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Gardening

The Keukenhof Floral Park in Lisse, The Netherlands.

Where to See Thousands and Thousands of Tulips

From the Netherlands to Kashmir, get lost in tulip mania

Bison sculpture by Emily White, Big Timber Lodge

How to Maintain Your Garden Zen at the Philadelphia Flower Show

A Smithsonian gardener with a long history of touring the show gives tips

Your Guide to Everyone’s Favorite Winter Citrus: Clementines

Seedless, sweet, easy to peel, and portable. But where did clementines come from? And what are satsumas, mandarines, and tangerines?

Le Moulin Jaune, or The Yellow Mill.

Go Down the Rabbit Hole in This Fantastical French Park

A clown’s surreal playground is now open to the public

Best Gifts of 2015 for Museum Lovers

A host of gifts inspired by the Smithsonian collections, its scientists, curators, historians, photographers and gardeners

Cool Finds

JetBlue Goes Green with a Farm at JFK Airport

The airline hopes to produce herbs and around 1,000 pounds of blue potatoes each season

How to Harvest and Dry Herbs

A guide to keeping a little bit of summer in your meals far into winter

Five of the World’s Most Fascinating Topiary Gardens

Whimsical gardens in surprising shapes decorate homes, churches and cemeteries around the world. We’ve rounded up five of the most extraordinary

Visit D.C.’s Best Off-the-Beaten-Path Historic Homes and Gardens

History, nature and culture combine at these fascinating estates and gardens in our nation’s capital

Cool Finds

Canned Goods and Cucumber Seeds: Food Banks Are Starting to Give Out Garden Starters

Canned goods take a backseat to freshly-grown produce

A cereus in Arizona in 2009. These night-blooming flowers spring forth from cacti just one night a year, in concert with other nearby cereus. They usually wilt the next day.

Urban Explorations

See the Flowers that Bloom All At Once, One Night a Year

The mysterious night-blooming cereus just dazzled a garden in Tucson. Scientists still aren’t sure exactly how they bloom at the same time

Renderings

2 World Trade Center and the Promise of Green Skyscrapers

New renderings of the tower show impressive sky gardens—a trendy feature that’s difficult to pull off

Inspired by the quote “you must be the change you wish to see in the world, the artists of the S.A.G.E. Coalition in Trenton, New Jersey transformed an abandoned lot into a vibrant community garden and gathering space.

Commentary

Growing a Digital Garden Archive

The Smithsonian issues a call to preserve American garden heritage with a website that collects personal stories, photos, video and audio

The first crop for Local Roots Farms to grow is lettuce.

Future of Energy

Turning Shipping Containers Into Urban Farms

In a clever recycling experiment, the startup Local Roots Farms is growing organic, hydroponic produce in America’s food deserts

Miracle fruit, or Synsepalum dulcificum, grows on bushy trees native to West Africa.

Can This Berry Solve Both Obesity and World Hunger?

At a playful café in Chicago, chef Homaro Cantu is experimenting with miracle fruit, a West African berry that makes everything a little sweeter

The ornate black gates to the Poison Garden warn visitors of the deadly plants that grow within.

Step Inside the World’s Most Dangerous Garden (If You Dare)

The Poison Garden at England’s Alnwick Garden is beautiful—and filled with plants that can kill you

Sorry, rover. Planting a garden will have to wait.

Four Handy Tips for Growing Your Garden on Mars

Is it possible to have a green thumb on the Red Planet? Perhaps, after you’ve mastered a few space gardening tricks

Cool Finds

Suburban Skunks are on the Rise

Grand Rapids, Michigan, is basically enveloped in a cloud of stink

New Research

Gardens May Be Therapeutic For Dementia Patients

Adding green space to nursing homes might be a good idea

Agave plants blooming in Mexico

Cool Finds

80-Year-Old Agave Plant About To Bloom

The 25-foot-tall plant is finally ready to bloom after 80 long years

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