The primary purpose of a flower is reproduction. Flowers are the reproductive organs and mediate the joining of the sperm contained within pollen to the ovules, normally from one plant to another but many plants also can pollinate their own flowers. The fertilized ovules produce seeds that are the next generation. Sexual reproduction produces genetically [...]

On this spring afternoon one corner of our vegetable garden is dominated by a clump of volunteer coriander, from seed I ‘missed’ last year. The opposite corner is marked by a bright spray of canary yellow broccoli flowers, from a few side shoots we left in place when we harvested the crop. A few feet [...]

The Rose Bug. - “The Rose-chafer, or Rose-bug, as it is more commonly and incorrectly called, is also a diurnal insect. It is the Melolontha subspinota of Fabricius, by whom it was first described, and belongs to the modern genus Macrodactylus of Latreille. Common as this insect is in the vicinity of Boston, it is, [...]

Sure, insects cause flower growers some noticeable heartaches, but they can be controlled organically—with [...]