grow hydrangeas in pots in this guide, plus we’ll share our top container-friendly cultivars.

23 of the Best Lilac Varieties to Grow at Home

A close up horizontal image of different colored lilac flowers in a wicker basket set on a wooden table and pictured on a soft focus background.

If you love lilacs you may not know that there are a number of different types, in shades of pink, purple, and white. Some boast delicate blossoms while others dazzle with double petaled blooms. There are majestic tree types and compact shrubs suitable for container growing. Discover 23 of the best lilac varieties now.

How to Grow and Care for Winterberry Holly

A close up horizontal image of bright red berries covered in water droplets pictured in bright sunshine on a soft focus background.

Nothing says winter cheer quite like the bright red berries of a winterberry holly, so why not try growing your own at home? Learn everything you need to know to add this beautiful woody shrub to your yard or garden, including some of the best uses for the deciduous perennial. Hint: holiday decor is top of the list.

23 of the Best Variegated Shrubs for Your Landscape

A close up horizontal image of a shrub with green and white variegated leaves growing in the garden.

Shrubs are plants that work hard to fill mid-height positions in the landscape. However, when they are not blooming or sporting autumn hues, they often fade into the background. Not so with variegated types. Read on to discover 23 of the best variegated shrubs that make a bold statement throughout the growing season.

How Cold Hardy Are Poinsettia Plants?

A close up horizontal image of the bright red bracts of a poinsettia plant pictured in a snowy winter landscape on a soft focus background.

Poinsettias are colorful tropical plants that add vibrant color to your holiday decor. But how cold-hardy are they? Whether you want to grow these winter-blooming plants indoors or out, you’ll need to know their cold limits. Learn more about poinsettia cold hardiness and in what areas you can grow them outdoors.

35 Favorite Poinsettia Cultivars for Your Home

A close up horizontal image of a variety of different colored poinsettia plants growing in pots pictured on a soft focus background.

From red to pink to green to yellow, poinsettias are available in a wide array of vibrant hues and a dazzling choice of intriguing patterns. We’ve made a list of 35 of our favorite poinsettia varieties including those in traditional holiday colors, and others that offer unique alternatives. Read more now.

How to Propagate Poinsettia Plants from Cuttings

A close up horizontal image of the bright red bracts of the poinsettia plant pictured on a soft focus background.

Want to grow your own poinsettias at home? Start with a live poinsettia plant and then follow seven steps for a brand new batch of beautiful, baby Christmas flowers. By taking cuttings from your established plant, you can grow others just like it. Learn how to propagate poinsettias from cuttings in this guide. Read more.

Are Poinsettia Plants Poisonous?

A close up horizontal image of a curious gray and white cat nibbling at a leaf of a Euphorbia pulcherrima plant on a dining room table. In the background is a windowsill with houseplants in soft focus.

Poinsettias have a reputation for being toxic, but are they really? These holiday plants are no longer considered poisonous, but they come with some serious safety concerns. Learn more about how to keep yourself, your kids, and your pets safe when these potentially irritating plants are in your home in this guide.

How to Grow and Care for Poinsettia Plants

A close up horizontal image of a colorful poinsettia with red and white variegated bracts and tiny flowers in the center, with white specimens in the background in soft focus.

When a bright poinsettia arrives in your home for the winter months, it’s time to celebrate! Not sure how to keep your plant happy? Whether you enjoy it just through the holidays, or you want to keep it as one of your cherished houseplants, your poinsettia needs proper care – and a little understanding. Read more now.

How to Grow Bay Laurel from Seed

A close up of a bay leaf tree with bright green leaves and fruit developing, with water droplets covering the foliage, pictured on a soft focus background.

Looking to grow bay laurel from seed? This guide will help you through the process of harvesting the seeds, encouraging them to germinate, and transplanting seedlings to the garden. We’ll also help you figure out what went wrong if you run into trouble. All you need is a little patience and this article to get started.

7 Tips for Growing Formal and Informal Forsythia Hedges

A close up of a hedge with bright yellow flowers, pictured in the sunshine on a soft focus background.

Forsythia is an ornamental shrub best known for having bright yellow flowers in early spring. Its serrated leaves are green in summer, turning bronze in fall. Grow it as an informal hedge with natural contours, or manicure it with regular pruning, for a more formal shape. Read our 7 top tips to grow forsythia as a hedge.

11 of the Best Cold Temperature Ornamental Plants for the Fall Garden

Close up of red berries from the winterberry holly covered in frost.

