When strolling through a garden center or flipping through a plant catalog, you’ll often notice two distinct names on each tag: a common name and a botanical name. While the common name feels friendly ...

Passiflora incarnata, Nymphaea odorata, Chamaecrista fasciculata, Asclepius incarnata! Sounds like spells from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, doesn’t it? While these words could come ...

DEAR GARDEN COACH: I enjoyed your article on plant adaptations; it got me thinking about something I recently discovered when looking for a plant called mock orange. There were two — Pittosporum ...

For almost 300 years, researchers have classified life on Earth with scientific names — two-word monikers like Homo sapiens that become a kind of permanent label. But there are those who argue that ...

Today’s column is on ways to learn more about the plants in your garden. Our recent column was on determining a plant’s botanical name, which is the key to ...

Botanical names might look like a jumble of Latin, but they’re actually more useful (and less scary) than most people think. Unlike common names, which can change from place to place, botanical names ...

Often when we receive questions about a plant, all we're told is the plant’s common name. For most of our ornamental plants, that isn’t a problem, but when it comes to edible plants, figuring out the ...

While our daily interactions with our plants are limited, every proud plant parent knows that our leafy babies are more than just decorations. Not only can plants improve your health, but they often ...