# Raychis

> A gardening companion in your pocket. Identify what you grow, see when it is struggling, and learn what your garden needs next, season by season. Offline and on-device.

Raychis is a plant identification and care app for iOS and Android, made by TerraRoxoAI. Identification runs on the device across 5,000 species, so it works without a signal and without an account. Every result carries a stated confidence of Strong, Good, Possible or Weak. Experimental disease and growth-stage detection can be switched on in Settings, and stays off by default while its accuracy improves.

Photos, notes and plant history stay on the phone. No server holds a copy of them.

The free tier gives 5 identifications a day, a health read in every scan, and unlimited saved plants. Raychis Plus removes the daily limit and adds care schedules, the full guide library, and garden export. It costs $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year in the US, and £3.99 a month or £24.99 a year in the UK, after a 7-day free trial. Everywhere else the App Store and Google Play show the local price at checkout.

The site also publishes 753 free plant care guides, twelve monthly planting hubs, and 153 guides to plant pests, diseases and disorders, all listed below. Every toxicity claim and every control recommendation cites a published source on the page it appears.

## The app

- [Features](https://raychis.app/features): What Raychis does, section by section, covering identification, health assessment, care scheduling, and the offline architecture.
- [Offline plant identification](https://raychis.app/offline-plant-identification-app): How Raychis identifies plants on the device: offline, with no photo upload and no account, across 5,000 species, and how the confidence tiers work.
- [Pricing](https://raychis.app/pricing): The Free and Plus tiers in full, with US and UK prices and a capture of the in-app upgrade screen.
- [Plant guides](https://raychis.app/guides): The full library of 753 free care guides, grouped into houseplants, garden plants, and edibles, plus a planting hub for each month.
- [Classroom fieldwork pack](https://raychis.app/resources/plant-identification-fieldwork): A free, printable plant-identification fieldwork pack for schools, under a CC BY 4.0 licence: a biodiversity survey, a photo guide, close-observation and confidence worksheets, a native-species research sheet, and a teacher guide. Works offline in the field.
- [Support](https://raychis.app/support): Frequently asked questions about accounts, offline use, subscriptions, and data handling.
- [Beta programme](https://raychis.app/beta): Test pre-release builds before they reach the stores, with Raychis Plus unlocked while you test.
- [Download for iOS](https://apps.apple.com/app/id6769143557): Raychis on the App Store.
- [Download for Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ai.terraroxo.raychis): Raychis on Google Play.

## Browse by category

- [Every plant guide](https://raychis.app/guides/all): The whole library of 753 guides in one A-Z, filterable by where a plant grows, by difficulty, and by known toxicity to cats and dogs.
- [Succulents](https://raychis.app/guides/type/succulents): Drought-tolerant plants with thick, fleshy leaves. 26 guides.
- [Cacti](https://raychis.app/guides/type/cacti): Spined plants adapted to dry conditions. 10 guides.
- [Tropical](https://raychis.app/guides/type/tropical): Plants from warm climates. 97 guides.
- [Flowering](https://raychis.app/guides/type/flowering): Plants grown mainly for their flowers. 82 guides.
- [Herbs](https://raychis.app/guides/type/herbs): Culinary and aromatic plants for pots and kitchen gardens. 112 guides.
- [Trees](https://raychis.app/guides/type/trees): Woody plants that grow with a single main trunk. 39 guides.
- [Ferns and mosses](https://raychis.app/guides/type/ferns-and-mosses): Non-flowering plants with fronds, mossy mats or cushions. 10 guides.
- [Vines and climbers](https://raychis.app/guides/type/vines-and-climbers): Plants that trail, climb, scramble or wind. 13 guides.
- [Orchids](https://raychis.app/guides/type/orchids): Orchids from epiphytic, terrestrial and cool-growing groups. 15 guides.
- [Shrubs](https://raychis.app/guides/type/shrubs): Multi-stemmed woody plants, including the Proteaceae family. 30 guides.
- [Palms](https://raychis.app/guides/type/palms): Single-stemmed tropical and subtropical plants. 7 guides.
- [Bulbs](https://raychis.app/guides/type/bulbs): Seasonal plants grown from bulbs, corms and tubers. 21 guides.
- [Grasses](https://raychis.app/guides/type/grasses): Ornamental and meadow grasses. 9 guides.
- [Fruit and vegetables](https://raychis.app/guides/type/fruit-and-vegetables): Edible crops for kitchen gardens and allotments. 282 guides.

## What to plant, month by month

- [What to plant in January](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-january): Hellebores and snowdrops outdoors, and less watering indoors.
- [What to plant in February](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-february): Light returns before warmth, and the first bulbs open.
- [What to plant in March](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-march): Sowing starts outdoors, and houseplants are repotted.
- [What to plant in April](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-april): Tulips flower, tomatoes are sown, and strawberries go in.
- [What to plant in May](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-may): Frost risk ends and the tender plants move outside.
- [What to plant in June](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-june): The longest days, with sunflowers and hydrangeas at full pace.
- [What to plant in July](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-july): Peak growing and peak watering, with weekly feeding.
- [What to plant in August](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-august): Harvest, heat, and full late-summer borders.
- [What to plant in September](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-september): Autumn planting starts and houseplants come back indoors.
- [What to plant in October](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-october): Autumn colour, and tender plants brought in before frost.
- [What to plant in November](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-november): Plant tulips late, and water houseplants less.
- [What to plant in December](https://raychis.app/guides/what-to-plant-in-december): Christmas plants indoors, and hellebores flowering outside.