Do you mourn the loss of color when summer ends? Well, instead of living in the gray zone for six months, add some bold, vibrant color to the late season garden. We’ve rounded up 11 of the best ornamental plants that will add interest and vibrant hues to your fall garden. Join us now for a closer look.

How to Propagate American Beautyberries

Close up of branches of American beautyberry with ripe berries in early fall.

Now on Gardener’s Path, learn how to propagate the lovely native American shrub beautyberry. You’ll want as multitutes of these graceful plants with their large, light-green leaves, arching branches, and eye-catching purple berries, and it’s easy to get more plants from seeds or softwood cuttings. Find out more now.

Why Autumn is the Best Time for Planting Shrubs

Pyracantha or firethorn shrub with a colorful display of orange berries in the autumn.

When you feel that glorious nip in the air, you know it’s time for fall shrub planting. Head to the garden store, make some selections, fish out the spade from the toolshed, and give your bushes a tremendous head start — they’ll reward you beautifully come springtime. Get all the info now.

How to Grow Hydrangeas for Big Blossomed Beauty

Pink, purple, and blue hydrangeas in bloom in the morning sun.

Many of us know the familiar mophead hydrangea, and its pretty flowers. But did you know this beauty comes in dwarf, container-plant sizes to sprawling 50-foot vines? All have lovely, large flowers and most have good autumn color too. Interested? Then, here’s the details on how to grow hydrangea for your garden.

How to Grow Mellow Yellow ‘Ogon’ Spirea: a Shrub for All Seasons

Morning light shining on blooming branches of Mellow Yellow ‘Ogon’ Spirea.

Ogon spirea is a mounding woody shrub that’s easy to grow in sunny locations in zones 4 to 8. Tiny white blossoms in early spring and colorful foliage in fall make it a striking focal point in hedges, mixed borders, or as a stand-alone specimen. Learn how to grow this attractive landscape plant now on Gardener’s Path.

How to Grow and Care for American Beautyberry Shrubs

Now, on Gardener’s Path, learn how to grow the lovely shrub American beautyberry, native to the southeast US. You’ll love the fall and winter interest provided by the plant’s long, arching branches laden with clusters of bright purple berries, which attract many bird species, and are edible for humans, too.

How to Grow Turpentine Bush: the Desert Dazzler

Ericameria laricifolia or desert turpentine bush in full bloom with yellow flowers.

Pretty flowers aren’t just for areas with acidic soil, moderate temperatures, and bucketsful of rain. Now at Gardener’s Path, learn how evergreen desert dazzler turpentine bush contributes resplendent, deep-green needle-like leaves and showy, brilliant yellow blossoms to sophisticated Southwest landscapes.

How to Grow and Care for Sago Palm

Horizontal image of a green feathery cycad.

Learn from Gardener’s Path how you can add a dose of prehistoric drama to your landscape, home, or patio with sago, an ancient plant from Japan that looks like a palm but is actually related to conifer trees.

How to Grow Vitex Chaste Flowering Shrubs and Trees

Six spikes of lilac-colored vitex flowers, on narrow stems with skinny green leaves beneath the blooms that come to a sharp point, with green and brown foliage in the background.

Looking for an assertive grower whose attractive purple, pink, or off-white bloom spikes resemble those of lilac? Vitex — aka chaste plant — is a drought-tolerant beauty that can be pruned into a shrub, or allowed to stretch into tree form. To learn why this plant is anything but chaste, read more on Gardener’s Path.

How to Grow Salvia Flowers: Easy-Care with Colorful Blooms

Red salvia flowers with green teardrop-shaped leaves.

Looking for a durable plant that isn’t very thirsty or hungry and thrives in almost any soil? Consider growing any of the 900 or more varieties of salvia — tall, short, annual, perennial — you’ll get a tough plant softened by beautiful and profuse blooms in white, pink, red, coral, purple, blue, yellow, or coral.

The 5 Best Shrubs for Hedges High and Low

Hedges can be used for privacy or to divide to spaces | GardenersPath.com

From a curtain of arborvitae around the pool to a knee-high boxwood square around the rose garden, hedging is a landscape technique that adds beauty and function to any garden setting. Discover the best plants to create privacy and define borders in this article from your friends at Gardener’s Path.

Native Vines for Your Landscape

Red trumpet creeper vines climbing a wall.

Vines are handy for trellis or lattice arbors, to trace up trees, or to decorate a mailbox. For many, the thought of planting a native vine in their landscape or garden is preferential due to their easy maintenance. If you are considering a native vine, then these profiles should give you a few choices to …

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