Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Sweet William
Sweet William is a short-lived cottage-garden classic bearing dense, flat clusters of fringed, often bicolored flowers with a clove-like fragrance. It's typically grown as a biennial, blooming in its second year.
flower
Burro's Tail
A trailing succulent with plump, overlapping blue-green leaves packed along long stems that resemble braided tails. Easy to grow but its beads drop off at the slightest touch.
succulent
Jelly Bean Plant
The jelly bean plant is a small, easygoing sedum with plump, bean-shaped leaves that turn from green to bright red at the tips when grown in full sun. It is fast-spreading and very simple to propagate.
succulent
Zucchini
Zucchini is a prolific summer squash in the gourd family, grown as a bushy warm-season annual. A single healthy plant produces vigorously through the summer.
herb
Asparagus Fern
The asparagus fern is not a true fern but a relative of garden asparagus, grown for its soft, feathery sprays of bright green needle-like foliage. It is easy and fast-growing.
houseplant
Red Currant
A hardy deciduous shrub that bears glistening strings of translucent red berries in summer, grown in gardens as an ornamental and fruiting shrub.
shrub
Elderberry
Elderberry is a fast-growing deciduous shrub bearing large creamy flower clusters in early summer and drooping bunches of small dark purple-black berries in late summer.
shrub
Jasmine
A climbing shrub famous for intensely fragrant, star-shaped white flowers that perfume summer evenings. Common jasmine is vigorous and grown on trellises and walls.
shrub
Lily
True lilies are summer-blooming bulbs with large, often fragrant, trumpet-shaped flowers on tall stems. They are easy garden perennials prized in borders and as cut flowers.
flower
Spaghetti Squash
Spaghetti squash is a winter squash that grows as an oval yellow fruit on vigorous summer vines. The fruit stores well into fall and winter.
herb
False Sunflower
False sunflower is a tough native perennial covered in golden-yellow daisy-like blooms all summer. It resembles a true sunflower but returns reliably year after year.
flower
Hosta
The premier foliage perennial for shade, grown for bold mounds of ribbed leaves in greens, blues, golds, and variegated patterns. Lavender or white flower spikes are a summer bonus.
houseplant
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
Cantaloupe
Cantaloupe is a warm-season trailing vine in the gourd family, grown for its round, netted melons. It needs long, hot summers and plenty of sun.
herb
Sweet Potato
Sweet potato is a warm-season trailing vine grown as a crop for its swollen storage roots. Unrelated to the common potato, it belongs to the morning glory family and thrives in long, hot summers.
herb
Raspberry
Raspberries are thorny, cane-forming shrubs grown for their aggregate berries. With summer- and autumn-fruiting types, a small patch can yield fruit over many weeks.
shrub
Moon Valley Pilea
Moon Valley pilea is a compact tropical houseplant grown for its deeply textured, quilted bright green leaves with bronze sunken veins that resemble a lunar landscape.
houseplant
Daylily
An exceptionally tough clumping perennial whose trumpet-shaped flowers each last a single day, but bloom in dazzling succession all summer. Available in thousands of cultivars and nearly foolproof to grow.
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
Prostrate Spurge
A fast-growing summer annual that forms flat, ground-hugging mats with small oval leaves often marked by a maroon spot. It exudes a milky sap and is a widespread weed of lawns, cracks and gardens.
herb
Blackberry
Blackberries are vigorous, often thorny cane plants in the rose family, bearing glossy black aggregate berries in late summer. Famously tough, they grow wild as brambles and in many improved garden varieties.
shrub
Lamb's Ear
Lamb's ear is a drought-tolerant perennial grown for its soft, silvery, densely woolly leaves that feel like felt. It forms low spreading mats topped by fuzzy flower spikes in summer.
flower
Globe Amaranth
A heat-loving annual grown for its round, clover-like flower heads of papery bracts in magenta, purple, pink, white or orange. The everlasting blooms keep their color when dried and stand up beautifully to summer heat and humidity.
flower
Zinnia
Zinnias are fast-growing, heat-loving annuals that produce bold, daisy-like flowers in vivid colors all summer. They are easy from seed, beloved by pollinators, and excellent cut flowers.
flower