## Garden plant care guides

- [Garden plants](https://raychis.app/guides/garden): All 222 garden plants guides, filterable by difficulty and by known toxicity to cats and dogs.
- [American chestnut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/american-chestnut): Practical guidance for growing American chestnut, Castanea dentata, including chestnut blight and its collapse from dominant forest tree to root sprouts, resistant hybrids, cross-pollination, and its sweet, edible nuts.
- [American ginseng growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/american-ginseng): How to grow Panax quinquefolius in a woodland bed. Why wild digging emptied the Appalachian woods, what CITES listing means for a grower, and the eighteen-month seed.
- [American spikenard growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/american-spikenard): How to grow Aralia racemosa in a shaded border. A herbaceous perennial the size of a shrub, dark purple berry clusters, and a root that smells of liquorice.
- [Amur cork tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/amur-cork-tree): How to grow Phellodendron amurense, a hardy tree with corky bark and aromatic leaves. Male trees, huang bai bark and invasive risks.
- [Amur maple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/amur-maple): Practical guidance for growing Amur maple, Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala, including its fragrant spring flowers, extreme cold hardiness, hedge and shelterbelt use, and mild toxicity.
- [Armand clematis growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/armand-clematis): How to grow Armand clematis, Clematis armandii. Why cold, drying wind scorches its evergreen leaves even when the wood survives untouched, pruning after flowering rather than in winter, and the sap that can leave ungloved hands itching for days.
- [Ash growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ash): How to identify ash, Fraxinus excelsior. The black winter buds, ash dieback and what it means for your tree, and whether to fell or wait.
- [Ashwagandha growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ashwagandha): How to grow Withania somnifera, the nightshade behind ashwagandha. Raising it as an annual where frost comes, lifting the root in its first autumn, and why the berry is not food.
- [Asian ginseng growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/asian-ginseng): How to grow Panax ginseng, the ginseng of Korea and north-east China. The six-year wait for a root, why the seed takes eighteen months to germinate, and how deep the shade has to be.
- [Astilbe growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/astilbe): How to grow astilbe, Astilbe x arendsii. The perennial for damp shade, why it browns and dies in dry soil, and whether to leave the seed heads through winter.
- [Baikal skullcap growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/baikal-skullcap): How to grow Scutellaria baicalensis, the huang qin of Chinese medicine. A hardy dry-slope perennial with blue hooded flowers, and the yellow root behind the name baicalin.
- [Barrenwort growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/barrenwort): How to grow Epimedium grandiflorum, a reliable ground cover for dry shade. When to cut the old leaves off, the spurred flowers in April, and where horny goat weed came from.
- [Bearded iris growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bearded-iris): How to grow bearded iris, Iris germanica. Why the rhizome needs a hot, dry summer to flower well and rots readily where summers stay humid, planting it sitting on the soil surface rather than buried, and the sap that raises a rash during division.
- [Bee orchid growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bee-orchid): How to grow bee orchid, Ophrys apifera. Its flower mimics a female bee down to the scent, it self-pollinates in Britain where that bee is scarce, and leaving a chalk lawn unmown does more than deliberate planting ever will.
- [Beech growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/beech): How to grow beech, Fagus sylvatica. Planting a bare-root hedge, the single August trim, why a clipped beech keeps its copper leaves all winter, and beech bark disease.
- [Betel nut palm identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/betel-nut): How to identify the betel nut palm, Areca catechu. Palm features, areca nut use, health risks and the limits of safe cultivation advice.
- [Big bluestem growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/big-bluestem): Practical guidance for growing big bluestem, Andropogon gerardii, including its deep prairie roots, turkeyfoot seed heads, warm-season growth, drought tolerance, and non-toxic status.
- [Phyllostachys growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/phyllostachys): How to grow black bamboo. Why a running bamboo needs a barrier before it needs anything else, how to install one properly, the legal risk of letting it spread, and how the canes turn black.
- [Rudbeckia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rudbeckia): How to grow rudbeckia, Rudbeckia fulgida. Black-eyed Susan for late summer, the difference between the perennial and the annual sorts, and leaving the seed heads for birds.
- [Blackthorn growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/blackthorn): How to grow blackthorn, Prunus spinosa. Blossom on bare stems before hawthorn, picking sloes for gin, planting a stockproof hedge and controlling the suckers.
- [Bloody cranesbill growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bloody-cranesbill): How to grow Geranium sanguineum. A native hardy geranium for hot dry ground, the shear that brings a second flush, and telling a true geranium from a pelargonium.
- [Blue cohosh growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/blue-cohosh): How to grow Caulophyllum thalictroides in a shaded bed. Blue-grey spring foliage, deep blue seeds that are not berries, and why the historic use is not repeated here.
- [Passion flower growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/passion-flower): How to grow blue passion flower, Passiflora caerulea. The extraordinary flower explained, whether the orange fruit is safe, and cutting it back after a hard winter.
- [Bluebell growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bluebell): How to grow English bluebells, Hyacinthoides non-scripta. Telling them from the Spanish invader, planting in the green, and why you must never cut the leaves.
- [Boneset growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/boneset): How to grow Eupatorium perfoliatum in a damp border. The joined leaves that name it, the fever it was named for, and telling it from the white snakeroot that poisoned milk.
- [Garden phlox growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/garden-phlox): How to grow border phlox, Phlox paniculata. Scented heads through August, beating powdery mildew by thinning the stems, and the eelworm that kills whole clumps.
- [Boston ivy growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/boston-ivy): Practical guidance for growing Boston ivy, Parthenocissus tricuspidata, including self-clinging adhesive pads, autumn colour, wall damage risk, Japanese beetle, and mild berry toxicity.
- [Box elder growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/box-elder): Practical guidance for growing box elder, Acer negundo, including its compound leaves, separate male and female trees, weak wood, fast growth, and toxicity to horses.
- [Bracken identification and control guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bracken): How to identify and control bracken, Pteridium aquilinum. The commonest fern in the world, the carcinogen in the spores, and why bruising the fronds is the trick.
- [Buddleja growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/buddleja): How to grow buddleja, Buddleja davidii. The hard March prune that keeps it flowering at eye level, deadheading to stop it seeding across the neighbourhood, and why it feeds butterflies but not caterpillars.
- [Cabbage palm growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cabbage-palm): How to grow cabbage palm, Sabal palmetto. Why a young plant shows no trunk for years, in what growers call the grass stage, its rare tolerance for salt, wind and cold, and why harvesting its edible heart kills the tree.
- [Cordyline growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cordyline): How to grow cabbage palm, Cordyline australis. Why it is not a palm, tying the leaves up for winter, what to do when the trunk rots after a hard frost and how it regrows from the base.
- [Calla lily growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/calla-lily): How to grow Zantedeschia aethiopica. Why it will grow in standing water when its coloured cousins rot, how to get it through a cold winter, and why it is not a lily.
- [Camellia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/camellia): How to grow camellias, Camellia japonica. Why an east-facing wall ruins the flowers, what causes bud drop, keeping the soil acid, and treating petal blight.
- [Carnation growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/carnation): How to grow Dianthus caryophyllus. The clove scent breeding lost and how to get it back, why the stems snap at the joints, and the difference between border and perpetual types.
- [Catmint growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/catmint): How to grow catmint, Nepeta x faassenii. The long-flowering edging plant for dry sun, why cats roll on it, and cutting it back for a second flush.
- [Agave americana care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/agave): How to grow the century plant. Flowering, sap irritation, overwintering in wet climates and propagating the offsets.
- [Cherry laurel growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cherry-laurel): How to grow Prunus laurocerasus. Pruning with secateurs rather than shears, treating shot hole, disposing of clippings safely, and why it must never be confused with bay.
- [Chinaberry identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chinaberry): How to recognise Melia azedarach, and why its berries are the problem. A lilac-flowered tree with yellow fruit that has killed children and livestock, and where it is invasive.
- [Ma huang identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ma-huang): How to recognise Ephedra sinica, the gymnosperm behind ephedrine. Jointed green stems and no real leaves, the regulatory position in Britain, and why the supplements were banned.
- [Peony growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/peony): How to grow peony, Paeonia lactiflora. Why planting it too deep stops it flowering, how to support the heavy heads, and the ants that are not a problem.
- [Chinese rhubarb growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chinese-rhubarb): How to grow Rheum palmatum, the ornamental rhubarb behind da huang. A two-metre flower spike, leaves the size of a table, and why the leaf blades are not food.
- [Wisteria growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wisteria): How to grow Wisteria sinensis. The two-stage prune that produces flowers, why a seedling may never bloom in your lifetime, which way the stems twine, and where it is a listed invasive.
- [Hellebore care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hellebore): How to grow the Christmas rose, Helleborus niger. Planting, soil, when to cut the old leaves, the diseases to watch for, and why it rarely flowers at Christmas.
- [Chusan palm growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chusan-palm): Practical guidance for growing chusan palm, Trachycarpus fortunei, including exceptional cold hardiness, fan fronds, hairy fibrous trunk, red palm weevil, and slow early establishment.
- [Claret cup cactus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/claret-cup-cactus): How to grow claret cup cactus, Echinocereus triglochidiatus. It survives cold that kills most cacti yet rots in wet winter soil, and its scarlet flowers are built for hummingbird rather than bee pollination.
- [Cleavers identification and control guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cleavers): How to identify and control cleavers, Galium aparine. Seedlings, sticky stems, early hoeing and edible young shoots.
- [Clematis montana growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/clematis-montana): How to grow Clematis montana. Why it belongs in pruning group one, the size it reaches, why it shrugs off clematis wilt, and why hard renovation can kill it.
- [Climbing hydrangea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/climbing-hydrangea): Practical guidance for growing climbing hydrangea, Hydrangea anomala, including its self-clinging aerial roots, slow establishment, shade tolerance, exfoliating bark, and moderate toxicity.
- [Aquilegia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/aquilegia): How to grow aquilegia, Aquilegia vulgaris. Self-seeding, cultivar variation, cutting back after flowering and keeping the foliage fresh.
- [Common bamboo growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/common-bamboo): How to grow Bambusa vulgaris. The tropical clumping bamboo behind most of the world's bamboo construction, why it will not survive a temperate winter outdoors, and what to grow instead.
- [Heather growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/heather): How to grow heather, Calluna vulgaris. Why it needs acid soil and rainwater, when to shear it, and the difference between ling and the winter-flowering ericas.
- [Honeysuckle growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/honeysuckle): How to grow honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum. Scent at dusk for the moths, keeping the roots cool and the top in sun, and beating the aphids and mildew.
- [Sempervivum growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sempervivum): How to grow Sempervivum tectorum, the common houseleek. Why the parent rosette dies after flowering, why it survives winters that kill echeveria, and how to grow it on a roof.
- [Common jasmine growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/common-jasmine): How to grow Jasminum officinale. Why it saves its scent for the evening, the warm wall it needs in a cool climate, when to prune it, and the three unrelated plants sold under the same name.
- [Lime tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lime-tree): How to grow common lime, Tilia europaea. Why it drips sticky honeydew onto everything below, how to pleach it, and the July blossom that scents a whole street.
- [Common poppy growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/common-poppy): How to grow common poppy, Papaver rhoeas. The cornfield poppy of Remembrance, why it only appears on disturbed soil, and sowing it so it comes back every year.
- [Rhododendron ponticum identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rhododendron-ponticum): How to recognise Rhododendron ponticum, why it sterilises woodland, telling it from garden rhododendrons, removing it, and the honey that poisoned an army.
- [Heuchera growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/heuchera): How to grow heuchera, Heuchera americana. Coloured foliage for shade all year, why the crown lifts out of the ground, and dealing with vine weevil.
- [Cotton growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cotton): How to grow upland cotton, Gossypium hirsutum. The seed hair that clothes the world, the boll that has to open before frost, and the poison in the seed.
- [Cow parsley identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cow-parsley): How to identify cow parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris. The plain green downy stem that separates it from hemlock, when it flowers, growing it in a wild garden and keeping it in check.
- [Cultivated tobacco identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tobacco): How to identify cultivated tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum. Leaf and flower features, differences from ornamental Nicotiana and the limits of safe identification advice.
- [Damask rose growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/damask-rose): How to grow the damask rose, Rosa damascena. Pruning a once-flowering old rose, the difference between summer and autumn damasks, and where rose oil comes from.
- [Dandelion growing and control guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dandelion): How to identify, use and control dandelion, Taraxacum officinale. The taproot that regrows from a fragment, why bees need it in April, and eating the leaves and roots.
- [Deadly nightshade identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/deadly-nightshade): How to recognise Atropa belladonna, telling its berries from the harmless lookalikes, what to do if a child eats one, and why it is still grown as a crop.
- [Delphinium growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/delphinium): How to grow delphinium, Delphinium elatum. Staking the spires before they need it, keeping slugs off the spring shoots, and the toxicity that has killed livestock.
- [Dog rose growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dog-rose): How to grow dog rose, Rosa canina. The wild hedgerow rose, picking hips for syrup, why the seed hairs were used as itching powder, and its role as a rootstock.
- [Dwarf iris growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/iris-reticulata): How to grow Iris reticulata. Planting deep enough to stop the bulbs splitting, keeping them dry in summer, and why a brilliant first year is so often followed by grass.
- [Holly care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/holly): How to grow English holly, Ilex aquifolium. Planting, clipping, hedging, why your holly has no berries, and how poisonous those berries are.
- [English ivy growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/english-ivy): How to grow Hedera helix. Whether it damages walls, the two completely different forms one plant takes, why it feeds bees in November, and where it is a banned weed.
- [English lavender growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lavender): How to grow English lavender, Lavandula angustifolia. Drainage, the pruning cut that keeps it alive, telling it apart from lavandin, and why it is toxic to cats and dogs.
- [English oak growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/english-oak): How to identify and grow Quercus robur. The one check that separates it from sessile oak, why a single tree supports over 2,300 other species, and why acorns kill horses.
- [Yew growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/yew): How to grow Taxus baccata. The one conifer that regrows from bare wood, why clippings kill horses, what the red berries are, and how it reaches two thousand years.
- [Feather reed grass growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/feather-reed-grass): Practical guidance for growing feather reed grass, Calamagrostis x acutiflora, including its sterile clumping habit, early flower spikes, staying upright without staking, and cutting back in late winter.
- [Horsetail identification and control guide](https://raychis.app/guides/horsetail): How to identify and control horsetail, Equisetum arvense. The prehistoric weed with roots two metres deep, why weedkillers slide off it, and what does help.
- [Pyracantha growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pyracantha): How to grow pyracantha, Pyracantha coccinea. Firethorn berries for autumn colour, training it flat against a wall, and living with thorns that puncture rather than scratch.
- [Schisandra growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/schisandra): How to grow Schisandra chinensis, the five flavour berry. Getting fruit from a plant that needs a male and a female, the shade it wants at the root, and the scent in May.
- [Flame azalea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/flame-azalea): How to grow flame azalea, Rhododendron calendulaceum. Why every part, including the nectar and the honey made from it, carries a toxin severe enough to need medical care, and why hot, humid summers trouble this mountain species more than winter cold does.
- [Chrysanthemum growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chrysanthemum): How to grow chrysanthemums, Chrysanthemum x morifolium. Pinching for bushy plants, disbudding for large blooms, overwintering the stools, and the day length that sets the buds.
- [Cyclamen growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cyclamen): How to grow florist's cyclamen, Cyclamen persicum. Why central heating kills it, watering from below, summer dormancy, and the danger in the tuber.
- [Flowering currant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/flowering-currant): How to grow flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum. Why the berries taste nothing like blackcurrants, pruning straight after flowering rather than in winter, and reviving a leggy shrub with renovation pruning.
- [Fo-ti identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/fo-ti): How to recognise Reynoutria multiflora, the knotweed behind he shou wu. Telling it from Japanese knotweed, the liver injury record, and why not to plant it out.
- [Forsythia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/forsythia): How to grow forsythia, Forsythia x intermedia. Pruning straight after flowering, renewing a leggy bush, stopping bullfinches stripping the buds, and taking free cuttings.
- [Foxglove growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/foxglove): How to grow Digitalis purpurea. Why it flowers in its second year and then dies, how to keep a colony going, the plant it is dangerously confused with, and the drug it gave us.
- [Hydrangea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hydrangea): How to grow bigleaf hydrangeas, Hydrangea macrophylla. The soil chemistry behind blue and pink, why spring pruning costs you the flowers, and the difference between mopheads and lacecaps.
- [Dahlia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dahlia): How to grow dahlias, Dahlia pinnata. Starting tubers, staking, deadheading the right buds, protecting shoots from slugs, and whether to lift for winter.
- [Privet growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/privet): How to grow privet, Ligustrum ovalifolium. The suburban hedge that takes any abuse, when to cut it, why the berries are poisonous, and its reputation for starving a border.
- [Tulip growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tulip): How to grow garden tulips, Tulipa gesneriana. Why they go in late, how deep to plant, why the second year disappoints, and how to spot tulip fire before it spreads.
- [Giant allium growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/giant-allium): Practical guidance for growing giant allium, Allium giganteum, including its tall stems, dense round flower heads, deep planting, dry summer dormancy, and toxicity to pets.
- [Giant hogweed identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/giant-hogweed): How to recognise Heracleum mantegazzianum, tell it from common hogweed and cow parsley, remove it safely, and what to do if the sap gets on your skin.
- [Giant reed growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/giant-reed): Practical guidance for growing giant reed, Arundo donax, including its rapid rhizome spread, screening and biomass use, invasive status in some regions, containment, and low toxicity.
- [Glory of the snow growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/glory-of-the-snow): Practical guidance for growing glory of the snow, Chionodoxa forbesii, including naturalising in turf, planting depth, dry summer dormancy, squirrel damage, and mild bulb toxicity.
- [Goldenseal growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/goldenseal): How to grow Hydrastis canadensis in a shaded bed. The yellow rhizome that named it, why wild digging put it on CITES Appendix II, and dividing rather than sowing.
- [Grape hyacinth growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/grape-hyacinth): How to grow grape hyacinths, Muscari armeniacum. Planting depth, why the leaves appear in autumn and look untidy all winter, and how to stop it taking over.
- [Great bougainvillea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/great-bougainvillea): Practical guidance for growing great bougainvillea, Bougainvillea spectabilis, including thorny climbing habit, drought-triggered flowering, full sun, pruning, frost protection, and mild skin irritation.
- [Green chiretta growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/andrographis): How to grow Andrographis paniculata, the king of bitters. A fast summer annual for a greenhouse, the most bitter leaf in this collection, and how to save seed.
- [Ground elder identification and control guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ground-elder): How to identify and control ground elder, Aegopodium podagraria. The Roman import that never leaves, why forking it spreads it, and the one method that works.
- [Guelder rose growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/guelder-rose): How to grow guelder rose, Viburnum opulus. Lacecap flowers in May, translucent red berries in autumn, and why it thrives in the wet ground that kills other shrubs.
- [Hardy rubber tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hardy-rubber-tree): How to grow Eucommia ulmoides, the only species in its family. Tearing a leaf to see the rubber strands, why it is extinct in the wild, and how tough it is in a garden.
- [Hart's tongue fern care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/harts-tongue-fern): How to care for Asplenium scolopendrium. The hardy native fern with undivided strap fronds, why the spore lines run in herringbone stripes, and where it grows that other ferns cannot.
- [Hawthorn growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hawthorn): How to grow hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna. Planting a bare-root hedge, the trimming that thickens it, laying an old one, May blossom and the haws that follow.
- [Hazel growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hazel): How to grow hazel, Corylus avellana. Coppicing on a seven-year cycle, planting two for a crop of cobnuts, the catkins in February, and losing the lot to squirrels.
- [Bindweed identification and control guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bindweed): How to identify and control hedge bindweed, Calystegia sepium. Why digging makes it worse, the glyphosate cane trick, and telling it from field bindweed.
- [Hemlock identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hemlock): How to identify hemlock, Conium maculatum. The purple-blotched stem, the mousy smell, how it differs from cow parsley and hogweed, and what to do if anyone has eaten it.
- [Hemlock water-dropwort identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hemlock-water-dropwort): How to identify hemlock water-dropwort, Oenanthe crocata. The most poisonous plant in Britain and Ireland, the parsnip-like root tubers, why dogs die of it after floods and how it differs from watercress and celery.
- [Hemp identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hemp): How to identify hemp, Cannabis sativa. The leaf people think they know, the difference between fibre hemp and the drug crop, and why this page does not tell you how to grow it.
- [Henbane identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/henbane): How to recognise Hyoscyamus niger, a native British poison. The veined cream flowers and the smell, what the tropane alkaloids do, and what to do if a child eats the seed.
- [Himalayan balsam identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/himalayan-balsam): How to recognise Impatiens glandulifera, why it takes over riverbanks, pulling it before it seeds, and the legal duties that come with having it on your land.
- [Common hogweed identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/common-hogweed): How to identify common hogweed, Heracleum sphondylium. Telling it from giant hogweed, why its sap can still blister skin in sunlight, and its value to pollinators.
- [Hornbeam growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hornbeam): How to grow hornbeam, Carpinus betulus. The hedge that holds its leaves all winter and takes wet clay where beech fails, when to cut it, and how to tell the two apart.
- [Horse chestnut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/horse-chestnut): How to grow horse chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum. Conkers, why the leaves go brown every August, bleeding canker, and why a conker is not a sweet chestnut.
- [Hosta growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hosta): How to grow hosta, Hosta sieboldiana. Why a thick blue leaf survives slugs when a thin green one does not, growing them in pots, dividing in spring and the shade they want.
