A poinsettia can look good for weeks if the first days go right. Here is what to do on the trip home, where to put it, how to water it, why leaves drop, whether it is poisonous, and what reblooming really takes.

A Christmas cactus that stays green and never flowers is usually missing long, cool, dark nights in fall. Here is how to tell it from a Thanksgiving cactus, water it, set buds, stop bud drop and care for it after the flowers fade.

Four white-light grow lights for houseplants in a dim room, from a bulb for a lamp that takes one to a clip-on for one pot. Plus when a window is enough, and how far and how long to run the light.

Tiny dark flies drifting around a houseplant are usually fungus gnats, and they breed in damp potting mix. Here is how to spot them, dry out their breeding ground, trap the adults and treat the larvae, in the order to try each step.

Garlic goes in the ground in autumn and asks little of you until summer. Here is when to plant it where winters are cold or mild, which kind to buy, how deep to set the cloves, and what to expect along the way.

A bag of tulip bulbs comes with no date on it. Plant in mid to late fall once the soil is below 60°F, set them 6 to 8 inches deep, and treat them differently if your winters are warm.

Full sun means six hours or more of direct sunlight a day, and below that the terms on plant tags stop agreeing with each other. Here are the hours two Extension services actually give, why they differ, and how to read your own spot in a single day.

A drooping plant looks much the same whether it has had too much water or too little, which is why so many people water again and make it worse. Here is what actually separates the two, and what to do once you know which one you are looking at.

Four frost covers for a small garden, compared on the one number that decides the purchase. Plus the nights when the sheet in your closet is enough.