Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Melampodium
Melampodium, or butter daisy, is a tough, heat-loving annual that forms neat mounds covered in small golden-yellow daisies all summer. It thrives in hot, humid conditions and is virtually maintenance-free.
flower
Heather
Heather is a low, evergreen shrub that blankets moorlands with a haze of tiny pink, purple or white flowers in late summer. It needs acidic soil and is prized for ground cover and year-round foliage color.
shrub
Crepe Myrtle
Crepe myrtle is a small deciduous tree or large shrub beloved for its long-lasting, crinkled summer flower clusters, smooth peeling bark, and brilliant fall color, thriving in hot climates.
tree
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
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
Tickseed
A cheerful, sun-loving daisy-family wildflower bearing masses of golden-yellow blooms over a long summer season, beloved for its toughness and pollinator appeal.
flower
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.
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Dutchman's Breeches
A delicate spring ephemeral whose white, pantaloon-shaped flowers hang in a row like tiny upside-down breeches. It blooms early in woodlands then vanishes by summer.
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Blanket Flower
A heat-loving, daisy-like perennial in fiery bands of red, orange, and yellow that bloom nonstop all summer. Tough, drought-proof, and beloved by bees and butterflies.
flower
Annual Phlox
A bushy Texas native annual that produces dense, rounded clusters of starry flowers in nearly every color, prized for long-lasting summer color in beds and containers.
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Impatiens
Impatiens are shade-loving annuals that smother themselves in flat, colorful flowers all summer, thriving where few other bedding plants will bloom. Their name refers to seed pods that burst open at a touch.
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Flowering Dogwood
Flowering dogwood is a beloved small ornamental tree whose spring branches are clouded in showy white or pink bracts. It offers four-season interest with summer berries, scarlet fall color, and tiered branching.
tree
Cyclamen
Cyclamen is a tuberous perennial famous for its swept-back, butterfly-like flowers and heart-shaped, silver-marbled leaves. The florist's cyclamen blooms through the cool months, going dormant in summer heat.
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Annual Bluegrass
A low-growing, light-green annual grass that is one of the most widespread lawn and turf weeds in the world. It forms clumps, seeds prolifically even when mowed short, and turns unsightly in summer heat.
grass
Turtlehead
Turtlehead is a moisture-loving native perennial whose hooded, two-lipped flowers resemble a turtle's head. It blooms in late summer and thrives in wet, partly shaded gardens.
flower
Smoke Tree
A deciduous shrub or small tree named for the airy, smoke-like plumes of fading flower stalks that envelop it in summer. Many cultivars also feature striking purple foliage.
shrub
Ironweed
A tall, robust native perennial crowned in late summer with clusters of intensely purple flowers. Its tough, wiry stems and iron-hard durability give it its name.
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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.
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Dahlia
A tuberous flower prized for spectacular, intricate blooms ranging from small pompoms to dinner-plate giants. Dahlias bloom from summer to frost in a huge color range.
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Abelia
Abelia is a tough, semi-evergreen shrub with arching branches, glossy leaves, and a long summer-to-fall show of small, fragrant, bell-shaped flowers. It is a magnet for bees and butterflies.
shrub
Franklin Tree
The Franklin tree is a rare deciduous tree extinct in the wild, surviving only in cultivation from seed collected in the 1700s. It bears fragrant white camellia-like flowers in late summer and fiery red fall color.
tree
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
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
Great Blue Lobelia
A native North American perennial producing tall spikes of vivid blue, two-lipped flowers in late summer. It is the blue counterpart to the red cardinal flower and loves moist ground.
flower