- [Houpo magnolia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/houpo-magnolia): How to grow Magnolia officinalis, a large-leaved deciduous magnolia. Leaves to forty centimetres, cream flowers in May, and a tree extinct in the wild in China.
- [Dogbane identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dogbane): How to recognise Apocynum cannabinum, the hemp dogbane. Milky sap and cardiac glycosides, the bast fibre that made cordage for millennia, and why it is not cannabis.
- [Clematis viticella growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/clematis-viticella): How to grow Clematis viticella. The group that resists clematis wilt, why pruning it is the simplest job in the garden, and growing it through a shrub.
- [Hardy cyclamen growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hardy-cyclamen): How to grow hardy cyclamen, Cyclamen hederifolium. Flowers before the leaves in September, the dry shade it thrives in, and buying tubers the right way up.
- [Japanese anemone growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/japanese-anemone): How to grow Anemone hupehensis. Late summer flowers for shade, why it sulks for a year and then runs, and how to get it out of a border once it has spread.
- [Japanese barberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/japanese-barberry): Practical guidance for growing Japanese barberry, Berberis thunbergii, including its spiny stems, autumn colour, invasive spread in parts of North America, wheat-rust resistance, and mild toxicity.
- [Japanese box growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/japanese-box): How to grow Buxus microphylla. The blight-resistant box, clipping without spreading disease, spotting box tree caterpillar, and the alternatives worth considering.
- [Japanese holly growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/japanese-holly): How to grow Japanese holly, Ilex crenata. The box substitute that resists box blight and box tree moth, how to clip it, and why it needs acid soil.
- [Japanese knotweed identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/japanese-knotweed): How to recognise Reynoutria japonica, tell it from its lookalikes, treat it over several seasons, and the legal duties that come with having it on your land.
- [Japanese maple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/japanese-maple): How to grow Acer palmatum. Shelter from wind, why leaf scorch is not a disease, verticillium wilt, and the maple that is dangerous to horses.
- [Pieris growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pieris): How to grow pieris, Pieris japonica. Scarlet new growth in spring, why frost and chalk both ruin it, and the grayanotoxins that make it dangerous to livestock.
- [Rugosa rose growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rugosa-rose): How to grow rugosa rose, Rosa rugosa. The best rose for salt wind and sand, tomato-sized hips you can eat, and why it is now controlled as an invasive species.
- [Skimmia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/skimmia): How to grow skimmia, Skimmia japonica. Why you need a male and a female plant for berries, the yellowing that means the wrong soil, and its use in winter containers.
- [Japanese wisteria growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/japanese-wisteria): How to grow Japanese wisteria, Wisteria floribunda. Telling it from Chinese wisteria by which way the stems twine, why an unpruned vine grows plenty of leaf but flowers poorly, and the pea-like seed pods that cause severe vomiting if eaten.
- [Thorn apple identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/thorn-apple): How to recognise Datura stramonium, the jimsonweed. Spiny capsules, trumpet flowers, warm-season growth and serious poisoning risk.
- [King protea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/king-protea): Practical guidance for growing king protea, Protea cynaroides, including fynbos origin, proteoid roots, sharp drainage, low-phosphorus feeding, and fire-adapted resprouting.
- [Lady's mantle growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ladys-mantle): How to grow Alchemilla mollis. The leaves that hold water like mercury, cutting back for a second flush, and staying ahead of the seedlings it scatters everywhere.
- [Laurustinus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/laurustinus): How to grow laurustinus, Viburnum tinus. Winter flowering, clipping it as a hedge, dealing with viburnum beetle, and the blue-black berries that follow.
- [Mahonia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mahonia): How to grow mahonia, Mahonia bealei. Scented yellow flowers in the middle of winter, blue berries for jelly, and where to put a plant with spines like holly.
- [Lilac growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lilac): How to grow lilac, Syringa vulgaris. Deadheading straight after flowering, why a shaded lilac never blooms, dealing with suckers, and renovating an old leggy bush.
- [Lily of the valley growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lily-of-the-valley): How to grow Convallaria majalis. Planting the pips, giving it the dry shade it wants, keeping it in bounds, and telling it from wild garlic before anyone eats it.
- [Lords and ladies identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lords-and-ladies): How to identify lords and ladies, Arum maculatum. The orange berry spike children eat, the burning mouth it causes, and how to tell it from wild garlic in spring.
- [Maidenhair tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/maidenhair-tree): Practical guidance for growing maidenhair tree, Ginkgo biloba, including fan-shaped leaves, male and female trees, pest resistance, autumn colour, and seed toxicity.
- [Male fern growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/male-fern): How to grow male fern, Dryopteris filix-mas. It tolerates dry shade under trees where most ferns fail, the rhizome's history as a vermifuge carries a poisoning margin too narrow to risk, and the name has nothing to do with sex.
- [Mayapple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mayapple): How to grow Podophyllum peltatum as woodland ground cover. Umbrella leaves over a hidden flower, the one edible part of a poisonous plant, and the cancer drug it produced.
- [Autumn crocus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/autumn-crocus): How to grow autumn crocus, Colchicum autumnale. The leafless autumn flowers, why it is not saffron, the colchicine that makes it lethal and how it differs from a true crocus.
- [Mediterranean fan palm growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mediterranean-fan-palm): Practical guidance for growing Mediterranean fan palm, Chamaerops humilis, including its clumping suckering habit, spiny petioles, drought tolerance, alkaline soil, and slow growth.
- [Choisya growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/choisya): How to grow Mexican orange blossom, Choisya ternata. The trifoliate leaves that identify it, twice-yearly flowering, why it sulks in cold wind and the pruning that gets a second flush.
- [Astragalus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/astragalus): How to grow Astragalus membranaceus, the huang qi of Chinese medicine. A hardy pea-family perennial for a sunny border, the four-year root, and the locoweeds it is not.
- [Mimosa tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mimosa-tree): Practical guidance for growing mimosa tree, Albizia julibrissin, including fast growth, pink pompom flowers, folding leaflets, seed pods, mimosa wilt, and self-seeding.
- [Mistletoe growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mistletoe): How to grow mistletoe, Viscum album. Squeezing berries into apple bark in February, why bought sprigs never take, the trees it will accept and how toxic the berries are.
- [Mock orange growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mock-orange): How to grow mock orange, Philadelphus coronarius. The scent, the one-in-three pruning cut that keeps it flowering, and why cutting it in winter removes every bloom.
- [Monkshood growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/monkshood): How to grow Aconitum napellus, the most poisonous plant in temperate gardens. Handling it safely, dividing it in gloves, staking the stems, and why the root is the danger.
- [Crocosmia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/crocosmia): How to grow crocosmia, Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora. Arching sprays of orange in late summer, dividing congested corms, and why montbretia escapes into the countryside.
- [Moonflower growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/moonflower): Practical guidance for growing moonflower, Ipomoea alba, including night-blooming flowers, hawk moth pollination, seed scarification, day-length flowering triggers, and toxic seeds.
- [Norway spruce growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/norway-spruce): How to grow Norway spruce, Picea abies. The traditional Christmas tree, why it drops its needles indoors, and how to keep a pot-grown one alive for another year.
- [Oleander growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/oleander): How to grow oleander, Nerium oleander. Overwintering it under cover in a cold climate, pruning after flowering, and why it is among the most poisonous plants sold in Europe.
- [Oriental poppy growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/oriental-poppy): How to grow oriental poppy, Papaver orientale. Huge silk flowers in May, what to do with the gap it leaves in July, and propagating from root cuttings.
- [Osage orange growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/osage-orange): Practical guidance for growing osage orange, Maclura pomifera, including its rot-resistant wood, thorny hedge history, the huge inedible fruit, milky sap, and its drought tolerance on poor soil.
- [Pampas grass growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pampas-grass): How to grow pampas grass, Cortaderia selloana. Cutting it back without shredding your hands, why male plants have no plumes, and its invasive record abroad.
- [Panicle hydrangea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/panicle-hydrangea): How to grow panicle hydrangea, Hydrangea paniculata. Why its colour change is about flower age rather than soil pH, and the trade-off between a hard prune for fewer, larger flower heads and a light one for more, smaller ones.
- [Peacock flower growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/peacock-flower): Practical guidance for growing peacock flower, Dietes bicolor, including its rhizome rather than true bulb, iris-like fans, one-day flowers, drought tolerance, and mild toxicity.
- [Pennyroyal identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pennyroyal): How to recognise Mentha pulegium, the mint that kills. Why it looks and smells like a culinary herb, what pulegone does to the liver, and its status as a rare British native.
- [Perennial flax growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/perennial-flax): How to grow perennial flax, Linum perenne. Sky blue flowers that open at dawn and fall by lunchtime, a wiry plant for dry chalk, and a rare British native at one edge of its range.
- [Perennial pepperweed growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/perennial-pepperweed): How to grow perennial pepperweed, Lepidium latifolium. A British salt-marsh native that seasoned food before pepper was affordable, and a listed noxious weed across the western United States.
- [Perennial ryegrass growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/perennial-ryegrass): How to grow perennial ryegrass, Lolium perenne. The grass in almost every cool-climate lawn, choosing a hard-wearing cultivar, and overseeding worn patches.
- [Photinia Red Robin growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/photinia): How to grow Photinia x fraseri. Clipping to force the red flush, treating the leaf spot that defoliates it, why chalk turns it yellow, and disposing of the clippings safely.
- [Pink lady's slipper growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pink-ladys-slipper): How to grow pink lady's slipper, Cypripedium acaule. It depends on a soil fungus no garden bed reliably has, a wild-dug plant almost always dies within a season or two, and genuine nursery-propagated stock is rare.
- [Primrose growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/primrose): How to grow the native primrose, Primula vulgaris. Planting, dividing, pin and thrum flowers, and which primulas cause a rash.
- [Purple coneflower growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/echinacea): How to grow Echinacea purpurea. Why it hates being moved, leaving the seed heads for goldfinches, keeping stems upright without staking, and why year one disappoints.
- [Pyramidal orchid growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pyramidal-orchid): How to grow pyramidal orchid, Anacamptis pyramidalis. Its flowers clamp pollen onto a moth's tongue to guarantee cross-pollination, it colonises disturbed chalk ground faster than most wild orchids, and a bought plant rarely establishes in a border.
- [Quaking grass growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/quaking-grass): Practical guidance for growing quaking grass, Briza media, including its trembling heart-shaped spikelets, poor thin soil, self-seeding, dried flower arrangements, and its lack of barbed awns.
- [Queen palm growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/queen-palm): Practical guidance for growing queen palm, Syagrus romanzoffiana, including fast feather-palm growth, nutrient deficiency, fusarium decline, frost tenderness, and heavy fruit drop.
- [Ragwort identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ragwort): How to identify common ragwort, Jacobaea vulgaris. The law that applies to it, why it kills horses through cumulative liver damage, safe removal and why dried ragwort in hay is worse than the living plant.
- [Red elder growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/red-elder): How to grow red elder, Sambucus racemosa. Why the ripe berries are safe cooked but the raw fruit, leaves, bark and seeds all carry cyanide-releasing compounds, and telling it from black elder by its upright flower clusters.
- [Red maple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/red-maple): Practical guidance for growing red maple, Acer rubrum, including early red flowers, wet-soil tolerance, brilliant autumn colour, and toxicity to horses.
- [Danshen growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/danshen): How to grow Salvia miltiorrhiza, the red sage of Chinese medicine. A hardy border salvia with brick-red roots, and why it interacts with warfarin.
- [Regal lily growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/regal-lily): How to grow Lilium regale. Planting deep for the stem roots, growing it on chalk, controlling lily beetle, and why every lily is lethal to cats.
- [Rose of Sharon growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rose-of-sharon): Practical guidance for growing rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus, including late-summer flowering on new wood, Japanese beetle, self-seeding, hardy pruning, and mild toxicity to pets.
- [Rowan growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rowan): How to grow rowan, Sorbus aucuparia. The best small tree for a cold exposed garden, berries for birds from late summer, and why summer heat rather than winter cold is what limits it.
- [Royal palm growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/royal-palm): How to grow royal palm, Roystonea regia. It shows nutrient deficiency in its fronds without a dedicated feeding programme, the landscape-scale space a mature specimen needs, and the slow early growth before the trunk shoots up.
- [Lupin growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lupin): How to grow lupin, Lupinus polyphyllus. Cutting back for a second flush, why lupin aphid arrived and what it does, and the seeds that poison livestock.
- [Russian vine growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/russian-vine): How to grow Russian vine, Fallopia baldschuanica. The mile-a-minute plant, what it will and will not do to a building, and how to get rid of one.
- [Sacred fig growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sacred-fig): Practical guidance for growing sacred fig, Ficus religiosa, including its heart-shaped drip-tip leaves, obligate fig wasp pollination, its role as the Bodhi tree, frost tenderness, and its milky irritant sap.
- [Sasanqua camellia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sasanqua-camellia): How to grow sasanqua camellia, Camellia sasanqua. Why flowering in autumn rather than spring means the buds miss the frost risk that comes with Camellia japonica's later season, and spotting petal blight before it browns a flush of open flowers.
- [Magnolia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/magnolia): How to grow saucer magnolia, Magnolia x soulangeana. Goblet flowers on bare wood in April, why frost ruins them, and where to plant one so it does not happen.
- [Scots pine growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/scots-pine): How to grow Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris. The most widely distributed pine on earth, the orange upper bark that identifies it, and why it suits poor sandy soil that defeats other trees.
- [Sea Island cotton growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sea-island-cotton): How to grow Sea Island cotton, Gossypium barbadense. The long staple behind Egyptian and Pima cloth, the yellow flower that separates it from upland cotton, and the reason it is grown so little.
- [Siberian ginseng growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/siberian-ginseng): How to grow Eleutherococcus senticosus, a hardy prickly shrub from the Russian Far East. Why it is not a ginseng, where the name came from, and how easy it is in a temperate garden.
- [Silk tassel bush growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/silk-tassel-bush): Practical guidance for growing silk tassel bush, Garrya elliptica, including its winter catkins, male and female plants, coastal wind tolerance, pruning timing, and low toxicity.
- [Silky oak growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/silky-oak): Practical guidance for growing silky oak, Grevillea robusta, including fast growth, fern-like foliage, toothbrush flowers, skin-irritant sap, and cultivation well outside its native range.
- [Silver birch growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/silver-birch): How to grow Betula pendula. Why a short-lived tree is the right choice for a small garden, what the black diamonds on the bark are, the root system to plan around, and tapping the sap.
- [Sisal growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sisal): How to grow sisal, Agave sisalana. The leaf fibre that made the world's rope, the pole that appears once and kills the plant, and the spine at eye height.
- [Smoke bush growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/smoke-bush): Practical guidance for growing smoke bush, Cotinus coggygria, including its hazy flower plumes, purple foliage colour, drought tolerance in poor soil, and verticillium wilt.
- [Snake's head fritillary growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/snakes-head-fritillary): How to grow Fritillaria meleagris. Planting the fragile bulbs on their side, naturalising in damp grass, when to cut, and the lily beetle that strips them.
- [Snow crocus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/snow-crocus): Practical guidance for growing snow crocus, Crocus chrysanthus, including its earliest flowering time, naturalising in turf, corm dormancy, bird and rodent damage, and mild toxicity.
- [Snowdrop growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/snowdrop): How to grow snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis. Why to plant them in the green, how to divide a clump, and how poisonous the bulbs are.
- [Soft tree fern growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/soft-tree-fern): How to grow soft tree fern, Dicksonia antarctica. Watering has to reach the crown and trunk surface rather than just the soil, and the single growing point needs frost protection that the fibrous trunk itself does not.
- [Spindle growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/spindle): How to grow spindle, Euonymus europaeus. The pink capsules and orange seeds that make it the brightest native shrub in autumn, its value to wildlife, and why the fruit must not be eaten.
- [Spotted laurel care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/spotted-laurel): How to care for Aucuba japonica. The gold-splashed shrub that grows in dry shade where nothing else will, why you need two plants for berries, and what causes the black patches.
- [Crocus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/crocus): How to plant and naturalise spring crocuses. Planting depth, why the leaves must stay, why sparrows shred the yellow ones, and how to tell them from the dangerous autumn crocus.
- [Star jasmine growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/star-jasmine): How to grow star jasmine, Trachelospermum jasminoides. Evergreen scent for a sheltered wall, why it bronzes in winter, and whether it is hardy where you live.
- [Star magnolia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/star-magnolia): How to grow star magnolia, Magnolia stellata. Why a late frost can brown its open flowers within hours of a cold night, why it dislikes being moved once settled, and why its compact size suits an ordinary-sized garden.
- [Star of Persia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/star-of-persia): Practical guidance for growing star of Persia, Allium christophii, including its huge starry flower head, short sturdy stems, dry summer dormancy, self-seeding, and toxicity to pets.
- [Strawberry tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/strawberry-tree): Practical guidance for growing strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo, including its flowers and fruit together in autumn, lime tolerance unusual for its family, peeling red bark, and edible but unremarkable berries.
- [Sugar maple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sugar-maple): Practical guidance for growing sugar maple, Acer saccharum, including sap tapping, slow shade-tolerant growth, salt sensitivity, and brilliant autumn colour.
- [Sunflower growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sunflower): How to grow sunflowers, Helianthus annuus. Sowing, staking, why young plants follow the sun and mature ones face east, and the spirals in the seed head.
- [Sunn hemp growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sunn-hemp): How to grow sunn hemp, Crotalaria juncea. A fast nitrogen-fixing green manure with a fibre history, the rattling pods that name the genus, and why it is never grazed.
- [Sweet olive growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sweet-olive): Practical guidance for growing sweet olive, Osmanthus fragrans, including its edible flowers, apricot scent, slow growth, frost tenderness, and non-toxic care.
- [Sweet violet growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sweet-violet): How to grow sweet violets, Viola odorata. Shade, spreading by runners, the hidden flowers that set the seed, and why the scent seems to vanish.
- [Sycamore growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sycamore): How to identify sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus. Telling it from field maple and Norway maple, the seedlings that kill horses through atypical myopathy, and managing it in a garden.
- [Tiger lily growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tiger-lily): How to grow tiger lily, Lilium lancifolium. Growing lilies from the bulbils in the leaf axils, beating the lily beetle, and the danger to cats.
- [Tree dahlia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tree-dahlia): How to grow tree dahlia, Dahlia imperialis. Why it needs the short days of autumn to trigger flowering, how often frost cuts the canes down before the buds open, and staking the hollow, several-metre stems against an autumn storm.
- [Tree peony growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tree-peony): How to grow tree peony, Paeonia suffruticosa. Why the graft union is planted 10 to 15 cm deep to let the scion root itself, the frost that can blacken swelling spring buds overnight, and why a young plant can take five years to flower.
- [Trumpet vine growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/trumpet-vine): Practical guidance for growing trumpet vine, Campsis radicans, including its vigorous suckering growth, hummingbird flowers, aerial-root climbing, hard pruning, and skin-irritant sap.
- [Fargesia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/fargesia): How to grow Fargesia murielae, the umbrella bamboo. The clump-forming bamboo that cannot run, why almost every plant on Earth flowered and died in the 1990s, and where it beats Phyllostachys.
- [Virginia creeper growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/virginia-creeper): How to grow Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia. Scarlet autumn colour on a bare wall, whether it damages brickwork, and keeping it out of the gutters.
- [Cotoneaster growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cotoneaster): How to grow wall cotoneaster, Cotoneaster horizontalis. The herringbone branching that identifies it, training it flat against a wall, berries for birds and the law on planting it in the wild.
- [Waratah growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/waratah): Practical guidance for growing waratah, Telopea speciosissima, including sandstone heath origin, lignotuber resprouting after fire, phosphorus-sensitive roots, and cool-root, full-sun placement.
- [White jute growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/white-jute): How to grow white jute, Corchorus capsularis. The fibre that built Dundee and Bengal, how retting turns a stem into thread, and the round pod that names the species.
- [Wild daffodil growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/daffodil): How to grow and naturalise wild daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus. Planting depth, why the leaves must be left alone, the sap that kills other cut flowers, and why the bulbs are dangerous.
- [Wild ginger growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wild-ginger): How to grow Asarum canadense as woodland ground cover. The maroon flower hidden at soil level, the rhizome that smells of ginger, and why it is not a culinary substitute.
- [Wild tobacco identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wild-tobacco): How to identify wild tobacco, Nicotiana rustica. The shorter, coarser, far stronger tobacco of the Americas, its ceremonial history, and why the page stops at identification.
- [Winter aconite growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/winter-aconite): How to grow winter aconite, Eranthis hyemalis. Yellow cups in February, why dry tubers rarely establish, and planting it in the green instead.
- [Winter daphne growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/winter-daphne): Practical guidance for growing winter daphne, Daphne odora, including its severe toxicity, sudden root rot collapse, planting depth, winter scent, and shade requirements.
- [Winter jasmine growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/winter-jasmine): How to grow winter jasmine, Jasminum nudiflorum. Flowers on bare stems in January, pruning straight after flowering, training a scrambler, and why it has no scent.
- [Witch hazel growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/witch-hazel): How to grow witch hazel, Hamamelis mollis. Why the graft matters, spotting rootstock suckers before they take over, the soil it needs, and why the flowers survive frost.
- [Wood anemone growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wood-anemone): How to grow wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa. The ancient woodland indicator, why it spreads a few feet per century, and planting it in the green.
- [Woolly foxglove identification guide](https://raychis.app/guides/woolly-foxglove): How to recognise Digitalis lanata, the foxglove behind digoxin. Cream flowers with a big white lip, why this species supplies the drug, and the same danger as every foxglove.
- [Zonal geranium growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pelargonium): How to grow zonal geraniums, Pelargonium zonale. Overwintering, deadheading, why they are not geraniums at all, and the watering habit that causes blackleg.

