Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Periwinkle
Periwinkle is a tough, low evergreen ground cover with glossy leaves and starry blue-violet flowers that thrives in shade. It spreads quickly to carpet difficult areas but can become invasive.
shrub
Meadow Rue
Meadow rue is an airy perennial with delicate, columbine-like foliage and fluffy clouds of tiny lilac, pink, or white flowers. It brings a soft, ethereal texture to part-shade borders.
flower
Lobelia
Edging lobelia is a low, mounding or trailing annual smothered in tiny, intensely blue flowers from spring to frost. It's a staple of hanging baskets, window boxes and bedding borders.
flower
Hydrangea
A leafy garden shrub famous for big rounded clusters of summer flowers that can shift between blue and pink depending on soil pH. Hydrangeas are showy, thirsty, and shade-tolerant.
shrub
Culver's Root
Culver's root is a tall, elegant North American prairie perennial with whorled leaves and slender, candelabra-like spires of white to pale-lilac flowers. It is a magnet for bees and butterflies in summer.
flower
Creeping Zinnia
Creeping zinnia is a low, spreading annual smothered in tiny gold-and-black daisy flowers that resemble miniature sunflowers. It is heat- and drought-tolerant, making it ideal for edging, baskets, and groundcover.
flower
Basswood
Basswood, or American linden, is a large deciduous shade tree with big heart-shaped leaves and fragrant summer flowers beloved by bees. Its soft, pale wood is a favorite of woodcarvers.
tree
Barrenwort
Barrenwort is a tough, low groundcover for dry shade, with delicate spring flowers and heart-shaped leaves that often emerge and finish the season tinted red. It thrives where little else will.
flower
Baby's Breath
Baby's breath is an airy perennial producing clouds of tiny white or pink flowers on wiry, branching stems. It's a florist's staple as a delicate filler in bouquets and a soft accent in the garden.
flower
Vinca
A heat- and drought-tolerant annual with glossy leaves and pinwheel flowers, annual vinca blooms nonstop through the hottest part of summer.
flower
Swamp Milkweed
A moisture-loving native milkweed bearing fragrant clusters of pink flowers, a vital host plant for monarch butterflies and a magnet for pollinators.
flower
Meadowsweet
Meadowsweet is a graceful wetland perennial topped with frothy, almond-scented cream flowers carried in branched plumes above pinnate foliage.
herb
Wisteria Tree
A wisteria tree is a wisteria vine trained and pruned into a small free-standing tree form, prized for cascading clusters of fragrant purple-blue spring flowers. It is vigorous and requires regular pruning.
tree
Star Cactus
A small, flattened, spineless cactus divided into neat segments that resemble a star or sand dollar, dotted with white woolly flecks. It bears yellow flowers with red centers and is a coveted collector's plant.
succulent
Spirea
A versatile, easy-care deciduous shrub grown for clusters of pink or white flowers and often colorful foliage. Compact and reliable, spirea suits borders, mass plantings and low informal hedges.
shrub
Summersweet
A late-summer-blooming deciduous shrub with upright spikes of intensely fragrant white or pink flowers that draw bees and butterflies. Native to eastern North America, it thrives in moist, shady spots.
shrub
Rhodiola
Rhodiola is a hardy, succulent alpine perennial of cold northern mountains, forming low rosettes of fleshy blue-green leaves and clusters of yellow flowers. Cut roots smell faintly of rose.
succulent
Plumeria Tree
A small tropical tree beloved for its intensely fragrant, waxy flowers used in Hawaiian leis. Plumeria blooms in shades of white, yellow, pink, and red atop thick, sculptural branches.
tree
Primrose
Primroses are low, clump-forming perennials that bring some of the earliest color to spring with their soft pastel flowers above rosettes of crinkled leaves. They thrive in cool, moist, partly shaded spots.
flower
Okra
Okra is a heat-loving annual in the mallow family, grown in warm-climate gardens for its showy hibiscus-like flowers and slender, ridged green seed pods. It thrives in hot summers.
herb
Kerria
Kerria is a graceful deciduous shrub in the rose family, grown for its arching green stems and cheerful golden-yellow spring flowers. It is one of the few flowering shrubs that blooms well in shade.
shrub
Hydrangea Tree
The hydrangea tree is a panicle hydrangea trained to a single trunk, topped with large cone-shaped clusters of white flowers that age to pink in late summer. It is the hardiest and most sun-tolerant of the hydrangeas.
shrub
Geum
Geum, or avens, is a clump-forming perennial with airy stems of cheerful red, orange, or yellow flowers above hairy basal foliage. It blooms from late spring into summer in cottage borders.
flower
False Shamrock
A bulbous plant with deep purple, triangular three-part leaves that fold up at night like butterfly wings. Easy to grow, it also produces dainty pale pink or white flowers.
houseplant