Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Moon Cactus
The moon cactus is a brightly colored grafted novelty cactus, with a red, yellow, orange, or pink top fused onto a green rootstock. The colorful top lacks chlorophyll and depends on the host cactus to survive.
succulent
Hellebore
An evergreen shade perennial that blooms in late winter and early spring, when little else does, with nodding, cup-shaped flowers in white, pink, plum, and green. Long-lived and deer-resistant.
flower
Flowering Kale
Flowering kale is a cool-season ornamental grown for its showy rosettes of frilly leaves in pink, purple, white, and cream. The color intensifies in cold weather, making it a star of fall and winter displays.
flower
Flowering Tobacco
An ornamental relative of commercial tobacco grown for its tubular, star-shaped flowers that open and release a jasmine-like scent in the evening. It comes in white, green, red and pink, attracting moths and hummingbirds.
flower
Bee Balm
A fragrant North American native with shaggy, crown-like flowers in red, pink, or purple that are irresistible to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Its aromatic leaves release a citrusy, minty scent when crushed.
herb
Shallot
Shallots are a clustering, small-bulbed member of the onion family grown in gardens. They form clusters of small bulbs and are easy to grow from sets.
herb
Savory
An aromatic Mediterranean herb in the mint family, grown in gardens as a culinary herb. Summer savory is a tender annual; winter savory a hardy perennial.
herb
Foxglove
Foxglove is a stately biennial bearing tall spires of tubular, spotted bell-flowers, beloved by bees and a striking accent in shade and cottage gardens.
flowerCape Primrose
Cape primrose is a compact, long-blooming relative of the African violet, prized for its rosettes of soft, strappy leaves and clouds of trumpet-shaped flowers in blues, purples, pinks and white. It flowers for months with very little fuss on a bright windowsill.
houseplant
Speedwell
Speedwell is a hardy perennial prized for its upright spikes of densely packed blue, purple, pink or white flowers that bloom for weeks in summer. It is a magnet for bees and butterflies and thrives in sunny, well-drained borders.
flower
Tricolor Beech
Tricolor beech is a striking cultivar of European beech with purple leaves edged in irregular bands of pink and creamy white. It is a slow-growing, eye-catching specimen tree that needs protection from harsh sun.
tree
Dogwood
Flowering dogwood is a small ornamental tree beloved for its spring display of showy white or pink bracts. Native to eastern North America, it offers four-season interest with berries and red fall foliage.
tree
Whale's Tongue Agave
A bold, symmetrical agave with wide, cupped, powdery blue-gray leaves resembling a whale's tongue. A cold-hardy, architectural centerpiece for dry gardens.
succulent
Oregano
A hardy, sun-loving Mediterranean herb with small aromatic leaves, valued as a drought-tolerant ground cover and bee plant and grown widely in gardens.
herb
Stokes' Aster
Stokes' aster is a clump-forming perennial bearing large, frilly, cornflower-like blooms in blue, purple, white, or pink atop neat evergreen foliage. It is a long-blooming, heat-tolerant native of the southeastern US.
flower
Cypress Vine
A delicate, fast-growing morning-glory relative with lacy, fern-like foliage and small star-shaped red, pink or white flowers that hummingbirds love. It quickly climbs trellises and fences with feathery, airy growth.
flower
Yucca
A bold, drought-tolerant plant with rosettes of stiff, sword-shaped leaves atop thick woody canes. A tough, architectural choice for indoors and warm gardens.
shrub
Yarrow
Yarrow is a tough, drought-tolerant perennial with feathery foliage and flat-topped clusters of tiny flowers. It is a popular low-maintenance plant for pollinator and meadow gardens.
herb
Shepherd's Purse
Shepherd's purse is a common annual weed of the mustard family named for its distinctive heart-shaped seed pods, found in gardens, fields, and roadsides worldwide.
herb
Japanese Maple
A small, elegant ornamental tree prized for delicate, deeply lobed leaves in shades of red, green and purple, and spectacular fall color. A centerpiece of Japanese gardens.
tree
Forget-Me-Not
Forget-me-not is a low, spreading plant covered in tiny sky-blue flowers with yellow centers, beloved for carpeting spring gardens and self-seeding freely.
flower
Gladiolus
Gladiolus is a tall summer bulb that sends up dramatic spikes of funnel-shaped flowers in nearly every color, a staple of cutting gardens and floral arrangements.
flower
Cilantro
A fast-growing aromatic annual herb grown in gardens worldwide. Its finely divided foliage is known as cilantro and its small round seeds as coriander.
herbPainted Dropwing
Important note: the Painted Dropwing (also called the violet dropwing) is not a plant but a dragonfly, Trithemis annulata. Mature males are a striking violet-pink with red-veined wings, often seen perched at the edges of warm ponds and streams.
flower