## Houseplant care guides

- [Houseplants](https://raychis.app/guides/houseplants): All 146 houseplants guides, filterable by difficulty and by known toxicity to cats and dogs.
- [African milk tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/african-milk-tree): Practical guidance for growing African milk tree, Euphorbia trigona, including its caustic sap, upright ribbed stems, low water needs, safe handling, and repotting a top-heavy plant.
- [African violet care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/african-violet): How to care for Streptocarpus ionanthus. Light for flowering, watering from below, avoiding leaf spots and understanding the name change.
- [Air plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/air-plant): How to care for Tillandsia xerographica. Soaking, drying the rosette upside down, mounting without glue and propagating after flowering.
- [Alocasia care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/alocasia): How to care for Alocasia x amazonica. Recognising winter dormancy rather than death, getting the watering right, treating spider mite, and why it drips water.
- [Aloe vera care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/aloe-vera): How to grow aloe vera indoors. Watering, light, dividing the pups, the difference between the gel and the yellow sap, and whether it is safe for pets.
- [Aluminium plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/aluminium-plant): How to care for Pilea cadierei. Light, watering, pruning leggy stems, keeping the silver markings clear and replacing old plants.
- [Amaryllis growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/amaryllis): How to grow amaryllis, Hippeastrum vittatum. Planting the bulb half exposed, getting it to flower a second year, and the dormancy that most people skip.
- [Angel wing begonia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/angel-wing-begonia): Practical guidance for growing angel wing begonia, Begonia coccinea, including cane stems, silver-spotted wing-shaped leaves, watering, humidity, pruning, and toxicity to pets.
- [Angel wings growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/angel-wings): How to grow angel wings, Caladium bicolor. Why losing every leaf each year is dormancy rather than a dying plant, keeping the tuber dry through its rest, and the mouth pain calcium oxalate crystals cause if a leaf is chewed.
- [Areca palm care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/areca-palm): How to care for Dypsis lutescens. Watering a palm sold as a clump of seedlings, why the tips go brown, treating spider mite, and never cutting the growing point.
- [Syngonium growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/syngonium): How to grow syngonium, Syngonium auritum. The arrowhead plant, why the leaf shape changes as it matures, and keeping it bushy rather than climbing.
- [Arrowhead vine care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/arrowhead-vine): How to care for Syngonium podophyllum. The plant that changes leaf shape as it climbs, why the arrowhead you bought turns into something else, and how to keep it compact.
- [Asparagus fern care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/asparagus-fern): How to care for Asparagus setaceus. Light, watering, humidity, toxic berries, its false leaves and its weed risk in warm climates.
- [Baby rubber plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/baby-rubber-plant): How to care for Peperomia obtusifolia. Light, watering, dry rooms, propagation and avoiding root rot.
- [Baseball plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/baseball-plant): How to grow baseball plant, Euphorbia obesa. Why it is mistaken for a cactus despite being a euphorbia with irritant sap, why a lone plant never sets seed, and why underwatering is by far the safer mistake.
- [Bird of paradise growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bird-of-paradise): How to grow Strelitzia reginae. Light, watering, the cool winter rest, slow flowering and the bird-pollinated flower structure.
- [Bird's nest fern care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/birds-nest-fern): How to care for Asplenium nidus. Watering around the rosette, humidity, scale insects and protecting new fronds.
- [Bishop's cap cactus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bishops-cap-cactus): How to grow bishop's cap cactus, Astrophytum myriostigma. It has no spines at all, propagates only from seed since it never offsets, and low light fades its silvery flecking to plain green.
- [Blue star fern care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/blue-star-fern): How to care for Phlebodium aureum. The blue-grey epiphytic fern that forgives dry air where a maidenhair would not, why the furry rhizome must stay on the surface, and the best first fern to try.
- [Blue vanda growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/blue-vanda): Practical guidance for growing blue vanda, Vanda coerulea, including basket culture, bare roots, daily watering, strong light, a cool winter rest, and the true blue flower colour.
- [Blushing philodendron care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/blushing-philodendron): How to care for Philodendron erubescens. The red-stemmed climber behind 'Pink Princess' and 'Red Emerald', why it needs a pole to make big leaves, and what the red pigment is for.
- [Boston fern growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/boston-fern): How to grow a Boston fern, Nephrolepis exaltata. The humidity it demands, why fronds shed in winter, propagating from runners, and the Victorian craze that made it famous.
- [Bottle palm growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bottle-palm): How to grow bottle palm, Hyophorbe lagenicaulis. The whole wild population survives on one island off Mauritius, and while an established plant tolerates drought, salt and wind, any real frost does lasting damage.
- [Brahmi growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/brahmi): How to grow Bacopa monnieri, the creeping marsh herb sold as brahmi. Growing it in an aquarium or a wet pot indoors, and the two different plants that share the name.
- [Bunny ears cactus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bunny-ears-cactus): Practical guidance for growing bunny ears cactus, Opuntia microdasys, including glochid safety, paired pads, bright sun, dry roots, and mild toxicity.
- [Burro's tail growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/burros-tail): How to grow burro's tail, Sedum morganianum. Why its leaves detach at the lightest touch, a normal trait rather than a problem, siting it somewhere nothing brushes past it, and rooting the fallen leaves into new plants.
- [Button fern care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/button-fern): How to care for Pellaea rotundifolia. The New Zealand fern with round leathery buttons instead of lace, why it takes drier air than other ferns, and the one thing it will not forgive.
- [Cast iron plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cast-iron-plant): How to care for Aspidistra elatior. The Victorian parlour plant that survives dark corners and cold hallways, why it grows so slowly, and the two things that kill it.
- [Chinese evergreen care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chinese-evergreen): How to care for Aglaonema commutatum. Why cold does more damage than low light, watering it correctly, and why the pink varieties need brighter conditions than the green ones.
- [Chinese hibiscus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chinese-hibiscus): How to grow Chinese hibiscus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. Flowers that last a day, why bud drop happens, and keeping it through a cool winter indoors.
- [Chinese money plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pilea): How to grow Pilea peperomioides. Light, watering, why the leaves curl, and how to take the offsets that carried this plant across Europe before any nursery sold it.
- [Christmas cactus care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/christmas-cactus): How to grow and reflower a Christmas cactus. Why it is not a desert cactus, how to tell it from a Thanksgiving cactus, and what causes bud drop.
- [Coffee plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/coffee-plant): How to grow coffee plant, Coffea arabica. Why a plant can grow for years without ever flowering, telling a dramatic thirst-wilt from silent root rot, and keeping the caffeine in its leaves and raw cherries away from pets.
- [Coleus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/coleus): How to grow coleus, Plectranthus scutellarioides. Pinching out the flowers to keep the leaves, taking cuttings that root in a week, and overwintering it.
- [Cooktown orchid growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cooktown-orchid): How to grow Cooktown orchid, Dendrobium bigibbum. Healthy canes with no flowers usually mean too little light or too shallow a dry rest, it flowers on leafless older canes, and it takes almost no cold below 12 deg C.
- [Cooper's haworthia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/coopers-haworthia): How to grow Cooper's haworthia, Haworthia cooperi. Why its translucent leaf windows sit mostly buried among grass in the wild, and why it needs far more regular summer watering than a typical succulent.
- [Corn plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/corn-plant): How to grow corn plant, Dracaena fragrans. Brown leaf tips, cane pruning, watering, light and toxicity to cats and dogs.
- [Creeping fig care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/creeping-fig): How to care for Ficus pumila. The one ficus that takes real shade, why it climbs walls without support, and the adult growth phase that turns a neat green sheet into a coarse shrub.
- [Cretan brake care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cretan-brake): How to care for Pteris cretica. The variegated table fern that outlives the rest of a mixed bowl, why the two frond types look like different plants, and how it seeds itself.
- [Crimson cattleya growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/crimson-cattleya): Practical guidance for growing crimson cattleya, Cattleya labiata, including pseudobulbs, the autumn flowering trigger, bark mix, bright light, and how to avoid bud blast.
- [Croton care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/croton): How to care for Codiaeum variegatum. Why it drops every leaf when you move it, the light it needs for colour, treating red spider mite, and settling a new plant.
- [Crown of thorns growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/crown-of-thorns): How to grow crown of thorns, Euphorbia milii. The caustic milky sap, flowering almost all year in good light, and the spines that make it a poor choice near children.
- [Crystal anthurium growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/crystal-anthurium): Practical guidance for growing crystal anthurium, Anthurium crystallinum, including velvet foliage, silver veining, humidity, chunky compost, watering, and mild toxicity.
- [Dancing lady growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dancing-lady): Practical guidance for growing dancing lady orchid, Oncidium flexuosum, including branching flower sprays, pseudobulb watering, moderate cold tolerance, and mounting versus potting.
- [Desert rose growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/desert-rose): Practical guidance for growing desert rose, Adenium obesum, including the swollen caudex, dry dormancy, bright light, sparing water, severe toxicity, and repotting a bonsai-like base.
- [Pothos growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pothos): How to grow pothos, Epipremnum aureum. Keeping the variegation, propagating in water, why a climbing plant grows different leaves, and the calcium oxalate that makes it toxic.
- [Dragon blood tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dragon-blood-tree): How to grow dragon blood tree, Dracaena draco. Why it spends decades as a rosette before branching into its umbrella crown, the red sap once traded as dragon's blood, and why overwatering is the real risk.
- [Dragon tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dracaena-marginata): How to grow Dracaena marginata. Why tap water browns the tips, cutting a leggy cane to make it branch, and the saponins that affect cats.
- [Dumb cane care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dumb-cane): How to care for Dieffenbachia seguine. Handling it safely, keeping it from going leggy, air-layering a bare stem, and where the name comes from.
- [Dwarf umbrella tree care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dwarf-umbrella-tree): How to care for Schefflera arboricola. The tough bushy shrub that takes hard pruning and medium light, why the leaflets drop, and how to stop it becoming a bare stick.
- [Earth star growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/earth-star): How to grow earth star, Cryptanthus bivittatus. Why it roots in soil rather than needing a tank bromeliad's water cup, how brighter light deepens its pink-bronze stripes, and why the rosette fades once it has produced pups.
- [Easter orchid growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/easter-orchid): How to grow Easter orchid, Cattleya mossiae. Why a cooler, drier winter determines whether it flowers each spring, and the disturbance that causes a forming bud to yellow and drop before it opens.
- [Emerald ripple peperomia care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/emerald-ripple-peperomia): How to care for Peperomia caperata. The deeply corrugated rosette peperomia, why water sitting in the crown rots it, and how to propagate one from a single leaf.
- [Fiddle leaf fig growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/fiddle-leaf-fig): How to grow Ficus lyrata. Why it drops leaves when moved, telling root rot brown spots from sunburn ones, and how to make a single stem branch.
- [Fishbone prayer plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/fishbone-prayer-plant): How to care for Ctenanthe burle-marxii. The toughest of the prayer plant family, why the leaves fold up at night, and how it differs from a calathea in the ways that matter.
- [Flaming Katy care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/flaming-katy): How to care for Kalanchoe blossfeldiana. Watering a succulent that is sold in flower, deadheading, and the long dark nights that make it bloom a second time.
- [Anthurium care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/anthurium): How to care for Anthurium andraeanum, the flamingo flower. Light, chunky compost, humidity, watering and repeat flowering.
- [Flamingo lily growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/flamingo-lily): How to grow flamingo lily, Anthurium scherzerianum. Why its calcium oxalate crystals cause an immediate burning bite rather than a slow poisoning, the curled spadix that sets it apart from Anthurium andraeanum, and the fluoride-sensitive browning mistaken for underwatering.
- [Flying goldfish plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/flying-goldfish-plant): How to grow flying goldfish plant, Columnea gloriosa. Why its fish-shaped flowers need brighter light than the foliage alone, and what causes buds to drop before they open.
- [Coleus forskohlii growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/coleus-forskohlii): How to grow Plectranthus barbatus, the tuberous coleus behind forskolin. An easy tender perennial for a windowsill, blue flower spikes in autumn, and three names for one plant.
- [Foxtail fern growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/foxtail-fern): Practical guidance for growing foxtail fern, Asparagus densiflorus, including plume-shaped stems, tuberous roots, bright light, drought tolerance, and toxicity to cats and dogs.
- [Fragrant fern care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/fragrant-fern): How to care for Microsorum punctatum. The upright strap fern with no scent despite the name, why the crested forms cost more, and how it grows on bark without soil.
- [Gardenia care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/gardenia): How to care for Gardenia jasminoides. Why the buds drop, the ericaceous compost and rainwater it insists on, and the steady conditions that decide whether it flowers.
- [Ghost plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ghost-plant): Practical guidance for growing ghost plant, Graptopetalum paraguayense, including pale rosettes, leaf propagation, drought tolerance, bright light, and non-toxic houseplant care.
- [Golden barrel cactus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/golden-barrel-cactus): How to grow golden barrel cactus, Echinocactus grusonii. Its entire wild population was flooded by a dam in the 1990s, overwatering is the real risk rather than drought, and most never live long enough to flower.
- [Golden shower orchid growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/golden-shower-orchid): How to grow golden shower orchid, Oncidium sphacelatum. Why a plant kept damp year-round skips its huge branching spray, judging sun by leaf colour, and giving pseudobulbs the dry rest they need to flower.
- [Green aglaonema care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/green-aglaonema): How to care for Aglaonema modestum. The plain green original of the Chinese evergreens, tougher in shade and cold than the coloured cultivars that replaced it, and why the plain leaf is the point.
- [Guduchi growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/guduchi): How to grow Tinospora cordifolia under glass. The vine that drops aerial roots like strings, why Sanskrit calls it the nectar of immortality, and the 2021 hepatitis cluster.
- [Gymnema growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/gymnema): How to grow Gymnema sylvestre under glass. The leaf that switches off sweet taste for half an hour, why it needs a heated greenhouse, and what gurmar means.
- [Hare's foot fern care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hares-foot-fern): How to care for Davallia canariensis. The Mediterranean fern that sheds its fronds in a dry summer and grows them back, why it takes a cold room, and how it differs from the Fijian one.
- [Heartleaf philodendron care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/heartleaf-philodendron): How to care for Philodendron hederaceum. How to tell it apart from pothos for certain, why climbing gives bigger leaves than trailing, and how it behaves around pets.
- [Holly fern care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/holly-fern): How to care for Cyrtomium falcatum. The stiff, dark, glossy fern that takes cold halls and dry air, why it looks nothing like a houseplant fern, and where it has escaped.
- [Hoya care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hoya): How to care for Hoya carnosa, the wax plant. Never cutting off the flower spur, keeping it pot-bound so it blooms, and the winter rest that sets the buds.
- [Inch plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tradescantia): How to grow Tradescantia zebrina. Keeping the purple and silver colour, pinching to stop it going bare, rooting cuttings in a week, and the name the trade is retiring.
- [Jade plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/jade-plant): How to grow a jade plant, Crassula ovata. Watering a succulent properly, pruning it into a tree, getting red leaf edges, and why it breathes at night.
- [Japanese aralia care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/japanese-aralia): How to care for Fatsia japonica. The big-leaved shade shrub that works as a houseplant and a garden plant, why it hates warm rooms, and what the shiny black berries are.
- [Jelly bean plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/jelly-bean-plant): Practical guidance for growing jelly bean plant, Sedum rubrotinctum, including bead-like leaves, sun colour, propagation from a dropped leaf, watering, and low pest pressure.
- [Jewel orchid growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/jewel-orchid): Practical guidance for growing jewel orchid, Ludisia discolor, including its velvet patterned leaves, shaded position, moist soil rather than bark, low light tolerance, and modest flower spikes.
- [Kentia palm care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/kentia-palm): How to care for Howea forsteriana. Watering a palm that hates wet feet, why the brown tips appear, never cutting the growing point, and the one island it comes from.
- [King anthurium growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/king-anthurium): How to grow king anthurium, Anthurium veitchii. Why its huge corrugated leaves need far more humidity than an average anthurium, and what a moss pole does for its pendant habit.
- [Lady palm care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lady-palm): How to care for Rhapis excelsa. The most shade-tolerant palm in cultivation, why it costs what it does, and why a plant that suits cool dim rooms is still sold as difficult.
- [Lady's slipper orchid growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ladys-slipper-orchid): Practical guidance for growing lady's slipper orchid, Paphiopedilum insigne, including the pouched flower, no pseudobulbs, constant light moisture, cool growing conditions, and handling care.
- [Lipstick echeveria growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lipstick-echeveria): How to grow lipstick echeveria, Echeveria agavoides. Why its pointed leaves look closer to a small agave, what strong sun does for the red leaf-tip colour, and why water pooling in the rosette is the fastest way to lose it.
- [Lipstick plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lipstick-plant): Practical guidance for growing lipstick plant, Aeschynanthus radicans, including tubular red flowers, dark calyxes, trailing stems, bright light, humidity, pruning, and non-toxic houseplant care.
- [Living stones growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/living-stones): How to grow living stones, Lithops lesliei. The strict watering calendar, why you must not water while it splits, and the annual leaf change.
- [Lucky bamboo growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lucky-bamboo): How to grow lucky bamboo, Dracaena sanderiana. It is not bamboo, why tap water yellows the tips, and moving it from water into compost.
- [Maidenhair fern care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/maidenhair-fern): How to care for Adiantum raddianum. Why it crisps in an ordinary room, the one thing that revives a fern you think you have killed, and how it differs from its near-hardy wild relative.
- [Echeveria growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/echeveria): How to grow Echeveria elegans. Keeping the rosette tight, why you must not touch the leaves, watering without rotting the centre, and beheading a stretched plant.
- [Mind your own business care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mind-your-own-business): How to care for Soleirolia soleirolii. The tiny-leaved carpet that fills a shaded pot in a season, why it is a nettle without a sting, and why it is hard to remove once loose in a garden.
- [Moon cactus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/moon-cactus): Practical guidance for growing moon cactus, Gymnocalycium mihanovichii, including grafts, rootstock lifespan, bright shaded light, dry soil, and non-toxic care.
- [Moonstones growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/moonstones): How to grow moonstones, Pachyphytum oviferum. Why touching a leaf leaves a permanent mark in its chalky farina bloom, and what triggers its red-orange flower spikes each winter.
- [Moth orchid growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/phalaenopsis-orchid): How to grow a moth orchid, Phalaenopsis. Watering an epiphyte, reading the roots, the temperature drop that triggers a new spike, and where to cut the old one.
- [Mother of thousands growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mother-of-thousands): How to grow mother of thousands, Kalanchoe daigremontiana. The plantlets that drop off everywhere, the cardiac glycosides that kill livestock, and containing it.
- [Neem tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/neem): How to grow Azadirachta indica indoors outside the tropics. A conservatory tree that needs constant warmth, why it cannot legally be sold as a pesticide in Britain, and the infant poisoning record.
- [Nerve plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/nerve-plant): How to care for Fittonia albivenis. The plant that faints when it dries out, keeping the humidity it demands, growing it in a terrarium, and pinching to keep it bushy.
- [Never-never plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/never-never-plant): How to grow never-never plant, Ctenanthe setosa. Why its leaves fold upright every evening and flatten again by morning, and telling hard-water leaf scorch from simple dry-air browning.
- [Dendrobium orchid growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dendrobium-orchid): How to grow Dendrobium nobile. The cool dry winter rest that makes it flower, why the old canes must be kept, and the keikis that grow instead of buds.
- [Norfolk Island pine growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/norfolk-island-pine): How to grow Norfolk Island pine, Araucaria heterophylla. Why turning the pot regularly keeps its tiers even, why cutting the leading shoot ruins the shape for good, and telling normal lower-branch dieback from the early signs of root rot.
- [Old man cactus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/old-man-cactus): Practical guidance for growing old man cactus, Cephalocereus senilis, including its protective hair, slow columnar growth, strong sun, dry roots, and non-toxic care.
- [Paddle plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/paddle-plant): Practical guidance for growing paddle plant, Kalanchoe luciae, including flat paddle-shaped leaves, red colour in strong light, flowering stems, drought tolerance, and toxicity to pets.
- [Panda plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/panda-plant): How to grow panda plant, Kalanchoe tomentosa. Why the rust-brown leaf edges are normal rather than a sign of stress, why it rarely flowers indoors, and the cardiac glycosides that make a flowering plant riskier to pets than its leaves.
- [Parlour palm care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/parlour-palm): How to care for Chamaedorea elegans. The Victorian drawing-room palm that still tolerates a dim corner better than almost anything, why it stays small, and the two things that brown the tips.
- [Peace lily care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/peace-lily): How to care for Spathiphyllum wallisii. Why it wilts on purpose, what brown tips are telling you, why a shop-bought plant often refuses to flower again, and how it behaves around cats.
- [Pencil cactus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pencil-cactus): How to grow pencil cactus, Euphorbia tirucalli. Not a cactus, the seriously caustic sap, and why 'Firesticks' needs full sun to keep its colour.
- [Poinsettia care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/poinsettia): How to buy a poinsettia that lasts, keep it alive past January, and get the bracts to colour up again. Plus the truth about whether poinsettias are poisonous.
- [Polka dot begonia care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/begonia-maculata): How to care for Begonia maculata. Pruning to stop it going leggy, watering a cane begonia without rotting it, keeping the spots bold, and rooting cuttings.
- [Ponytail palm growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ponytail-palm): How to grow ponytail palm, Beaucarnea recurvata. The swollen base that stores water, why it needs watering monthly rather than weekly, and its slow growth.
- [Prayer plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/prayer-plant): How to care for Maranta leuconeura. Why the leaves fold up at night, what causes the crispy edges everyone gets, and one of the few striking houseplants that is safe with cats.
- [Purple heart growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/purple-heart): How to grow purple heart, Tradescantia pallida. Why light matters more than feeding for keeping the purple colour strong, and the sap that can trigger a skin rash even after years of handling it without trouble.
- [Pygmy date palm growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pygmy-date-palm): Practical guidance for growing pygmy date palm, Phoenix roebelenii, including its base spines, slow arching fronds, bright light, steady moisture, and pet-safe care.
- [Rabbit's foot fern care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rabbits-foot-fern): How to care for Davallia fejeensis. The Fijian fern whose furry rhizomes crawl over the pot rim, why they must never be buried, and how to grow one in a hanging basket.
- [Raindrop peperomia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/raindrop-peperomia): How to grow raindrop peperomia, Peperomia polybotrya. Why its thick, teardrop leaves cope better with a missed watering than with compost left wet, and why it is safe for a home with cats, dogs or a toddler who chews everything.
- [Rex begonia care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rex-begonia): How to care for Begonia rex. The begonia grown entirely for its leaf, why humidity matters more than light, and how to raise a new plant from a single leaf.
- [Calathea orbifolia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/calathea-orbifolia): How to grow Goeppertia orbifolia. Humidity, filtered water, leaf movement at night and the Calathea name change.
- [Rubber plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rubber-plant): How to care for Ficus elastica. Why it drops leaves when you move it, what the red sheath on new growth is, how to stop it becoming a bare pole, and the latex problem.
- [Sago palm care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sago-palm): How to care for Cycas revoluta. Watering a cycad that stores its own water, the one flush of fronds a year, treating cycad scale, and why it is lethal to dogs.
- [Satin pothos care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/satin-pothos): How to care for Scindapsus pictus. The silver-spotted trailer that keeps its markings in far less light than a variegated pothos, why it is not a pothos at all, and how to stop the leaves shrinking.
- [Shatavari growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/shatavari): How to grow Asparagus racemosus under glass. A thorny climbing asparagus with a hundred roots, scented white flowers, and the berries to keep away from pets.
- [Silver torch cactus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/silver-torch-cactus): How to grow silver torch cactus, Cleistocactus strausii. Its high-altitude Andean origin gives it a cold tolerance rare among cacti, strong sun keeps the spines dense rather than sparse, and a tall column can topple without a heavier pot.
- [Silver vase plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/silver-vase-plant): Practical guidance for growing silver vase plant, Aechmea fasciata, including central cup watering, pups after flowering, silver banding, bright light, humidity, and non-toxic houseplant care.
- [Snake plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/snake-plant): How to grow a snake plant, Dracaena trifasciata. Watering, light, why variegated cuttings turn green, and what the air-purifying claims are worth.
- [Spider orchid growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/spider-orchid): Practical guidance for growing spider orchid, Brassia verrucosa, including long trailing petals, the wasp-mimicking flower, pseudobulb watering, bright light, and a warm intermediate climate.
- [Spider plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/spider-plant): How to grow a spider plant, Chlorophytum comosum. Fixing brown tips, rooting the babies, and whether it is safe for cats.
- [Spikemoss care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/spikemoss): How to care for Selaginella kraussiana. Humidity, low light, constant moisture and growing it in a closed jar or terrarium.
- [Spotted dumb cane growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/spotted-dumb-cane): How to grow spotted dumb cane, Dieffenbachia seguine. Why a bitten leaf can swell the tongue enough to affect speech and breathing, and why it needs a shelf out of reach rather than just supervision around children and pets.
- [Staghorn fern growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/staghorn-fern): How to grow staghorn fern, Platycerium bifurcatum. Mounting it on a board, why the brown shield fronds must be left alone, and watering by soaking.
- [String of buttons growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/string-of-buttons): Practical guidance for growing string of buttons, Crassula perforata, including stacked triangular leaves, propagation from leaves, bright light, drought tolerance, and mild toxicity.
- [String of hearts care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/string-of-hearts): How to care for Ceropegia woodii. Watering a semi-succulent trailer, getting tight leaf spacing rather than bare threads, and propagating from the beads on the stems.
- [String of pearls care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/string-of-pearls): How to care for Curio rowleyanus. Bright light, careful watering, shallow pots, propagation and signs of stress in the beads.
- [Sweetheart hoya growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sweetheart-hoya): How to grow sweetheart hoya, Hoya kerrii. Why a single heart-shaped leaf sold as a gift can never grow into a vine unless it was cut with a stem node, and why letting the mix dry out fully matters more than any feeding schedule.
- [Monstera care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/monstera): How to grow and care for Monstera deliciosa, the Swiss cheese plant. Watering, light, feeding, common problems, and whether it is safe around pets.
- [Swiss cheese vine care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/swiss-cheese-vine): How to care for Monstera adansonii. The small-leaved monstera with holes and no splits, how to tell it from the plant sold as obliqua, and why the holes only arrive with age.
- [Ti plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ti-plant): How to care for Cordyline fruticosa. The red-leaved Pacific plant carried across an ocean by canoe, why fluoride in tap water browns the tips, and how much light the colour needs.
- [Tiger aloe growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tiger-aloe): How to grow tiger aloe, Gonialoe variegata. Why it rots more easily than it scorches despite its tough desert look, and how growing beneath low shrubs in the wild shapes its need for some shade rather than full sun.
- [Torch plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/torch-plant): How to grow torch plant, Aloe arborescens. Why it flowers in winter rather than the summer most aloes choose, how it resprouts after wildfire in its native range, and why a plant kept in a small pot may never flower at all.
- [Aeonium growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/aeonium): How to grow aeonium, Aeonium arboreum. The summer dormancy that reverses normal watering, why a flowering rosette dies, and overwintering it outside its own climate.
- [Velvet cardboard anthurium growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/velvet-cardboard-anthurium): How to grow velvet cardboard anthurium, Anthurium clarinervium. Why its flower barely registers next to the velvety, vein-patterned leaves, and the chunky aroid mix that keeps the roots from rotting.
- [Venus flytrap care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/venus-flytrap): How to care for Dionaea muscipula. Pure water, winter dormancy, full sun, feeding and the trigger hairs inside each trap.
- [Watch chain growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/watch-chain): How to grow watch chain, Crassula muscosa. Why its tightly stacked leaves look like a braided zip fastener, the unpleasant smell its small flowers give off, and why stretched, gappy growth from too little light cannot be reversed.
- [Watermelon peperomia care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/watermelon-peperomia): How to care for Peperomia argyreia. The silver-striped peperomia whose markings are structural rather than pigment, why the stalks snap, and how to propagate one from half a leaf.
- [Weeping fig care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/weeping-fig): How to care for Ficus benjamina. Why it drops every leaf when you move it, settling a new plant, treating scale, and handling the irritant sap when you prune.
- [Whale fin snake plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/whale-fin-snake-plant): How to care for Dracaena masoniana. The single-leaved snake plant that is usually sold as one enormous paddle, why it grows so slowly, and why a whole plant can be one leaf.
- [Xanadu care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/xanadu): How to care for Philodendron xanadu. The self-heading philodendron that spreads sideways instead of climbing, why it needs floor space rather than a pole, and where the plant came from.
- [Zebra alocasia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/zebra-alocasia): Practical guidance for growing zebra alocasia, Alocasia zebrina, including striped petioles, arrow-shaped leaves, humidity, watering, winter dormancy, mild toxicity, and pest control.
- [Zebra haworthia care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/zebra-haworthia): How to care for Haworthiopsis fasciata. The succulent that tolerates a shaded windowsill, watering it correctly, removing offsets, and telling it from Haworthiopsis attenuata.
- [ZZ plant care guide](https://raychis.app/guides/zz-plant): How to care for Zamioculcas zamiifolia. Low light, dry compost, rhizomes, leaflet propagation and the false cancer claim.

