Home & Garden – Chicago Tribune

Fungus gnats are attracted to houseplants’ moist soil where they like to lay eggs, but they’re easy to treat.

It can be hard in winter to tell if branches on your trees and shrubs have died, but removing them can make your plant healthier in the long run.

Whiteflies reside on the underside of leaves, and an infestation is often noticed when a plant is disturbed and the insects fly up.

Orchids, cacti and succulents require special growing medium, but houseplants in general will do better with soil-less products.

Renewal or rejuvenation pruning can drastically improve growth come spring, but before you prune flowering shrubs, be aware of when they bloom.

Noting what parts of your garden needed a little work over the summer can give you a head start in planning for spring 2021.

With snow and ice in the forecast, here’s what you need to know about snow blowers, de-icing products and other winter weather items.

Mealybugs, which look like white cottony masses on your houseplants, can leave lasting damage if unattended. Here’s how to treat an infestation.

People usually gather in the darkest times of the year, celebrating our connections and making our own light. Plants have a different strategy.

Paperwhites are a favorite plant for winter flowers, but it’s important to pick the right bulbs and grow them carefully for success.

Yew shrubs were highly popular in the 1950s and 1960s, and many still remain thanks to their hardy spirit.

Flowering plants such as azalea, kalanchoe, cyclamen and amaryllis work well to brighten long winter days and make ideal holiday gifts.

Gardeners rely on a few high-quality tools to handle the lion’s share of their work in the garden. Here’s what to look for.

Burlap screens can help protect evergreen trees from winter damage and salt spray, but watering well before cold weather strikes is vital.

Buckthorn is an invasive plant that can crowd out other trees and shrubs in your garden. Getting rid of it can be tricky.

Oak trees go through phases of booms and busts for acorn supply, aiming to flood the area with acorns for hungry predators so a few slip by.

Using strips of T-shirts can help protect young arborvitae evergreens from branch damage due to heavy snowfall.

Keep watering plants in gardens after a dry, warm start to November adds stress to newly planted trees, plants and shrubs.

Vegetables have bee harvested, but there are still a few things gardeners should do for a thriving vegetable garden next year.

As gardeners prepare for winter, protecting plants and trees from cold weather and hungry animals is vital to a flourishing garden next year.

While a plant might be hardy enough to survive a Chicago winter, it might not thrive and bloom come spring.

There are several categories of clematis, and each should be pruned differently to keep the vine flourishing in your garden.

Dahlias are native to Mexico and can’t survive chilly Chicago winters, so their tubers must be uprooted and taken inside during late autumn.

Use a floating row cover, leaves or other insulators to protect your Chicago-area garden from winter weather.

Plentiful and, even better, free, shredded leaves have lots of uses in your garden, from nurturing soil and lawns to serving as mulch for trees.

A mulching mower will chop up leaves as you mow, reducing how much raking a homeowner must do during autumn months.

The summer drought followed by rains in recent months could incite active Volutella blight, a fungal infection, on pachysandra.

Bucks shed summer velvet from their antlers and mark their territory by rubbing antlers against trees, causing sometimes fatal damage to the tree.