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.
flowerHairy Bittercress
A small annual weed in the mustard family that forms a basal rosette and shoots tiny white flowers in early spring, followed by seed pods that explosively fling seeds. It is a common nuisance in nursery pots and garden beds.
herb
Pumpkin
Pumpkin is a sprawling warm-season vine in the gourd family, grown for its large, ribbed orange fruits popular in autumn displays and decoration. It is one of the easiest and most rewarding garden crops where space allows.
herb
Moonflower
A fast-growing tropical vine whose large, fragrant white flowers unfurl at dusk and bloom through the night, closing by morning. Related to morning glory, it is grown on trellises for evening fragrance and night-garden drama.
flower
Bell Pepper
Bell pepper is a blocky-fruited variety of Capsicum annuum grown as a warm-season garden crop, bearing glossy fruit in shades of green, red, yellow, and orange. It is a colorful, productive plant for sunny beds and containers.
herb
Shirley Poppy
The Shirley poppy is a refined garden strain of the wild corn poppy, bred for its delicate, papery flowers in soft pinks, whites, reds, and bicolors. These cool-season annuals self-sow freely for drifts of tissue-thin blooms.
flower
Love-in-a-Mist
A delicate cottage-garden annual whose blue, white or pink flowers nestle in a misty halo of thread-like foliage, followed by ornamental inflated seed pods. Both the airy blooms and the balloon-like pods are prized for fresh and dried arrangements.
flower
Joe-Pye Weed
Joe-Pye weed is a tall, native North American perennial topped with large, domed clusters of mauve-pink flowers in late summer. A pollinator powerhouse, it brings height and butterfly-friendly blooms to moist, sunny gardens and rain gardens.
flower
Ground Ivy
Ground ivy is a creeping, aromatic perennial in the mint family with scalloped round leaves and blue-violet spring flowers, the same plant widely known as creeping Charlie. It forms dense mats in shady lawns and gardens and is notoriously persistent.
herbMarjoram
Marjoram is a tender, aromatic Mediterranean herb closely related to oregano, grown as a culinary herb in gardens, pots, and on windowsills.
herb
Lemongrass
Lemongrass is a tall tropical grass with a bright citrus aroma, grown as a culinary grass and aromatic ornamental in warm gardens.
grass
Creeping Charlie
Creeping Charlie is a low, aromatic perennial in the mint family that spreads aggressively by creeping stems to form dense mats in lawns and shady gardens. Its scalloped, round leaves and small blue-violet flowers make it easy to recognize and notoriously hard to eradicate.
herb
Turnip
The turnip is a fast-growing cool-season root crop with a white-and-purple swollen root, grown widely in vegetable gardens.
herb
Peppermint
Peppermint is a vigorous aromatic perennial herb grown in gardens, a natural hybrid of water mint and spearmint with a strong menthol scent.
herb
Stevia
Stevia is a tender perennial herb in the daisy family, native to South America. It forms a bushy, branching plant grown in gardens and containers.
herb
Mustard Greens
Mustard greens are fast-growing leafy plants in the cabbage family, grown as a cool-season crop in gardens across many regions.
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.
flower
Echinacea
Echinacea, or purple coneflower, is a hardy North American perennial with daisy-like pink-purple blooms, popular in prairie and pollinator gardens.
flower
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
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