## Herb and edible growing guides

- [Herbs and edibles](https://raychis.app/guides/edibles): All 385 herbs and edibles guides, filterable by difficulty and by known toxicity to cats and dogs.
- [Adzuki bean growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/adzuki-bean): How to grow adzuki beans, Vigna angularis. Sowing, spacing, summer warmth, drying the seed and using the red beans for sweet paste.
- [African basil growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/african-basil): How to grow African basil, Ocimum gratissimum. The clove-scented woody basil of West African cooking, keeping it as a perennial under glass, and taking cuttings.
- [African rice growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/african-rice): How to grow African rice, Oryza glaberrima. A second independent domestication in the Niger delta, the red grain that crossed the Atlantic with the people who knew how to grow it.
- [African yam bean growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/african-yam-bean): How to grow African yam bean, Sphenostylis stenocarpa. A West African climbing legume grown for edible seeds and tubers, with notes on heat, support and long boiling.
- [Aji pepper growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/aji-pepper): How to grow aji peppers, Capsicum baccatum. The Peruvian chilli with a fruity flavour, the tall plant it makes, and the spotted flowers that identify the species.
- [Ajwain growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ajwain): How to grow ajwain, Trachyspermum ammi. The carom seed that tastes of thyme, why it needs a greenhouse here, and its place in Indian cooking and home remedies.
- [Almond growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/almond): How to grow almond, Prunus dulcis. Why it blossoms in February and rarely sets nuts in a cool damp spring, peach leaf curl, and the difference between sweet and bitter kernels.
- [Ambarella growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ambarella): How to grow ambarella, Spondias dulcis. Warmth, watering, the crisp green fruit, the spiny stone and its common names.
- [Hoary basil growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hoary-basil): How to grow hoary basil, Ocimum americanum. The lime and lemon-scented basil of Africa and Asia, why its name is misleading, and growing it under glass.
- [American hazelnut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/american-hazelnut): Practical guidance for growing American hazelnut, Corylus americana, including its suckering thicket habit, native tolerance of eastern filbert blight, wildlife hedgerow use, and edible nuts.
- [American pawpaw growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/american-pawpaw): How to grow American pawpaw, Asimina triloba. The largest fruit native to North America, custard-textured and tropical-tasting, from a tree hardy to -25 deg C.
- [American persimmon growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/american-persimmon): How to grow American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana. Why a female tree needs a male nearby to fruit, waiting for it to soften fully before the tannins stop puckering the mouth, and the bezoar risk that means fencing grazing animals away from windfalls.
- [Angelica growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/angelica): How to grow angelica, Angelica archangelica. The two-metre biennial for candied stems, sowing the seed fresh, and stopping it flowering to keep the plant another year.
- [Anise growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/anise): How to grow anise, Pimpinella anisum. Why the seed needs a long hot summer to ripen, sowing it direct in May, and the aniseed flavour it shares with three unrelated plants.
- [Apple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/apple): How to grow apples, Malus domestica. Rootstocks and what they control, pollination groups explained plainly, winter pruning, and the cyanide in the pips.
- [Apricot growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/apricot): How to grow apricot, Prunus armeniaca. The earliest blossom of any fruit tree, protecting it from frost, and choosing a cultivar bred for a cool temperate climate.
- [Arnica growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/arnica): How to grow arnica, Arnica montana. The acid-soil mountain daisy, why it fails in ordinary garden ground, and the reason it is never taken by mouth.
- [Aromatic ginger growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/kencur): How to grow aromatic ginger, Kaempferia galanga. The flat-leaved kencur of Indonesian cooking, its camphorous rhizome, and growing it as a pot plant under glass.
- [Arrowroot growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/arrowroot): How to grow arrowroot, Maranta arundinacea. The starch that thickens clear, its family connection to the prayer plant on your windowsill, and the island that still supplies most of it.
- [Asian pear growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/asian-pear): How to grow Asian pear, Pyrus pyrifolia. Why you pick it crisp instead of ripening it soft, the pollination partner it needs, and thinning the fruit for size.
- [Asparagus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/asparagus): How to grow asparagus, Asparagus officinalis. Waiting three years before the first cut, stopping cutting on midsummer's day, and dealing with asparagus beetle.
- [Aubergine growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/aubergine): How to grow aubergines, Solanum melongena. The heat they need and how to supply it in a cool summer, stopping at five fruits, red spider mite under glass, and picking while the skin still shines.
- [Australian round lime growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/australian-round-lime): How to grow Australian round lime, Microcitrus australis. The Queensland rainforest citrus that was a bushfood before it was a crop, its place beside the finger lime, and the thorns it comes with.
- [Autumn olive growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/autumn-olive): How to grow autumn olive, Elaeagnus umbellata. A nitrogen-fixing shrub with silver leaves and speckled red fruit, and why it needs planting with thought.
- [Avocado growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/avocado): How to grow avocado, Persea americana. Germinating stones, pollination groups, fruiting limits indoors and persin safety for pets.
- [Bael growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bael): How to grow bael, Aegle marmelos. The Indian fruit with a shell you break with a hammer, its place in Shiva worship, the sherbet made from it, and the thorns on every branch.
- [Banana growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/banana): How to grow banana, Musa acuminata. The giant herb that is not a tree, why every Cavendish is the same plant, Panama disease, and which bananas survive a cool winter.
- [Barley growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/barley): How to grow barley, Hordeum vulgare. The cereal behind beer and whisky, two-row against six-row, and how to tell it from wheat at fifty paces.
- [Bay laurel growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bay-laurel): How to grow bay, Laurus nobilis. Clipping a standard, overwintering it in a pot, treating bay sucker and scale, and telling true bay from poisonous cherry laurel.
- [Bearberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bearberry): How to grow bearberry, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. The evergreen acid-soil carpeter, its red berries and glossy leaves, and where it grows wild on Scottish moorland.
- [Beetroot growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/beetroot): How to grow beetroot, Beta vulgaris. Why each seed is a cluster, sowing to avoid bolting, eating the leaves, and the harmless red urine that alarms people.
- [Bilberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bilberry): How to grow bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus. The wild blueberry of European moorland, why the fruit stains and the shop blueberry does not, and its slow spread.
- [Bilimbi growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bilimbi): How to grow bilimbi, Averrhoa bilimbi. The sour cousin of the starfruit that grows straight out of the trunk, its place in a Kerala kitchen, and the kidney damage its juice has caused.
- [Bitter gourd growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bitter-melon): How to grow bitter gourd, Momordica charantia. The two shapes it comes in, how to take the edge off the bitterness, and why anyone on diabetes medication should read the safety section first.
- [Black cardamom growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/black-cardamom): How to grow black cardamom, Amomum subulatum. The smoke-dried Himalayan pod, why it is not a substitute for green cardamom, and growing it under glass.
- [Nigella growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/nigella): How to grow nigella, Nigella sativa. The black seed of kalonji, sowing it direct in spring, and how it differs from the love-in-a-mist in a flower border.
- [Black mulberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mulberry): How to grow black mulberry, Morus nigra. Why it is never sold in shops, pruning only when fully dormant to stop it bleeding, and the long wait for the first crop.
- [Black mustard growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/black-mustard): How to grow black mustard, Brassica nigra. The hot seed behind traditional table mustard, why the pods shatter, and how it differs from the brown mustard grown commercially.
- [Black pepper growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/black-pepper): How to grow black pepper, Piper nigrum. Why black, white and green pepper all come from the same berry, growing the vine under glass, and what it needs to fruit.
- [Black raspberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/black-raspberry): How to grow black raspberry, Rubus occidentalis. Arching purple canes that root at the tips, intense dark fruit, and the one plant you must keep it away from.
- [Scorzonera growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/scorzonera): How to grow scorzonera, Scorzonera hispanica. The black-skinned root with an oyster flavour, lifting it without snapping it, and leaving it a second year to fatten.
- [Black walnut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/black-walnut): How to grow black walnut, Juglans nigra. Superb timber, a rich strong-flavoured nut, and a root system that poisons the ground around it.
- [Black-eyed pea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/black-eyed-pea): How to grow black-eyed peas, Vigna unguiculata. The heat-loving bean that fixes nitrogen on poor soil, picking young pods, and drying the seed.
- [Blackberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/blackberry): How to grow blackberries, Rubus fruticosus. Choosing a thornless variety, training the canes so you never cut the wrong ones, and why the fruit turns sour after Michaelmas.
- [Blackcurrant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/blackcurrant): How to grow blackcurrants, Ribes nigrum. Planting deep to make a stool, pruning a third out each winter, big bud mite and reversion, and the wartime vitamin C story.
- [Blessed thistle growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/blessed-thistle): How to grow blessed thistle, Cnicus benedictus. The bitter annual of medieval physic gardens, sowing it direct in spring, and the plague reputation that gave it its name.
- [Blueberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/blueberry): How to grow blueberries, Vaccinium corymbosum. Why they need ericaceous compost and rainwater, planting two for cross-pollination, and the pruning that keeps a bush cropping.
- [Borage growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/borage): How to grow borage, Borago officinalis. Sowing, self-seeding, bee-friendly blue flowers and cucumber-flavoured young leaves.
- [Bottle gourd growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/bottle-gourd): How to grow bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria. The oldest cultivated plant in the world, how to dry a hard shell, and the bitter-fruit rule that has to be followed every time.
- [Grumichama growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/grumichama): How to grow grumichama, Eugenia brasiliensis. The Brazilian cherry that tastes like a real one, how it differs from its resinous cousin the Surinam cherry, and the slow growth that comes with it.
- [Brazil nut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/brazil-nut): How to grow the Brazil nut, Bertholletia excelsa. Its rainforest pollination, agouti seed dispersal, selenium content and limits as a crop.
- [Wheat growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wheat): How to grow wheat, Triticum aestivum. The three genomes behind a risen loaf, how to tell an ear of wheat from barley in a field, and why the plant got shorter in the 1960s.
- [Breadfruit growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/breadfruit): How to grow breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis. The starch that caused a mutiny on the Bounty, why it must be cooked, and the seedless cultivars that have to be propagated by root cutting.
- [Broad bean growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/broad-bean): How to grow broad beans, Vicia faba. Autumn against spring sowing, pinching out for blackfly, and the inherited condition that makes this bean dangerous for some people.
- [Broccoli growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/broccoli): How to grow broccoli, Brassica oleracea var. italica. Calabrese and purple sprouting are different crops, cutting for side shoots, and getting a spring harvest.
- [Brussels sprouts growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/brussels-sprouts): How to grow Brussels sprouts, Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera. Firm ground and staking, picking from the bottom up, and why blown sprouts happen.
- [Buckwheat growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/buckwheat): How to grow buckwheat, Fagopyrum esculentum. Sowing, fast growth, bee forage, harvesting seed and using it as a green manure.
- [Butter bean growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/butter-bean): How to grow butter beans, Phaseolus lunatus. The heat they need in a cool summer, climbing and bush forms, and why they must always be boiled hard.
- [Butternut squash growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/butternut-squash): How to grow butternut squash, Cucurbita moschata. The heat it needs to ripen in a cool summer, choosing a short-season cultivar, and curing the fruit so it stores until spring.
- [Cabbage growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cabbage): How to grow cabbage, Brassica oleracea var. capitata. Firming the soil properly, beating cabbage white caterpillars with mesh, and what to do about club root.
- [Camu camu growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/camu-camu): How to grow camu camu, Myrciaria dubia. The Amazon shrub that spends half the year underwater, one of the richest sources of vitamin C on earth, and a fruit too sour to eat.
- [Canistel growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/canistel): How to grow canistel, Pouteria campechiana. The egg fruit whose flesh has the texture of a hard-boiled yolk, why it divides people so sharply, and how to eat one properly.
- [Cape gooseberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cape-gooseberry): How to grow cape gooseberries, Physalis peruviana. The long season it needs, overwintering the plant under glass, and waiting for the husk to go papery.
- [Caraway growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/caraway): How to grow caraway, Carum carvi. The biennial that seeds in its second summer, cutting it before the seed shatters, and the root eaten as a vegetable.
- [Cardamom growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cardamom): How to grow cardamom, Elettaria cardamomum. The third most expensive spice in the world, why it is picked by hand, and growing the plant under glass outside the tropics.
- [Cardoon growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cardoon): How to grow cardoons, Cynara cardunculus. Blanching the leaf stalks in autumn, the difference from a globe artichoke, and the seed heads that curdle cheese.
- [Carrot growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/carrot): How to grow carrots, Daucus carota subsp. sativus. Stone-free soil, why you must not thin them in daylight, beating carrot fly, and sowing for a Christmas crop.
- [Casabanana growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/casabanana): How to grow casabanana, Sicana odorifera. Heat, glasshouse growing, scented fruit, deep red skin and pollination for fruiting.
- [Cashew growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cashew): How to grow cashew, Anacardium occidentale. Warmth, the cashew apple, shell oil hazards and why raw cashews need processing.
- [Cassava growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cassava): How to grow cassava, Manihot esculenta. The root that feeds hundreds of millions, why it has to be processed before it is safe, and the difference between the sweet and the bitter kinds.
- [Cattley guava growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/strawberry-guava): How to grow Cattley guava, Psidium cattleianum. The hardiest guava, small enough to fruit on a windowsill, red and yellow forms, and the reason Hawaii would like it gone.
- [Cauliflower growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cauliflower): How to grow cauliflower, Brassica oleracea var. botrytis. The hardest brassica, why buttoning and blindness happen, and blanching the curd white.
- [Celeriac growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/celeriac): How to grow celeriac, Apium graveolens var. rapaceum. The six-month season it needs, removing side shoots and lower leaves, and lifting through the frost.
- [Celery growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/celery): How to grow celery, Apium graveolens. Self-blanching against trench types, the water it demands, stopping it bolting, and why the sap burns in sunlight.
- [Chaste tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chaste-tree): How to grow chaste tree, Vitex agnus-castus. The late-flowering blue spikes for a hot wall, pruning it hard each spring, and the monastery reputation behind its name.
- [Chayote growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chayote): How to grow chayote, Sechium edule. Planting the whole sprouting fruit, why a short season ends before it flowers, and the parts of the plant nobody sells you.
- [Chempedak growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chempedak): How to grow chempedak, Artocarpus integer. The smaller, softer, stronger-smelling relative of the jackfruit, the battered fritters it is famous for, and the hairy twigs that tell the two apart.
- [Cherimoya growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cherimoya): How to grow cherimoya, Annona cherimola. Warm days, cool winter rest, hand pollination, fruit ripening and seed safety.
- [Cherry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cherry): How to grow cherries, Prunus avium. Choosing a dwarfing rootstock, netting against birds, why the fruit splits in rain, and pruning only in summer to avoid silver leaf.
- [Cherry plum growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cherry-plum): How to grow cherry plum, Prunus cerasifera. The first blossom of the year, why the fruit is worth more than its reputation, and its use as a hedge.
- [Chervil growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chervil): How to grow chervil, Anthriscus cerefolium. Sowing it in autumn for a winter crop, why it bolts in a hot bed, and how to tell it from the cow parsley it is related to.
- [Chickpea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chickpea): How to grow chickpeas, Cicer arietinum. A plant that sweats acid onto its own leaves, the difference between desi and kabuli, and the water you should stop pouring away.
- [Chicory growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chicory): How to grow chicory, Cichorium intybus. Forcing Witloof chicons in the dark, growing radicchio for winter colour, and taming the bitterness.
- [Bird's eye chilli growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/birds-eye-chilli): How to grow bird's eye chillies, Capsicum frutescens. The upright fruit that gives tabasco its name, growing it as a perennial, and picking the small hot pods.
- [Chilli pepper growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chilli-pepper): How to grow chilli peppers, Capsicum annuum. Sowing early enough, where the heat sits in the fruit, overwintering a plant, and what to do about capsaicin on your hands.
- [Chinese artichoke growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chinese-artichoke): How to grow Chinese artichokes, Stachys affinis. The little spiral tubers, keeping them contained, lifting every one, and why they shrivel within a day.
- [Chinese broccoli growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chinese-broccoli): How to grow Chinese broccoli, Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra. Cutting kai lan at the right moment, why the flower buds are the crop, and getting a second harvest from side shoots.
- [Chinese cabbage growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chinese-cabbage): How to grow Chinese cabbage, Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis. The July sowing that stops it bolting, keeping slugs out of the heart, and growing it for kimchi.
- [Chinese chestnut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chinese-chestnut): How to grow Chinese chestnut, Castanea mollissima. A blight-resistant chestnut with sweet nuts, needing a partner tree and acid soil.
- [Chinese cinnamon growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cassia): How to grow Chinese cinnamon, Cinnamomum cassia. The thick-barked cinnamon most of the world buys, the coumarin question, and the cassia buds used as a spice.
- [Chinese spinach growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chinese-spinach): How to grow Chinese spinach, Amaranthus tricolor. The heat-loving amaranth leaf, sowing into warm soil, cutting for repeat crops, and the red pigment that colours the pan.
- [Chinese wolfberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chinese-wolfberry): How to grow Chinese wolfberry, Lycium chinense. The leafier of the two goji species, grown across southern China as a vegetable as much as for its fruit.
- [Chinese yam growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chinese-yam): How to grow Dioscorea polystachya, the hardy yam that crops in a cool climate. Digging a tuber a metre long, growing it in a pipe instead, and keeping the bulbils under control.
- [Chives growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chives): How to grow chives, Allium schoenoprasum. Cutting for tender regrowth, dividing congested clumps, the edible flowers, and why a herb you can eat is dangerous to cats and dogs.
- [Chokeberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chokeberry): How to grow chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa. A tough shrub with brilliant autumn colour, and fruit so astringent it is named for what it does to your mouth.
- [Citron growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/citron): How to grow citron, Citrus medica. An ancestral citrus that is mostly rind and pith, grown for candied peel, ritual use and the fingered Buddha's hand form.
- [Citronella grass growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/citronella-grass): How to grow citronella grass, Cymbopogon nardus. The source of citronella oil, how it differs from lemongrass, and why the citronella plant in a garden centre is usually something else.
- [Clary sage growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/clary-sage): How to grow clary sage, Salvia sclarea. The biennial with two-metre flower spikes, the perfume crop behind it, and the seed once used to wash grit out of an eye.
- [Cloudberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cloudberry): How to grow cloudberry, Rubus chamaemorus. An arctic bog plant with amber fruit, separate male and female plants, and a real reluctance to crop outside the far north.
- [Clove growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/clove): How to grow clove, Syzygium aromaticum. The unopened flower bud that becomes the spice, the Dutch monopoly on the Moluccas, and the real danger of clove oil.
- [Guar growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/guar): How to grow guar, Cyamopsis tetragonoloba. A Rajasthani vegetable whose seed thickens ice cream, and the crop whose price quadrupled because of American shale gas.
- [Coco plum growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/coco-plum): Practical guidance for growing coco plum, Chrysobalanus icaco, including salt tolerance, coastal hedging, ripe fruit, pruning, wet soil tolerance, and container growing.
- [Coconut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/coconut): How to grow coconut, Cocos nucifera. Sprouting one on a windowsill, the three eyes, coconut water, coconut milk and the limits of an indoor palm.
- [Common mallow growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/common-mallow): How to grow common mallow, Malva sylvestris. The veined purple flowers, the round seed cases children call cheeses, and the mallow rust that disfigures it every year.
- [Sage growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sage): How to grow Salvia officinalis. The pruning cut that kills it, why a four-year-old plant stops earning its place, when the leaves taste strongest, and the thujone question.
- [Sorrel growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sorrel): How to grow sorrel, Rumex acetosa. The sharp lemony leaf that comes back every spring, keeping it cutting all season, and the oxalic acid to respect.
- [Thyme growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/thyme): How to grow common thyme, Thymus vulgaris. Drainage, the trim that stops it going woody, harvesting when the oils peak, and why it belongs in gravel rather than good soil.
- [Coriander growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/coriander): How to grow coriander, Coriandrum sativum. Why it bolts, why you must sow it direct rather than transplant, succession sowing for a steady supply, and harvesting the seed.
- [Corn salad growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/corn-salad): How to grow corn salad, Valerianella locusta. The hardiest winter salad there is, sowing in September, and picking whole rosettes through the frost.
- [Cornelian cherry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cornelian-cherry): How to grow cornelian cherry, Cornus mas. Yellow flowers in February, sour red fruit in late summer, and waiting for it to drop before you pick.
- [Cos lettuce growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cos-lettuce): How to grow cos lettuce, Lactuca sativa var. longifolia. The upright heart that stands heat better than a butterhead, tying up for a tight head, and beating tipburn.
- [Costa Rican guava growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/costa-rican-guava): How to grow Costa Rican guava, Psidium friedrichsthalianum. The sour guava that makes the drink rather than the dessert, how it differs from the common guava, and why Central America grows it as a hedge.
- [Courgette growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/courgette): How to grow courgettes, Cucurbita pepo. Why two plants are plenty, hand pollination, powdery mildew, and the bitterness that can make a home-saved fruit dangerous.
- [Crab apple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/crab-apple): How to grow crab apple, Malus sylvestris. Britain's only native apple, the pollination it gives an orchard, and turning sour fruit into jelly.
- [Cranberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cranberry): How to grow cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon. Why you do not need a bog, the acid soil it does need, and picking in October after the first frost.
- [Cucumber growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cucumbers): How to grow cucumbers, Cucumis sativus. Greenhouse and ridge types, training up strings, why fruit turns bitter, and the male flower rule that only applies to some varieties.
- [Culantro growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/culantro): How to grow culantro, Eryngium foetidum. The long spiny-edged leaf that tastes of coriander turned up, why it needs shade to stop it bolting, and how to use it.
- [Cumin growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cumin): How to grow cumin, Cuminum cyminum. Why it needs a greenhouse in a cool climate, sowing it under glass in April, and telling it from caraway.
- [Parsley growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/parsley): How to grow Petroselinum crispum. Why the seed takes a month to appear, why year two is a write-off, the difference between curly and flat-leaf, and the rash it can give you.
- [Curry leaf growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/curry-leaf): How to grow curry leaf, Murraya koenigii. The tree behind the fresh leaves in south Indian cooking, keeping it alive over a cool winter, and why dried curry leaves are worthless.
- [Date palm growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/date-palm): How to grow date palm, Phoenix dactylifera. Sprouting a stone from a packet of dates, the male and female trees that have been hand-pollinated for five thousand years, and the desert heat a temperate summer cannot supply.
- [Dill growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dill): How to grow dill, Anethum graveolens. Sowing direct because it hates transplanting, succession sowing against bolting, harvesting the seed, and keeping it away from fennel.
- [Dong Quai growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dong-quai): Practical guidance for growing dong quai, Angelica sinensis, including cool-climate needs, biennial flowering, root harvest, phototoxic sap, deep soil, and slug damage.
- [Dragon fruit growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/dragon-fruit): How to grow dragon fruit, Selenicereus undatus. Why the flowers open after dark and fade by morning, forcing same-night hand pollination, the second plant many varieties need to fruit at all, and the forest habitat that makes this cactus prefer some shade.
- [Durian growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/durian): How to grow durian, Durio zibethinus. The smell that gets it banned from hotels, why a falling one can kill, the alcohol interaction that is real, and what it tastes like once you get past the door.
- [Durum wheat growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/durum-wheat): How to grow durum wheat, Triticum durum. The hardest grain in the field, why it makes pasta rather than bread, and the hot dry ripening it will not crop without.
- [Einkorn growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/einkorn): How to grow einkorn, Triticum monococcum. The oldest wheat, one grain to a spikelet, and the crop found in the stomach of a five-thousand-year-old man.
