Walnut Creek’s Ruth Bancroft is a national authority on drought-resistant gardening. Twice a month, she and her staff share their knowledge with readers. Q When I was in L.A. visiting friends recently ...

Shorter days mean my morning walk with the dog often starts before dawn, when the light can trick the eye. I saw a bright pink spot up in a tree and thought it was the light playing with me, but the ...

Florida is one of the few states where gardeners can enjoy the beauty of flowering trees in autumn and winter. Description: Hardy, fast-growing, grows up to 50 feet tall. These spiny-trunked, tropical ...

Growth habit: A deciduous tree often with a large thorn-covered trunk that develops a rounded, open-growth habit growing to 50 feet tall and wide. The leaves are compound consisting of five to seven ...

Question: I have several mature oleander plants in my backyard. One of them has developed a growth on some pruned branch tips that resembles broccoli. Also, the leaves that have fallen from several of ...

Because several Ceiba species and hybrids go by the name of silk floss tree (it’s not floss silk), you can’t know exactly what plant you’re purchasing — but you can be sure it will have beautiful ...

Here's some good news and some bad news. It's good that most of the beautifully flowered trees of the kapok family (Malvaceae) perform well in Polk. What's bad is that virtually no one here grows them ...