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Bonsai Care
What are the basics of effective Bonsai care.
Caring for your Bonsai tree involves many of the same activities associated with caring for a pot plant or an indoor plant. Well developed and healthy fibrous roots are essential for the continued good health of your Bonsai ...
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How to get Your Amaryllis to Flower
Amaryllis are hard flowers to categorize. They look tropical and exotic; large, lily-like trumpet blooms on tall, straight stems, with a base of strappy leaves. Flower colors go from white to deep red and include some eye-catching stripped varieties. You'll pay more for the ...
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How to Divide and Care for Bearded Iris
Carefully Dig and Lift the Bearded Iris Rhizomes
Bearded Iris are tall, elegant additions to the flower border, but they are also relatively high maintenance. You can help cut down on the incidence of soft rot and borer damage through regular division of the iris ...
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Odontoglossum orchids
The Odontoglossum alliance which includes 'The Pansy' orchids or Miltonias are a diverse, colourful and rewarding group of plants to grow. This large group of orchids are all quite similar in their requirements and if given the right conditions they will grow vigorously and ...
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Bonsai instructions
Bonsai, what is a Bonsai.Bonsai is the art of miniaturisation, it is a name given to any plant that is growing in a container and is maintained in a smaller size than its natural growth method, the Japanese have refined the techniques of Bonsai to such an extent that they ...
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Growing cacti
Growing cacti can be a lot of fun because they come in a diverse range of unique and/or unusual growth forms and doesn't require tremendous effort. Creating the growing environment that works best for you will likely require some trial and error. Once you establish the best ...
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Growing Citrus in Containers
For the most part, the areas where home gardeners plant the citrus trees are the same areas where citrus is grown commercially. But if space is limited or climate isn't suitable, it's still possible to enjoy these trees and their bounty year-round. How? By growing citrus ...
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Fertilizer Basics
Fertilizer is often called plant food -- but it's actually soil food!
Fertilizer FactsFertilizer adds fresh supplies of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to soil where these naturally occurring nutrients have been depleted. In areas where plants have been growing for a ...
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Soil Amendments and Nutrients
What to add to your soil to make it better and more productive.
Basic NutrientsPlants need a balance of nutrients for healthy growth. Fertilizers, or complete plant foods, contain all of the basic nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These nutrients are listed ...
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Mineral deficiency at palms
Most species of palms prefer acid soils well enriched with humus; especially palms that occur in rainforest areas. Palms such as Brahea species, Phoenix dactylifera, P. theophrasti and Chamaerops humilis will tolerate a wider range of soils, sometimes even ...
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10 Seed-Starting Tips
How a practiced propagator gets seedlings off to a healthy start...
Few gardening pursuits are as rewarding as growing and nurturing your own plants from seed. But growing plants from seed is not always an easy task, and over the years were ...
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How to Select Basic Garden Tools
You don't need to spend a lot to start a garden, but you do need some basic tools.
1. Select a spading fork as your first tool. Before you plant anything, you will need to open and improve the soil. A spading fork looks like a pitchfork but has a ...
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Growing tomatoes in greenhouse
PlantingOne or two tomato crops can be planted in the greenhouse during the year. Planting, transplanting, and harvest dates will vary depending on location. As most tomato varieties will begin to ripen 100 days after planting.
Harvesting may be terminated at an earlier ...
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Greenhouse Vegetable Production
Location of GreenhouseThe ideal location for a greenhouse has high winter light intensity, moderate winter temperatures and low humidity. The easy availability of existing utilities will help reduce establishment costs and will affect ongoing fuel costs. ...
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Protecting your garden plants from frost and snow
How to protect your garden from the cold winter weather.
Nothing typifies the autumn and winter as much as a hard frost, creating a sparkling white coating on all your garden plants. Although beautiful to look at, frost can be a major problem for gardeners, ...
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Garden design elements
1. The gradingA good time to grade is in the fall before the heavy rains come, and then allow the surface to settle until spring, when the finish may be made.
2. The terraceIn places in which the natural slope is very perceptible, there is a tendency to ...
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Growing Begonias Through The Winter
There are at least two reasons why you might want to consider growing your tuberous begonias over the winter under fluorescents. Take cuttings of favourite plants in the fall just before I start the process of putting the begonias to bed for the winter. The ...
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A Simple Guide to Repotting Container Plants
Trimming the roots and refreshing the soil give potbound plants a new lease on life.
Most healthy container-grown plants eventually outgrow the confines of their pots. A good way to reinvigorate a rootbound plant is to give it a new home, also known as repotting. ...
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Miniature Roses
Not so long ago, miniature roses were almost strictly the province of hobbyists, usually ones already bitten by the rose-growing bug. But now, thanks to the influence of European gardeners and nurseries, an entirely new category of miniature rose is ...
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Indoor Plants and light
The level of available light is a crucial factor in the plant's health and appearance. For a plant, light means life because it regulates three major plant processes: photosynthesis, phototropism, and ...
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Frequently Asked Questions About Bonsai
Practiced for centuries in China and Japan, bonsai is the reproduction of natural tree forms in miniature. Bonsai trees are living miniature trees which increase in beauty and value as they mature over the years.
How often should I water my bonsai ...
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The Indoor Orangerie
Throughout history, people have endeavored to grow citrus indoors. The Romans grew lemons in greenhouses with mica windows. France's King Louis XIV was so smitten with the scent of orange blossoms that he had the first orangerie built and demanded that ...
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Plant Health
Improper watering, sudden changes in environment, cold drafts, lack of fertilizer, insect or disease attack may cause problems for houseplants.
Symptoms and possible cause:
General defoliation- Sudden change in temperature- Transplanting shock- ...
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Indoor Gardening Tips
Jerry Seinfeld said: I have no plants in my house. They won't live for me. Some of them don't even wait to die, they commit suicide.Are you having trouble keeping your house plants alive and healthy? Read on to find out how 10 simple changes will make you feel like a ...
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Composting leaves
In autumn, the falling leaves of trees worth a lot for your garden. The leaves of most trees contain twice as many minerals as manure. For example, the mineral content of a sugar maple leaf is over five percent, while even common pine needles have 2.5 percent of their ...
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Preparing your garden for winter
Putting the garden to bed for the winter is mostly a matter of cleaning up and covering up. As fall progresses and temperatures drop, those plants that aren't killed outright by frost prepare for dormancy. Clear out the blackened stems and foliage of annual flowers and ...
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