- [Elder growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/elder): How to grow elder, Sambucus nigra. Picking elderflowers at the right moment, why the berries must be cooked, hard pruning for coloured foliage, and keeping it in bounds.
- [Emmer wheat growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/emmer): How to grow emmer, Triticum dicoccum. One of the eight founder crops, the wheat that fed Egypt and Rome, and the ancestor standing behind every plate of pasta.
- [Endive growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/endive): How to grow endive, Cichorium endivia. Blanching the heart to sweeten it, curly frisee against broad escarole, and keeping the plants dry while they blanch.
- [Ethiopian eggplant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ethiopian-aubergine): How to grow the Ethiopian eggplant, Solanum aethiopicum. A scarlet aubergine that looks like a tomato, the leaves eaten as a green, and the bitterness that is the point rather than a fault.
- [Ethiopian mustard growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ethiopian-mustard): How to grow Ethiopian mustard, Brassica carinata. A second natural brassica hybrid, the leaf vegetable behind gomen, and the oilseed being turned into aviation fuel.
- [Fennel growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/fennel): How to grow fennel, Foeniculum vulgare. The difference between herb fennel and Florence fennel, stopping the bulb bolting, and the yellow flowers that separate it from every poisonous lookalike.
- [Fenugreek growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/fenugreek): How to grow fenugreek, Trigonella foenum-graecum. Methi leaves in six weeks, ripening the seed in a cool summer, and the compound that makes it smell of maple syrup.
- [Field mint growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/field-mint): How to identify and grow field mint, Mentha arvensis. The whorls of flower in the leaf axils, the plant that most menthol is distilled from, and where it grows wild.
- [Fig growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/fig): How to grow figs, Ficus carica. Restricting the roots to force fruiting, which embryo figs to keep over winter, and the sap that burns skin in sunlight.
- [Fig-leaf gourd growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/fig-leaf-gourd): How to grow fig-leaf gourd, Cucurbita ficifolia. The cold-tolerant squash used as a cucumber rootstock, the black seeds, and the fruit that keeps for years.
- [Filbert growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/filbert): How to grow filbert, Corylus maxima. The long-husked hazel behind Kentish Cob, why you need two of them, and the squirrels that will take the crop first.
- [Finger lime growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/finger-lime): How to grow finger lime, Microcitrus australasica. An Australian rainforest citrus whose fruit is filled with juice vesicles that burst like caviar.
- [Finger millet growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/finger-millet): How to grow finger millet, Eleusine coracana. The clenched fist of seed heads, more calcium than any other cereal, and a grain that keeps for a decade.
- [Flax growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/flax): How to grow flax, Linum usitatissimum. One plant that gives linen and linseed oil, a field of blue that lasts one morning, and a founder crop still grown across Europe and North America.
- [Fox grape growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/fox-grape): How to grow fox grape, Vitis labrusca. The American slip-skin grape behind Concord juice, hardier and more disease-resistant than a European vine.
- [Foxtail millet growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/foxtail-millet): How to grow foxtail millet, Setaria italica. The bristly head that gives it its name, a domestication as old as rice, and the weed it was made from.
- [French bean growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/french-bean): How to grow French beans, Phaseolus vulgaris. Dwarf against climbing, why they must not be sown cold, picking to keep them coming, and drying the pods for haricots.
- [Galangal growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/galangal): How to grow galangal, Alpinia galanga. The hard peppery rhizome of Thai curry paste, why it is not a substitute for ginger, and starting it from a supermarket root.
- [Garden cress growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/garden-cress): How to grow garden cress, Lepidium sativum. Ready in a fortnight on a windowsill, growing it in the ground for a bigger crop, and the mustard-and-cress timing trick.
- [Garden pea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/peas): How to grow garden peas, Pisum sativum. Sowing dates, supports, why mice take the seed, and how a crop that feeds itself with nitrogen should be treated at the end of the season.
- [Garlic growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/garlic): How to grow garlic, Allium sativum. Why it must go in before Christmas, hardneck against softneck, scapes, rust, and why garlic is dangerous to dogs and cats.
- [Garlic chives growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/garlic-chives): How to grow garlic chives, Allium tuberosum. Flat leaves with a garlic flavour, the white flowers worth eating, and stopping it seeding itself across the garden.
- [German chamomile growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/chamomile): How to grow German chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla. The annual behind chamomile tea, picking and drying the flowers, and the hollow flower centre that identifies it.
- [Ginger growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ginger): How to grow ginger, Zingiber officinale. Starting a supermarket rhizome, the warmth and humidity it needs indoors, and harvesting after eight months.
- [Globe artichoke growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/globe-artichoke): How to grow globe artichokes, Cynara scolymus. Growing from offsets rather than seed, cutting the king head first, and protecting the crown through a wet winter.
- [Goji berry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/goji-berry): How to grow goji berry, Lycium barbarum. A hardy sprawling shrub that fruits in its third year, needs no coddling, and takes some training to keep tidy.
- [Gold kiwi growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/gold-kiwi): How to grow gold kiwi, Actinidia chinensis. Smooth-skinned and yellow-fleshed, earlier than the furry kind, and a degree or two more tender.
- [Golden currant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/golden-currant): How to grow golden currant, Ribes aureum. Yellow spring flowers that smell of cloves, black fruit in July, and a shrub that tolerates drought better than any other currant.
- [Gooseberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/gooseberry): How to grow gooseberries, Ribes uva-crispa. Growing on a leg, thinning for dessert fruit, American gooseberry mildew, and the sawfly that strips a bush in days.
- [Gotu kola growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/gotu-kola): How to grow Centella asiatica, the pennywort eaten in Sri Lanka and used across Asia. Keeping it wet and frost-free outside the tropics, and telling it from marsh pennywort.
- [Governor's plum growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/governors-plum): How to grow governor's plum, Flacourtia indica. The spiny African shrub with small dark fruit, the thorns on its trunk, and why it is planted as a hedge across two continents.
- [Grape vine growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/grape-vine): How to grow grapes, Vitis vinifera. Choosing outdoor or greenhouse varieties, the rod and spur system, thinning the bunches, and why powdery mildew decides the crop.
- [Grapefruit growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/grapefruit): How to grow grapefruit, Citrus paradisi. The citrus that needs the most heat and the longest season, and the one with a genuine medical caution attached.
- [Sorghum growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sorghum): How to grow sorghum, Sorghum bicolor. Heat, drought tolerance, grain heads, harvest timing and cyanide risk in stressed plants.
- [Greater yam growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/greater-yam): How to grow greater yam, Dioscorea alata. The winged stem that twines one way and only one way, the purple flesh sold as ube, and why nobody eats it raw.
- [Peanut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/peanut): How to grow peanuts, Arachis hypogaea. The flower that buries its own fruit, why a peanut is not a nut, and the mould that makes storage the risky part.
- [Guava growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/guava): How to grow guava, Psidium guajava. The smell that fills a room, pink flesh against white, the seeds you can and cannot chew, and why it is a weed across half the tropics.
- [Habanero growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/habanero): How to grow habaneros, Capsicum chinense. The long season and heat they need, why the species is not Chinese, ripening under glass, and handling capsaicin safely.
- [Hardy kiwi growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hardy-kiwi): How to grow hardy kiwi, Actinidia arguta. Grape-sized fruit eaten skin and all, hardy to -25 deg C, and far easier in a cool climate than the furry kind.
- [Holy basil growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/holy-basil): How to grow holy basil, Ocimum tenuiflorum. The clove-scented tulsi of Hindu courtyards, keeping it alive over a cool winter, and how it differs from sweet basil.
- [Hops growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hops): How to grow hops, Humulus lupulus. Training the bines clockwise up strings, why you need female plants, picking at the right moment, and drying the cones.
- [Horned melon growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/horned-melon): How to grow the horned melon, Cucumis metuliferus. The orange spiked fruit with lime-green jelly inside, how to tell when it is ripe, and how to eat something that resists being eaten.
- [Horse gram growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/horse-gram): How to grow horse gram, Macrotyloma uniflorum. The pulse that survives when the rain does not come, an Indian staple named for the animals it fed, and one of the oldest crops in south Asia.
- [Horseradish growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/horseradish): How to grow horseradish, Armoracia rusticana. Why it must be contained, growing it in a bin or a tube, lifting in autumn, and the heat that only appears when you grate it.
- [Hyacinth bean growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hyacinth-bean): How to grow hyacinth beans, Lablab purpureus. Purple pods on a garden climber, an African staple, and a bean that has to be boiled twice before anyone eats it.
- [Hyssop growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/hyssop): How to grow hyssop, Hyssopus officinalis. The blue-flowered bee herb for a dry sunny bed, its bitter culinary use, and the biblical plant it is probably not.
- [Indian gooseberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/amla): How to grow Indian gooseberry, Phyllanthus emblica. The intensely sour amla behind chyawanprash and triphala, the leaves that look like a fern and are not, and the cold it will take.
- [Jabuticaba growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/jabuticaba): How to grow jabuticaba, Plinia cauliflora. The Brazilian tree that fruits all over its trunk, the grape-like berries that last three days, and the fifteen-year wait from seed.
- [Jack bean growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/jack-bean): How to grow jack beans, Canavalia ensiformis. A cover crop with a sword-shaped pod, the bean that gave chemistry its first crystallised enzyme, and seed that needs hours of boiling.
- [Jackfruit growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/jackfruit): How to grow jackfruit, Artocarpus heterophyllus. The largest fruit that grows on a tree, the latex that glues your hands together, and why green jackfruit ended up in vegan burgers.
- [Japanese millet growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/japanese-millet): How to grow Japanese millet, Echinochloa esculenta. A crop made from barnyard grass, ready in forty-five days, and the fastest cereal there is to sow.
- [Japanese plum growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/japanese-plum): How to grow Japanese plum, Prunus salicina. Why it flowers three weeks before a European plum, the frost problem that follows, and thinning for size.
- [Japanese quince growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/japanese-quince): How to grow Japanese quince, Chaenomeles speciosa. Flowers on bare wood in February, hard aromatic fruit in autumn, and the wall training that suits it.
- [Japanese wineberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wineberry): How to grow Japanese wineberry, Rubus phoenicolasius. Red bristled canes that glow in winter, and fruit that arrives in the gap between raspberries and blackberries.
- [Java apple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wax-apple): How to grow Java apple, Syzygium samarangense. Warmth, watering, the bell-shaped fruit, flowering control and why the fruit bruises easily.
- [Jamun growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/jamun): How to grow jamun, Syzygium cumini. The purple-black fruit that dyes your tongue, its place in Indian summer, the diabetes claim attached to the seed, and why Florida wishes it had never been planted.
- [Jerusalem artichoke growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/jerusalem-artichoke): How to grow Jerusalem artichokes, Helianthus tuberosus. Why they take over a plot, using them as a windbreak, lifting every tuber, and the inulin problem.
- [Jujube growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/jujube): How to grow jujube, Ziziphus jujuba. A thorny tree that fruits like a small apple and dries like a date, needing more summer heat than most cool temperate gardens give.
- [Juneberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/juneberry): How to grow juneberry, Amelanchier lamarckii. Blossom in April, sweet almond-flavoured fruit in June, and the netting you will need to keep any of it.
- [Jute mallow growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/jute-mallow): How to grow jute mallow, Corchorus olitorius. The leaf that becomes molokhia, why the soup is slippery, and the same plant's second life as a fibre crop.
- [Kale growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/kale): How to grow kale, Brassica oleracea var. acephala. The easiest brassica, picking leaves all winter, and why frost improves the flavour.
- [Ketupa growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ketupa): How to grow ketupa, Baccaurea dulcis. The sweetest fruit in a genus of a hundred species, why its seed cannot be posted anywhere, and how to tell a tampoi from the half-dozen other things sold under that name.
- [Key lime growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/key-lime): How to grow key lime, Citrus aurantiifolia. The most tender citrus of the group, thorny and small-fruited, and one that needs real winter warmth.
- [Kiwi fruit growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/kiwi-fruit): How to grow kiwi fruit, Actinidia deliciosa. A vine that needs a male and a female, serious support, and the warmest wall you can offer it.
- [Kohlrabi growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/kohlrabi): How to grow kohlrabi, Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes. The swollen stem that is not a root, sowing for succession, harvesting before it goes woody, and eating it raw.
- [Kola nut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/kola-nut): Practical guidance for growing kola nut, Cola acuminata, including shade requirements as a seedling, slow growth to flowering, humid soil, pruning, caffeine content, and pet safety.
- [Kumquat growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/kumquat): How to grow kumquat, Citrus japonica. A small citrus eaten whole, skin and all, and among the most cold-tolerant of the group.
- [Leek growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/leek): How to grow leeks, Allium porrum. Dropping seedlings into dibbed holes for a long white shank, earthing up, and dealing with leek moth and allium rust.
- [Lemon tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lemon-tree): How to grow Citrus limon outside the subtropics. The cold bright winter it needs instead of a warm room, why the leaves drop in October, the two different feeds, and which variety to buy.
- [Lemon balm growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lemon-balm): How to grow lemon balm, Melissa officinalis. Cutting it back before it seeds, why it takes over a bed, and drying the leaves for tea.
- [Lemon basil growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lemon-basil): How to grow lemon basil, Ocimum citriodorum. The citrus-scented hybrid for Thai and Indonesian cooking, sowing it in warmth, and picking it before it flowers.
- [Lemongrass growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lemongrass): How to grow lemongrass, Cymbopogon citratus. Rooting a supermarket stalk in water, overwintering the clump indoors, and harvesting the stem bases.
- [Lentil growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lentil): How to grow lentils, Lens culinaris. One of the eight founder crops, the shape that named the optical lens, and a pulse that grows in a cool climate better than most people think.
- [Lesser galangal growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lesser-galangal): How to grow lesser galangal, Alpinia officinarum. The smaller, hotter galangal of Chinese cooking, how it differs from the greater, and growing the rhizome under glass.
- [Lettuce growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lettuce): How to grow lettuce, Lactuca sativa. The four types, sowing little and often, why lettuce bolts in hot weather, and the milky sap that gives it its name.
- [Lingonberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lingonberry): How to grow lingonberry, Vaccinium vitis-idaea. An evergreen dwarf shrub that crops twice a year, spreads by runners, and needs acid soil and nothing else.
- [Liquorice growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/liquorice): How to grow liquorice, Glycyrrhiza glabra. The three years before you can lift the root, containing its wandering runners, and the Pontefract trade.
- [Long pepper growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/long-pepper): How to grow long pepper, Piper longum. The whole spike used as a spice, the Roman trade that valued it above black pepper, and why chilli displaced it.
- [Longan growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/longan): How to grow longan, Dimocarpus longan. The dragon's eye fruit that needs less winter chill than a lychee, how it differs from its famous cousin, and why it keeps better.
- [Loofah growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/loofah): How to grow loofah, Luffa aegyptiaca. Eating the young fruit, growing the bathroom sponge, and why a short season is only just long enough for one of the two.
- [Loquat growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/loquat): How to grow loquat, Eriobotrya japonica. An evergreen that flowers in winter and fruits in spring, which is exactly the wrong way round for a cool temperate garden.
- [Lovage growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lovage): How to grow lovage, Levisticum officinale. The two-metre celery-flavoured perennial, cutting it back for a second flush of leaf, and how little of it a recipe needs.
- [Love-lies-bleeding growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/love-lies-bleeding): How to grow love-lies-bleeding, Amaranthus caudatus. Crimson ropes hanging to the ground, a Victorian border favourite, and an Andean grain crop under another name.
- [Lowbush blueberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lowbush-blueberry): How to grow lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium. The wild blueberry of Maine and Quebec, low and spreading, with better flavour than the tall kind.
- [Lychee growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/lychee): How to grow lychee, Litchi chinensis. The cool dry winter it needs before it will flower, telling a fresh one from a canned one, and the real story about unripe lychees and sick children.
- [Macadamia growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/macadamia): How to grow macadamia, Macadamia integrifolia. The hardest shell in the nut trade, the only Australian native grown as a world food crop, and why it must never reach a dog.
- [Macadamia nut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/macadamia-nut): Practical guidance for growing macadamia nut, Macadamia tetraphylla, including its rough shell and whorled leaves that separate it from the smooth-shell species, frost sensitivity, Phytophthora risk, and its toxicity to dogs.
- [Malabar spinach growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/malabar-spinach): How to grow Malabar spinach, Basella alba. The tropical climbing spinach for a greenhouse, the heat it needs, and the mucilage that thickens a soup.
- [Malabar tamarind growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/malabar-tamarind): How to grow Malabar tamarind, Garcinia gummi-gutta. The smoked rind that sours a Kerala fish curry, and the hard truth about the weight-loss supplement sold under the name Garcinia cambogia.
- [Malay apple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/malay-apple): How to grow Malay apple, Syzygium malaccense. The deep crimson fruit Polynesian voyagers carried across the Pacific, how it differs from the Java apple, and the flowers that carpet the ground.
- [Mamey sapote growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mamey-sapote): How to grow mamey sapote, Pouteria sapota. The salmon-pink flesh behind a Cuban batido, the single huge glossy seed, and the scratch test that tells you whether one is ready.
- [Mandarin growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mandarin): How to grow mandarin, Citrus reticulata. The loose-skinned citrus, one of the three ancestral species, and the hardiest group worth growing in a cool climate.
- [Mango growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mango): How to grow mango, Mangifera indica. Telling a ripe one by smell rather than colour, cutting the hedgehog, why the skin can raise a rash, and what a stone on a windowsill will and will not do.
- [Mangosteen growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mangosteen): How to grow mangosteen, Garcinia mangostana. The queen of fruits, a tree with no known wild ancestor and no males at all, the fifteen-year wait, and what the rind supplements are doing.
- [Maprang growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/maprang): How to grow maprang, Bouea macrophylla. The plum mango of Thailand and Java, a small orange fruit that tastes of mango and behaves like a plum, and the family it shares with mango and cashew.
- [Marsh mallow growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/marsh-mallow): How to grow marsh mallow, Althaea officinalis. The velvety grey perennial of salt marshes, the root behind the original sweet, and why it wants ground most herbs would rot in.
- [Mashua growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mashua): How to grow mashua, Tropaeolum tuberosum. The Andean nasturtium that crops where nothing else will, the daylength trigger, and taming the peppery flavour.
- [Maypop growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/maypop): Practical guidance for growing maypop, Passiflora incarnata, including root hardiness, trellising, seasonal dieback, ripe versus unripe fruit, pollination, and pruning.
- [Medlar growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/medlar): How to grow medlar, Mespilus germanica. What bletting is and how to do it, why the fruit is picked hard in November, and the tree's very short pest list.
- [Melon growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/melon): How to grow melons, Cucumis melo. Cantaloupe under glass in a cool summer, training and stopping the vine, supporting the fruit, and knowing when it is ripe.
- [Milk thistle growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/milk-thistle): How to grow milk thistle, Silybum marianum. The white-marbled leaves, the seed used for silymarin, and why it poisons cattle on rich ground.
- [Proso millet growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/proso-millet): How to grow proso millet, Panicum miliaceum. The fastest cereal there is, ready in sixty days, and the grain that fed northern China before rice arrived.
- [Miracle fruit growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/miracle-fruit): How to grow miracle fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum. The West African berry that makes a lemon taste like lemonade for half an hour, how the effect works, and the acid compost it insists on.
- [Mizuna growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mizuna): How to grow mizuna, Brassica rapa var. nipposinica. Cut-and-come-again sowing, why it beats lettuce for winter salad, and keeping flea beetle off the leaves.
- [Mooli growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mooli): How to grow mooli, Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus. The August sowing that stops it bolting, getting a straight metre-long root, and using it as a soil-breaking green manure.
- [Morello cherry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/morello-cherry): How to grow morello cherry, Prunus cerasus. The one fruit tree for a north wall, why it needs different pruning from a sweet cherry, and netting against birds.
- [Moringa growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/moringa): How to grow moringa, Moringa oleifera. One of the fastest-growing trees there is, the seed that clears muddy water, and why the leaves and the root bark are treated so differently.
- [Motherwort growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/motherwort): How to grow motherwort, Leonurus cardiaca. The spiny-calyxed perennial for a wild corner, its long history in childbirth and heart complaints, and why it seeds itself everywhere.
- [Mung bean growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mung-bean): How to grow mung beans, Vigna radiata. The bean behind every punnet of beansprouts, a crop that finishes in ninety days, and the dal that fed India before rice.
- [Muscadine growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/muscadine): How to grow muscadine, Vitis rotundifolia. The thick-skinned grape of the American South, which needs more summer heat than a cool climate can offer outdoors.
- [Mustard greens growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mustard-greens): How to grow mustard greens, Brassica juncea. Sowing for heat that mellows with frost, cutting young for salad, and using it as a green manure and biofumigant.
- [Naranjilla growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/naranjilla): How to grow naranjilla, Solanum quitoense. The Andean lulo with orange skin and green pulp, the hairs that rub off the fruit, and the cool highland conditions it insists on.
- [Nectarine growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/nectarine): How to grow nectarine, Prunus persica var. nucipersica. The fuzzless peach, why it is harder to grow than a peach, and keeping rain off it from January.
- [New Jersey tea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/new-jersey-tea): Practical guidance for growing New Jersey tea, Ceanothus americanus, including drought tolerance, nitrogen-fixing roots, dried-leaf tea, poor soil, hard pruning, and cold hardiness.
- [New Zealand spinach growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/new-zealand-spinach): How to grow New Zealand spinach, Tetragonia tetragonioides. The heat-proof spinach substitute, chipping and soaking the seed, and blanching it before eating.
- [Niger seed growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/niger-seed): How to grow niger seed, Guizotia abyssinica. The Ethiopian oilseed in every goldfinch feeder, a daisy that flowers into October, and the reason your birdseed never sprouts.
- [Notoginseng growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/notoginseng): Practical guidance for growing notoginseng, Panax notoginseng, including deep shade, root rot prevention, slow root maturity, mild climate needs, and its use as a dried herbal root.
- [Nutmeg growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/nutmeg): How to grow nutmeg, Myristica fragrans. The two spices that come off one seed, the island trade that swapped Run for Manhattan, and why large doses of nutmeg are dangerous.
- [Oat growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/oats): How to grow oats, Avena sativa. The weed that became a crop, the panicle that sets it apart from every other cereal, and where oats stand on gluten.
- [Oca growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/oca): How to grow oca, Oxalis tuberosa. The daylength trigger that decides the crop, why you must not lift before December, and protecting the haulm from the first frost.
- [Oil palm growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/oil-palm): How to grow the oil palm, Elaeis guineensis. The two different oils one fruit produces, the reason it yields more per hectare than any other oil crop, and why that is the argument in both directions.
- [Okra growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/okra): How to grow okra, Abelmoschus esculentus. Getting the seed to germinate, picking before the pod turns to string, and what to do about the slime if you would rather not have it.
- [Olive growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/olive): How to grow olive, Olea europaea. The winter chill it needs to flower and the summer heat it needs to ripen, growing it in a container outside its zone, and why wet roots kill more olives than frost.
- [Onion growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/onion): How to grow onions, Allium cepa. Sets against seed, why bolting happens, ripening and curing for storage, and why onions are toxic to cats and dogs.
- [Orach growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/orach): How to grow orach, Atriplex hortensis. The spinach that stands summer heat, growing the red form for colour, and cutting it before it seeds itself everywhere.
- [Oregano growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/oregano): How to grow oregano, Origanum vulgare. Why poor dry soil gives better flavour, cutting back for a second flush, and the difference between oregano and marjoram.
- [Oregon grape growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/oregon-grape): How to grow Oregon grape, Mahonia aquifolium. The shade-tolerant evergreen with holly leaves, its yellow spring flowers and blue berries, and the berberine in its root.
- [Pak choi growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pak-choi): How to grow pak choi, Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis. Why it bolts and how sowing after midsummer stops it, beating flea beetle and slugs, and cutting it young.
- [Pandan growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pandan): How to grow pandan, Pandanus amaryllifolius. The fragrant screwpine leaf of south-east Asian cooking, growing it from a sucker, and keeping it warm through a cool winter.
- [Papaya growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/papaya): How to grow papaya, Carica papaya. The fastest fruit tree there is, why most seedlings turn out male, green papaya salad, and the latex that tenderises meat.
- [Passion fruit growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/passion-fruit): How to grow passion fruit, Passiflora edulis. A tender vine for a greenhouse or conservatory, and why the hardy blue passionflower is not a substitute.
- [Peach growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/peach): How to grow peach, Prunus persica. Keeping peach leaf curl off with a rain shelter, hand pollinating in February, and thinning the fruit for size.
- [Pear growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pear): How to grow pears, Pyrus communis. Quince rootstocks, why pears flower earlier than apples and lose more to frost, picking before they are ripe, and pear rust.
- [Pearl millet growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pearl-millet): How to grow pearl millet, Cenchrus americanus. The crop that grows where sorghum gives up, a candle-shaped head on a two-metre stem, and the grain that made the Sahel farmable.
- [Pepino growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pepino): How to grow pepino, Solanum muricatum. The melon pear for a cool-climate greenhouse, growing it from cuttings, and the long ripening the fruit needs.
- [Peppermint growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/mint): How to grow peppermint, Mentha x piperita. Containing the runners, cutting back for clean growth, why it cannot be grown from seed, and the mint that is dangerous.
- [Persimmon growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/persimmon): How to grow persimmon, Diospyros kaki. Astringent and non-astringent types, why one must be jelly-soft before you eat it, and orange fruit hanging on bare branches.
- [Pigeon pea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pigeon-pea): How to grow pigeon peas, Cajanus cajan. A shrub that behaves like a bean, roots that go down two metres, and the dal that feeds a fifth of the world.
- [Pineapple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pineapple): How to grow pineapple, Ananas comosus. Rooting a supermarket crown, the two years it takes, why it stings your mouth, and the fact that one plant gives one fruit.
- [Pistachio growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pistachio): How to grow pistachio, Pistacia vera. Why you need two trees, the split shell that means the nut is ready, and the summer heat a cool climate cannot supply.
- [Plantain growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/plantain): How to grow plantain, Musa paradisiaca. The cooking banana that is starchy rather than sweet, how to tell it from a dessert banana, and why the lawn weed of the same name is a different plant entirely.
- [Plum growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/plum): How to grow plums, Prunus domestica. Why you must never prune in winter, thinning to stop branches snapping, silver leaf and bacterial canker, and the cyanide in the stones.
- [Pomegranate growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pomegranate): How to grow pomegranate, Punica granatum. Brilliant orange-red flowers, a long hot summer needed for fruit, and a plant most cool temperate gardens grow for looks.
- [Pomelo growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pomelo): How to grow pomelo, Citrus maxima. The largest citrus and one of the three ancestral species, needing more heat than a temperate summer gives without glass.
- [Pot marjoram growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/pot-marjoram): How to grow pot marjoram, Origanum onites. The hardy marjoram that survives a cold winter, how it differs from sweet marjoram and oregano, and why most Greek oregano sold as dried herb is this plant.
- [Potato growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/potato): How to grow potatoes, Solanum tuberosum. Chitting, earthing up, first and second earlies against maincrop, blight, and why a green potato should go in the bin.
- [Prickly pear growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/prickly-pear): How to grow Opuntia ficus-indica. Why the invisible bristles are worse than the spines, how to prepare the pads and fruit, growing it in a cool climate, and the moth that saved Australia.
- [Psyllium growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/psyllium): How to grow Plantago psyllium, the plantain grown for its seed. A hardy annual sown in April, the mucilage that swells in water, and the three species sold under one name.
- [Purslane growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/purslane): How to grow purslane, Portulaca oleracea. The succulent salad that thrives in heat and poor soil, cutting it for repeat crops, and why it is a weed in half the world.
- [Quince growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/quince): How to grow quince, Cydonia oblonga. Why the fruit will not ripen enough to eat raw in a cool summer, leaving it on the tree until November, and quince leaf blight.
- [Quinoa growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/quinoa): How to grow quinoa, Chenopodium quinoa. A fat hen relative from the Andes, the soap coating you have to wash off, and a crop that grows better in a cool summer than a hot one.
- [Radish growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/radish): How to grow radish, Raphanus sativus. The fastest crop in the garden, why they go woody or all leaf, and sowing winter radishes for storage.
- [Rambai growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rambai): How to grow rambai, Baccaurea motleyana. The Bornean fruit that hangs in metre-long ropes off the trunk, the naturalist it was named for, and why a crop needs two trees and eight years.
- [Rambutan growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rambutan): How to grow rambutan, Nephelium lappaceum. The hairy fruit that is not a lychee, how to open one without a knife, and why almost every tree in an orchard is female.
- [Rapeseed growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rapeseed): How to grow rapeseed, Brassica napus. The yellow fields that take over the landscape every spring, a hybrid of turnip and cabbage, and the two compounds that had to be bred out before anyone could eat it.
- [Raspberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/raspberry): How to grow raspberries, Rubus idaeus. Summer against autumn fruiting and why the pruning differs completely, building the support, and raspberry beetle.
- [Red amaranth growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/amaranth): How to grow amaranth, Amaranthus cruentus. A grain the Spanish tried to ban, seeds that pop like tiny popcorn, and leaves that cook like spinach.
- [Red mombin growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/red-mombin): How to grow red mombin, Spondias purpurea. The jocote sold on every Central American street corner, the living fences it is grown as, and how a branch stuck in the ground becomes a tree.
- [Red mulberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/red-mulberry): How to grow red mulberry, Morus rubra. Telling it from white and black mulberry by its sandpapery leaf surface, why the fruit ripens a few berries at a time rather than all at once, and why fruit drop makes it a poor choice over a patio.
- [Redcurrant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/redcurrant): How to grow redcurrants, Ribes rubrum. Why they are pruned on a spur system rather than as a stool, growing them as cordons on a shaded wall, and netting against bullfinches.
- [Rhubarb growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rhubarb): How to grow rhubarb, Rheum rhabarbarum. Forcing for early pink stems, why you pull rather than cut, when to stop picking, and why the leaves must never be eaten.
- [Rice growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rice): How to grow rice, Oryza sativa. Why the fields are flooded when the plant does not need it, the difference between indica and japonica, and the arsenic question.
- [Rocket growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rocket): How to grow rocket, Eruca vesicaria. Cut-and-come-again sowing, why summer rocket turns fierce, beating flea beetle, and telling salad rocket from wild rocket.
- [Rocoto growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rocoto): How to grow rocoto, Capsicum pubescens. The only chilli that takes a frost outdoors, its hairy leaves and black seeds, and the years it needs to fruit well.
- [Roman chamomile growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/roman-chamomile): How to grow Roman chamomile, Chamaemelum nobile. The perennial mat for a chamomile lawn, the non-flowering Treneague form, and how it differs from the German chamomile in a tea bag.
- [Rose apple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rose-apple): Practical guidance for growing rose apple, Syzygium jambos, including frost sensitivity, fruit fly hosting, fragrant fruit, pruning, humid soil, and container growing in cooler climates.
- [Rosemary growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rosemary): How to grow rosemary, Salvia rosmarinus. Drainage above all, pruning without killing it, taking cuttings, and why the botanists moved it into the sages.
- [Rue growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rue): How to grow rue, Ruta graveolens. The blue-green herb of grace, the blistering rash its sap causes in sunlight, and why it is no longer a kitchen plant.
- [Rukam growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rukam): How to grow rukam, Flacourtia rukam. The Indian prune with a fiercely spined trunk, and the trick of rolling the fruit between your palms before you eat it.
- [Runner bean growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/runner-bean): How to grow runner beans, Phaseolus coccineus. Building the support, why the flowers drop without setting, picking to keep them coming, and why you must never eat them raw.
- [Rye growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/rye): How to grow rye, Secale cereale. Sowing, poor soils, ergot risk, harvesting grain and using rye as a green manure.
- [Safflower growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/safflower): How to grow safflower, Carthamus tinctorius. A spiny thistle that dyed Egyptian cloth, the fake saffron in a spice jar, and a taproot that goes down three metres.
- [Saffron crocus growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/saffron): How to grow the saffron crocus, Crocus sativus. Planting the corms in summer, picking the three red stigmas at dawn, and why the spice costs what it does.
- [Salak growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/salak): How to grow salak, Salacca zalacca. The snake fruit with a reptile skin and an apple crunch, the spines that make harvesting a dangerous job, and the male and female plants you need for a crop.
- [Salsify growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/salsify): How to grow salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius. The oyster plant explained, sowing fresh seed, lifting the brittle root, and eating the spring shoots.
- [Sandalwood growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sandalwood): Practical guidance for growing sandalwood, Santalum album, including its need for a host plant, slow heartwood development, dry-season triggers, frost sensitivity, and essential oil safety.
- [Santol growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/santol): How to grow santol, Sandoricum koetjape. The cotton fruit with a rind you eat and a pulp you suck, the two colour forms, and the seeds that have put people in hospital.
- [Sapodilla growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sapodilla): How to grow sapodilla, Manilkara zapota. The fruit that tastes of brown sugar and malt, the latex that made chewing gum, and why an unripe one turns your mouth to felt.
- [Sea buckthorn growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sea-buckthorn): How to grow sea buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides. Male and female plants, ferociously acidic orange berries, and the thorns that make picking a considered job.
- [Sea kale growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sea-kale): How to grow sea kale, Crambe maritima. Forcing the shoots under a pot in February, growing it from thongs, and the shingle beach habitat that explains its needs.
- [Sesame growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sesame): How to grow sesame, Sesamum indicum. Why the pods split and scatter the seed, growing it under glass in Britain, and the phrase that comes from that habit.
- [Seville orange growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/seville-orange): How to grow Seville orange, Citrus aurantium. The bitter orange behind marmalade, hardier than a sweet orange, and the source of neroli oil.
- [Shallot growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/shallot): How to grow shallots, Allium cepa var. aggregatum. Planting sets in autumn or spring, why one bulb becomes a dozen, and drying them properly for storage.
- [Shiso growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/shiso): How to grow shiso, Perilla frutescens. The green and red forms, the Korean sesame leaf, sowing it in warmth, and why it is poisonous to grazing cattle.
- [Siberian kale growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/siberian-kale): How to grow Siberian kale, Brassica napus var. pabularia. Why it beats curly kale for cold and clubroot, cutting through winter, and telling it from Russian kale.
- [Snake gourd growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/snake-gourd): How to grow snake gourd, Trichosanthes cucumerina. The metre-long fruit that needs weighting straight, the night-opening lace flower, and the wild form nobody eats.
- [Soursop growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/soursop): How to grow soursop, Annona muricata. The spiny green fruit behind guanabana juice, and the reason French health authorities warned against the leaf tea sold as a cancer cure.
- [Soya bean growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/soya-bean): How to grow soya beans, Glycine max. The most valuable legume in agriculture, why most of it is eaten by animals, and the day length that stops it cropping at high latitude.
- [Spearmint growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/spearmint): How to grow spearmint, Mentha spicata. Containing the runners, telling it from peppermint, mint rust, and cutting back for a second flush of clean leaf.
- [Spelt growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/spelt): How to grow spelt, Triticum spelta. The hulled wheat that keeps its jacket on, why it needs a mill before it needs an oven, and the health claim that is not true.
- [Spinach growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/spinach): How to grow spinach, Spinacia oleracea. Stopping it bolting in summer, sowing for autumn and spring crops, and the perpetual spinach that does not bolt.
- [Star apple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/star-apple): How to grow star apple, Chrysophyllum cainito. The purple fruit that shows a star when cut across, the golden leaf undersides that name the genus, and the rind you must not eat.
- [Starfruit growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/starfruit): How to grow starfruit, Averrhoa carambola. The fruit that slices into stars, sweet and sour cultivars, and the reason anyone with kidney disease must never eat one.
- [Stinging nettle growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/stinging-nettle): How to grow nettles on purpose, Urtica dioica. Picking the tops for the kitchen, siting a patch butterflies will use, making liquid feed, and why the sting works.
- [Strawberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/strawberries): How to grow strawberries, Fragaria x ananassa. Planting depth, runners, straw under the fruit, and why plants need replacing every three years.
- [Caigua growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/caigua): How to grow caigua, Cyclanthera pedata. The hollow fruit that comes ready to stuff, the gourd that will crop outdoors in a cool summer, and the seeds shaped like tiny turtles.
- [Sugar apple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sugar-apple): How to grow sugar apple, Annona squamosa. The fruit that breaks into segments in your hands, the quickest Annona to crop, and why the seed powder must be kept away from eyes.
- [Sugar cane growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sugar-cane): How to grow sugar cane, Saccharum officinarum. The giant grass that carried the slave trade, how a cane is planted lying down, and what a heated greenhouse can do with it.
- [Summer savory growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/summer-savory): How to grow summer savory, Satureja hortensis. The bean herb, sowing it direct in May, and how it differs from the woody winter savory.
- [Surinam cherry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/surinam-cherry): How to grow Surinam cherry, Eugenia uniflora. The ribbed red fruit with a resinous edge that people either love or spit out, the hedge it makes, and the invasion it has caused.
- [Swede growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/swede): How to grow swedes, Brassica napus var. napobrassica. The long season they need, telling them from turnips, beating powdery mildew and clubroot, and why neeps are not turnips.
- [Sweet basil growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/basil): How to grow sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum. Warmth, morning watering, pinching to delay flowering, and how to rescue a supermarket pot.
- [Sweet chestnut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sweet-chestnut): How to grow sweet chestnut, Castanea sativa. Telling it from horse chestnut, why the nuts are often small, and the blight and canker to watch for.
- [Sweet cicely growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sweet-cicely): How to grow sweet cicely, Myrrhis odorata. The perennial that sweetens rhubarb, its green seeds eaten raw, and why the seed needs a winter outdoors before it germinates.
- [Sweet clover growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sweet-clover): How to grow sweet clover, Melilotus officinalis. The hay-scented biennial legume, its value to bees, and the mouldy hay that led to the discovery of warfarin.
- [Sweet granadilla growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sweet-granadilla): How to grow sweet granadilla, Passiflora ligularis. The Andean passion fruit with an orange shell and grey pulp, sweeter than the purple kind, and the tapping test that tells you it is ready.
- [Sweet marjoram growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/marjoram): How to grow sweet marjoram, Origanum majorana. Why it is a tender annual wherever frost comes, telling it from oregano, and the knotted flower buds that give it its other name.
- [Orange tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/orange-tree): How to grow a sweet orange, Citrus sinensis. Container culture outside the subtropics, the watering that kills more trees than frost, and fruit that takes a year to ripen.
- [Sweet potato growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sweet-potato): How to grow sweet potatoes, Ipomoea batatas. Starting slips, the warmth they need in a cool summer, growing under fleece or in a tunnel, and curing the roots to sweeten them.
- [Sweet wormwood growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sweet-wormwood): How to grow sweet wormwood, Artemisia annua. The tall feathery annual behind artemisinin, sowing it in spring, and why the plant should not be used as a home malaria treatment.
- [Sweetcorn growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/sweetcorn): How to grow sweetcorn, Zea mays. Planting in a block for wind pollination, testing the cobs for ripeness, and why supersweet types must be grown alone.
- [Swiss chard growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/swiss-chard): How to grow Swiss chard, Beta vulgaris var. cicla. The spinach that does not bolt, cutting it for eighteen months, and cooking stalk and leaf separately.
- [Tamarind growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tamarind): How to grow tamarind, Tamarindus indica. The African tree with an Indian name, the sour pod behind Worcestershire sauce and pad thai, and why it makes a better bonsai than an orchard tree outside the tropics.
- [Taro growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/taro): How to grow taro, Colocasia esculenta. Why every part of it has to be cooked, how the same plant became the elephant ear in a garden centre, and the crop that fed the Pacific.
- [Tarragon growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tarragon): How to grow tarragon, Artemisia dracunculus. Why French tarragon must be bought as a plant, telling it from Russian, and overwintering it in a wet climate.
- [Tartary buckwheat growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tartary-buckwheat): How to grow Tartary buckwheat, Fagopyrum tataricum. The bitter buckwheat of the Himalaya, self-fertile where its cousin is not, and the highest rutin content of any crop.
- [Tatsoi growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tatsoi): How to grow tatsoi, Brassica rapa var. narinosa. The flat winter rosette that stands hard frost, sowing for a February harvest, and keeping the leaves off wet soil.
- [Tea plant growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tea-plant): How to grow tea, Camellia sinensis. A hardy evergreen camellia for acid soil, picked as two leaves and a bud, and processed at home into green or black tea.
- [Tomatillo growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tomatillo): How to grow tomatillos, Physalis philadelphica. Why you must grow two plants, picking when the husk splits, and the sprawling habit that needs staking.
- [Tomato growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tomatoes): How to grow tomatoes, Solanum lycopersicum. Cordon and bush types, side-shooting, blossom end rot, blight, and which parts of the plant you must not eat.
- [Triticale growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/triticale): How to grow triticale, x Triticosecale rimpaui. Sowing, harvesting, its wheat-rye parentage and the history of the modern cereal.
- [True cinnamon growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/cinnamon): How to grow true cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum. How the bark becomes a quill, why Ceylon cinnamon is not cassia, and the coumarin difference between them.
- [Tuberous pea growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/tuberous-pea): How to grow the tuberous pea, Lathyrus tuberosus. A hardy European perennial with chestnut-flavoured tubers, scented crimson flowers, and a habit of running where it is not wanted.
- [Turkish hazel growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/turkish-hazel): How to grow Turkish hazel, Corylus colurna. A single-trunked hazel that makes a proper tree, never suckers, and tolerates drought and city air.
- [Turmeric growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/turmeric): How to grow turmeric, Curcuma longa. Starting it from a supermarket rhizome, growing it in a pot under glass, and harvesting and curing your own.
- [Turnip growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/turnip): How to grow turnips, Brassica rapa subsp. rapa. Sowing for baby roots and for winter, beating flea beetle, why they go woody, and eating the tops.
- [Ulluco growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ulluco): How to grow ulluco, Ullucus tuberosus. The waxy Andean tuber that will not go soft, the daylength trigger, and lifting in December after the frost.
- [Vanilla growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/vanilla): How to grow vanilla, Vanilla planifolia. Warmth, humidity, hand pollination, flowering and curing the pods.
- [Walnut growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/walnut): How to grow walnut, Juglans regia. Picking green for pickling in June, the juglone that kills what grows beneath it, and buying a grafted tree.
- [Water apple growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/water-apple): How to grow water apple, Syzygium aqueum. The smallest and palest of the Syzygium fruits, the one that is almost entirely water, and how to tell it from its two larger relatives.
- [Watercress growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/watercress): How to grow watercress, Nasturtium officinale. Growing it safely in a bucket or a pot, why picking it from the wild risks liver fluke, and the deadly plant that shares its ditches.
- [Watermelon growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/watermelon): How to grow watermelons, Citrullus lanatus. Why they need a greenhouse in a cool summer, choosing a small icebox cultivar, hand pollination, and the ripeness tests that work.
- [Wax gourd growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/winter-melon): How to grow wax gourd, Benincasa hispida. The white bloom that lets it keep for a year, why it has almost no flavour of its own, and the fuzzy melon sold as the same plant.
- [Welsh onion growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/welsh-onion): How to grow Welsh onions, Allium fistulosum. The perennial spring onion that never makes a bulb, dividing the clump, and cutting it through the winter.
- [West Indian gherkin growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/west-indian-gherkin): How to grow the West Indian gherkin, Cucumis anguria. Sowing, heat, picking small spiny fruits and growing it when cucumbers struggle.
- [White horehound growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/white-horehound): How to grow white horehound, Marrubium vulgare. The cough-sweet herb, its woolly grey rosettes, and where it survives in the wild in Britain.
- [White lupin growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/white-lupin): How to grow white lupin, Lupinus albus. The bar snack that takes a week to make safe, a named allergen in Britain, and roots that mine phosphate out of dead soil.
- [White mulberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/white-mulberry): How to grow white mulberry, Morus alba. The silkworm tree, why the fruit disappoints after black mulberry, and the fastest movement in the plant kingdom.
- [White mustard growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/white-mustard): How to grow white mustard, Sinapis alba. The mild seed behind English and American table mustard, growing it as mustard cress, and its use as a green manure.
- [Zedoary growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/zedoary): How to grow zedoary, Curcuma zedoaria. The bitter white turmeric of Indonesian and Thai cooking, its purple-veined leaves, and growing the rhizome under glass.
- [White yam growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/white-yam): How to grow white yam, Dioscorea rotundata. The staple of the West African yam belt, why pounded yam behaves the way it does, and the two-harvest trick growers use on one plant.
- [Wild cranberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wild-cranberry): How to grow wild cranberry, Vaccinium oxycoccos. The bog cranberry of the northern hemisphere, smaller in every part than the American one, and needing conditions few gardens have.
- [Wild garlic growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wild-garlic): How to grow wild garlic, Allium ursinum. Planting it in the green, keeping it in bounds, when to pick, and the deadly lookalikes that catch foragers every spring.
- [Ramps growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/ramps): How to grow ramps, Allium tricoccum. The North American wild leek, why it takes seven years from seed, and harvesting one leaf instead of the bulb.
- [Parsnip growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/parsnip): How to grow parsnips, Pastinaca sativa. Fresh seed and slow germination, why frost sweetens the root, avoiding canker, and the sap burn nobody warns you about.
- [Wild service tree growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wild-service-tree): How to grow wild service tree, Sorbus torminalis. A scarce British native, an ancient woodland indicator, and fruit that has to rot before you can eat it.
- [Wild strawberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wild-strawberry): How to grow wild strawberry, Fragaria vesca. Tiny fruit with more flavour than any garden variety, cropping from June to the first frost, and easy from seed.
- [Wild thyme growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wild-thyme): How to grow wild thyme, Thymus serpyllum. The creeping thyme for paving and banks, using it as a lawn, and where it grows on British downland.
- [Winged bean growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/winged-bean): How to grow winged beans, Psophocarpus tetragonolobus. Heat, humidity, day length and edible pods, leaves, flowers, roots and seeds.
- [Winter savory growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/winter-savory): How to grow winter savory, Satureja montana. The evergreen savory for winter picking, pruning it without killing it, and why it needs sharper drainage than almost anything else in the herb bed.
- [Winter squash growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/winter-squash): How to grow winter squash and pumpkins, Cucurbita maxima. Feeding a hungry plant, restricting the fruit for size, and the curing that decides whether they store.
- [Wintergreen growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wintergreen): How to grow wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens. A creeping evergreen for acid shade, with red berries all winter and leaves that smell of liniment.
- [Woad growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/woad): How to grow woad, Isatis tinctoria. Sowing, harvesting first-year leaves, making blue dye and the history of painted Britons.
- [Wonderberry growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/wonderberry): How to grow wonderberry, Solanum retroflexum. Telling ripe berries from unripe, the Burbank controversy of 1909, and why only fully black fruit is worth picking.
- [Yacon growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/yacon): How to grow yacon, Smallanthus sonchifolius. Telling storage tubers from propagation rhizomes, curing them sweet in the sun, and the inulin they store instead of starch.
- [Jicama growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/jicama): How to grow jicama, Pachyrhizus erosus. A crisp sweet root on a plant whose pods and seeds are an insecticide, and why the flowers have to come off.
- [Yellow gentian growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/yellow-gentian): How to grow yellow gentian, Gentiana lutea. The bitter root behind gentian bitters, the decade it takes to flower, and the deadly plant it is confused with.
- [Yellow mombin growing guide](https://raychis.app/guides/yellow-mombin): How to grow yellow mombin, Spondias mombin. The caja behind Brazilian juices, the hog plum of the Caribbean, and the tree that fruits within four years from a stuck branch.

## Plant problems

- [Plant problems](https://raychis.app/guides/problems): 153 guides to what goes wrong with a plant, covering pests, diseases and the disorders behind most yellow leaves. Control starts with prevention and barriers, then predators, and names a product only as a last resort with its UK approval checked on a stated date.

### Start from a symptom

- [Why are my plant leaves turning yellow?](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/yellow-leaves): Yellow leaves have several common causes. Check the compost first, then compare the other symptoms.
- [Why are my leaf tips brown and crispy?](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/brown-leaf-tips): Brown tips on a calathea, fern or spider plant usually mean dry air, salts or watering. Use the pattern on the leaf to tell the causes apart.
- [What is eating holes in my plant leaves?](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/holes-in-leaves): Holes in leaves can come from slugs, caterpillars, beetles, birds or disease. Use the shape of the hole, the time of day and any droppings to narrow it down.
- [What are the white marks on my plant?](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/white-on-plant): White powder, white fluff, white crust and white insects need different treatment. Rub a small patch to help tell them apart.
- [Why are my plant leaves sticky?](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/sticky-leaves): Sticky leaves are usually honeydew from sap-sucking insects above them. Check the growth above the sticky area.
- [What are these tiny flies around my houseplants?](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/tiny-flies): Small flies around houseplants may be fungus gnats, whitefly, thrips or fruit flies. Where they sit tells you what they are.
- [What are these spots on my plant leaves?](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/spots-on-leaves): Spots on leaves can come from disease, watering, cold, scorch, pests or mineral marks. Start with the edge of the spot.
- [Why is my plant wilting?](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/wilting): A wilting plant may be dry, overwatered, waterlogged, root-damaged or diseased. Check the compost before you water again.
- [Why are my plant leaves curling?](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/curling-leaves): Curled leaves can point to pests, heat, drought, weedkiller drift, mites, virus or root trouble. Start by checking whether the new or old leaves are affected.

### Browse by where you grow

- [Common pests and diseases on UK allotments](https://raychis.app/guides/allotment-pests): Identify the pests and diseases of allotment vegetables, from aphids and slugs to cabbage white caterpillars and blight, plus a guide to each.
- [Common pests and problems on houseplants](https://raychis.app/guides/houseplant-pests): Identify the pests and problems on your houseplants, from mealybugs and scale to spider mites and fungus gnats, plus a guide to each.
- [Common tomato problems and how to tell them apart](https://raychis.app/guides/tomato-problems): Identify the pests, diseases and disorders of tomato plants, from blight and blossom end rot to whitefly and fruit splitting, plus a guide to each.
- [Common rose pests, diseases and disorders](https://raychis.app/guides/rose-problems): Identify the pests, diseases and disorders of roses, from black spot, rust and mildew to greenfly, sawfly and frost damage, plus a guide to each.
- [Common vegetable pests and how to identify them](https://raychis.app/guides/vegetable-pests): Identify the pests of vegetable crops worldwide, from aphids, slugs and caterpillars to Colorado potato beetle and squash vine borer, plus a guide to each.

### Pests

- [Aphids: greenfly, blackfly and how to control them](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/aphids): Aphids cluster on soft shoots, buds and leaf undersides, leaving sticky honeydew and distorted new growth. Most colonies can be removed by hand, water or pruning without spraying.
- [Apple maggot fly: a fruit that dimples, then rots from inside](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/apple-maggot-fly): A network of brown winding trails through the flesh of a picked apple, made by a fly that switched from wild hawthorn to orchard apple within living memory of European settlement. A pest confined to North America, distinct from codling moth despite sharing a common name in casual use, and one of the clearest examples of a species evolving a new habit in real time.
- [Asian longhorned beetle: perfectly round holes the width of a pencil](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/asian-longhorned-beetle): A maple, birch or willow riddled with round exit holes big enough to take a pencil, cut by a large black-and-white beetle with antennae longer than its own body. Native to China, it has broken out repeatedly in North America and Europe since the 1990s, and every outbreak so far has triggered full eradication rather than being managed as an established pest.
- [Boll weevil: punctured cotton squares and bolls](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/boll-weevil): Boll weevil punctures cotton squares and bolls to feed and lay eggs. It has been eradicated from nearly the entire United States, but remains present in Mexico, Central America and a small corner of south Texas.
- [Box tree caterpillar: how to stop it stripping a hedge](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/box-tree-caterpillar): Box tree caterpillar leaves webbing, bare brown patches and stripped hedges. Early checks, hand removal, Bacillus thuringiensis and pheromone traps work best before bark damage weakens the plant.
- [Brown marmorated stink bug: cat-facing scars and pinprick feeding](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/brown-marmorated-stink-bug): Fruit dimpled and scarred where a shield-shaped bug fed through the skin, and an unpleasant smell if you crush one indoors. Established across North America, Europe and parts of South America, an active biosecurity target in Australia and New Zealand, and a pest of an extraordinarily wide range of crops.
- [Brown planthopper: scorched circles that spread through a paddy](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/brown-planthopper): A round patch of rice collapsing into brown, dead stems almost overnight, drained dry by thousands of small brown insects clustered at the base of the plants. The most destructive insect pest of rice across Asia and the Pacific, capable of destroying a crop in days once a population builds, and a vector for two serious rice viruses besides.
- [Cabbage root fly: why your transplants keep dying](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/cabbage-root-fly): Cabbage root fly makes brassica transplants wilt and die, with white maggots feeding in the roots. Fit collars tight to the stem and protect plants before the spring, summer and autumn flights.
- [Capsid bug: ragged holes in new leaves and nothing to be seen](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/capsid-bug): Capsid bugs feed on young leaves and leave small tattered holes with brown edges after the leaf expands. The insect is often gone by the time damage appears, and most plants grow through it.
- [Carrot fly: rusty tunnels and how to keep it out](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/carrot-fly): Carrot fly causes bronzed foliage and rust-brown tunnels through the roots. Low barriers, fine mesh and careful sowing dates protect the crop before each generation lays eggs.
- [Caterpillars: what is eating holes in my leaves](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/caterpillars): Caterpillars chew ragged holes, leave dark frass and often hide on leaf undersides. Count the prolegs to separate them from sawfly larvae, and use netting early on brassicas.
- [Coconut rhinoceros beetle: neat V-shaped cuts in the new fronds](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/coconut-rhinoceros-beetle): A row of clean, scalloped triangular holes running across an unfurled frond, cut by a large horned beetle while the leaf was still folded inside the crown. Native to Africa and tropical Asia, an increasingly serious invader of Pacific islands including Guam and Hawaii, and a threat to more than just coconut.
- [Codling moth: the maggot in the apple](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/codling-moth): Codling moth leaves a tunnel to the apple core packed with wet brown frass. Pheromone traps show when moths are flying, and cardboard bands catch larvae as they leave the fruit.
- [Colorado potato beetle: the black-and-yellow striped defoliator](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/colorado-potato-beetle): Colorado potato beetle can strip a potato plant to bare stems within a fortnight. Hand-picking works for gardens where the beetle is established, while suspected sightings in Britain should be reported.
- [Corn earworm: a caterpillar feeding down inside the cob](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/corn-earworm): A caterpillar working down through the silks to feed inside the tip of the cob, safe from most sprays by the time it is found. An Americas-only pest under one name on maize and another on tomato, with an equally destructive Old World relative filling the same role everywhere else.
- [Cucumber beetle: striped and spotted wilt vectors](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/cucumber-beetle): A small yellow beetle on the seedling leaves that matters far more than its own bite, because it can inject a bacterium that kills the whole vine within weeks. Which cucurbits it wilts and which it mostly spares, and why row cover from day one beats any treatment after the fact.
- [Cutworms: seedlings cut off at ground level overnight](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/cutworms): A row of young plants toppled at soil level with the tops left uneaten. The caterpillar responsible is lying curled in the top few centimetres within a hand's width of the stem, and you can find it in a minute.
- [Cyclamen and broad mite: puckered, stunted new growth](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/cyclamen-and-broad-mite): New leaves that come out small, thickened and bronzed, and buds that never open. A mite too small to see, routinely misdiagnosed as thrips or a virus, and what separates the three.
- [Desert locust: a green field stripped bare by a swarm](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/desert-locust): A grasshopper that spends most of its life alone and harmless, until crowding triggers a change in colour, behaviour and biology that turns it into a swarming, migratory pest able to strip a field bare within hours. The most destructive migratory pest on earth, threatening the livelihoods of tens of millions of people across Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
- [Diamondback moth: small pinholes that outlast every spray](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/diamondback-moth): A small grey-brown moth whose caterpillars pepper brassica leaves with pinholes and windowpanes of skeletonised tissue, then wriggle backward off the leaf on a silk thread when disturbed. The single most economically damaging insect pest of brassica crops worldwide, and the one that has evolved resistance to nearly every insecticide ever used against it.
- [Earwigs and ants: when to leave them alone](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/earwigs-and-ants): Earwigs often eat aphids as well as soft petals, and ants protect greenfly for honeydew rather than eating the plant. Control is rarely needed unless flowers, fruit or aphid colonies are being protected.
- [Eelworm and nematodes: patchy crops, bloated onions and distorted phlox](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/eelworm-and-nematodes): Plant-parasitic nematodes can stunt potatoes, bloat onion necks and thread the leaves of phlox. They are different from the beneficial nematodes sold for pest control, and each crop needs its own prevention plan.
- [Emerald ash borer: D-shaped holes and a dying canopy](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/emerald-ash-borer): A metallic green beetle whose larvae tunnel under the bark in winding galleries, killing an ash tree within two to four years of the first infestation. Native to Asia, it has destroyed tens of millions of ash trees across North America since the 1990s and is spreading west from Moscow through Russia and Ukraine, a second major threat to ash trees compounding ash dieback in the parts of Europe it eventually reaches.
- [Fall armyworm: a caterpillar that has crossed four continents since 2016](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/fall-armyworm): A grass or grain crop stripped from the growing point outward by a striped caterpillar with a pale upside-down Y on its head. Native to the Americas, established across Africa since 2016, Asia since 2018 and Australia since 2020, and now one of the most consequential crop pests in the world.
- [Flea beetles: pitted, shot-holed seedlings that jump when you approach](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/flea-beetle): Rocket, radish and brassica seedlings peppered with small round holes, and tiny beetles that vanish with a jump. Getting the crop through the seedling stage fast beats every other measure, and the mesh most gardeners own has holes big enough to let them through.
- [Fungus gnats: the little flies around your houseplants](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/fungus-gnats): Fungus gnats are small dark flies that rise from damp compost when you water. Their larvae feed mostly on fungi and dead matter, and letting the compost surface dry breaks the cycle.
- [Galls and gall mites: strange lumps on leaves, buds and stems](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/gall-mites-and-galls): Pimples on lime leaves, pincushions on wild roses, blisters on pears and fat round buds on blackcurrants. Most galls can be left alone. Blackcurrant big bud mite is the main exception because it can spread reversion virus.
- [Glassy-winged sharpshooter: a leafhopper that spreads Pierce's disease](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/glassy-winged-sharpshooter): A large, plain leafhopper that feeds on woody stems rather than leaves, leaving trails of white sap residue and, far more seriously, carrying the bacterium behind Pierce's disease from vine to vine. Native to the south-eastern United States, it turned a manageable vineyard disease into a major threat once it reached California in the 1990s.
- [Grape phylloxera: root galls and grafted vines](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/grape-phylloxera): Grape phylloxera is a microscopic aphid-relative that weakens vines by feeding on the roots. It destroyed much of Europe's vineyard area in the nineteenth century, and most wine grapes are now grown on resistant rootstock.
- [Harlequin bug: a black-and-orange shield bug on brassicas](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/harlequin-bug): Cloverleaf-shaped white blotches spreading across cabbage and kale leaves, made by a strikingly patterned bug that feeds almost nowhere except the brassica family. A pest of the southern and central United States rather than a global one, with hand-picking and a mustard trap crop doing most of the work against it.
- [Horse chestnut leaf miner: brown leaves in summer](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/horse-chestnut-leaf-miner): Horse chestnut leaf miner browns leaves and makes trees drop them weeks before autumn. The damage looks severe but rarely kills mature trees; bleeding canker on the bark is the more serious problem.
- [Japanese beetle: metallic green beetles skeletonising the leaves](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/japanese-beetle): A shrub or vine with leaves eaten down to a lace of veins, done by a metallic green-and-copper beetle that feeds in mobs and attacks over 300 kinds of plant. Established across most of North America, newly arrived in northern Italy and Switzerland, and a notifiable pest everywhere else in Europe.
- [Leaf miners: tunnels and blotches inside the leaf](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/leaf-miner): Leaf miners leave pale tunnels and brown blotches while both leaf surfaces stay intact. Sprays rarely reach larvae inside leaves, so control depends on removing affected leaves and clearing leaf fall where it helps.
- [Leatherjackets and chafer grubs: lawn patches torn up by birds](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/leatherjackets): Leatherjackets leave yellow lawn patches that lift like a carpet, often with birds or badgers tearing at the turf. Separate them from chafer grubs before using nematodes.
- [Leek moth: white streaks in leeks and onions](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/leek-moth): Pale windows mined through the leaves, a caterpillar in the heart of the leek and a net-like cocoon on the surface. A pest that has spread across most of Britain since 2000, and the mesh that stops it.
- [Macadamia nut borer: a caterpillar inside the husk](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/macadamia-nut-borer): A macadamia husk with a tiny entry hole and frass-packed tunnel running to the shell, or the same caterpillar doing identical damage inside a lychee or longan. Native across a huge swathe of Asia and the Pacific, present throughout Australia's macadamia-growing regions, and established in Hawaii but not the US mainland.
- [Mealybug: the white fluff in the leaf joints](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/mealybug): Mealybugs look like small blobs of cotton wool in leaf axils, roots and joints. Their waxy covering blocks many sprays, so repeated wiping and isolation matter more than one treatment.
- [Mediterranean fruit fly: soft rot spreading from a pinprick sting](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/mediterranean-fruit-fly): A small, boldly patterned fly that punctures ripening fruit to lay eggs, leaving a pinprick sting mark that develops into a soft, rotting patch as maggots tunnel through the flesh. One of the most economically damaging fruit pests on earth, attacking more than 300 different fruits and vegetables across a still-expanding range.
- [Mexican bean beetle: a plant-eating ladybird on the pods](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/mexican-bean-beetle): Mexican bean beetle is a coppery, black-spotted ladybird relative that eats bean leaves instead of aphids. It is confined to the Americas and is worst in the Mid-Atlantic and Appalachian United States.
- [Moles: molehills, tunnels and the plants they did not eat](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/moles): Heaps of fine soil across a lawn and a run of raised tunnels through a bed. Moles eat earthworms and grubs rather than roots, so the damage is mechanical, and the animal chewing your bulbs is almost always a vole using the tunnel.
- [Nut weevil: a neat round hole and an empty shell](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/nut-weevil): Nut weevil leaves a pinhead-sized hole in a hazelnut and a fat white grub where the kernel should be. Adult control has to happen in early summer, before females lay into soft green nuts.
- [Oak processionary moth: the caterpillars you must not go near](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/oak-processionary-moth): Caterpillars in a nose-to-tail procession up an oak trunk, and white silk nests on the trunk or a branch fork. Their hairs cause rashes and breathing trouble, so this is a page about reporting it and keeping away rather than dealing with it.
- [Olive fruit fly: larvae inside olives](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/olive-fruit-fly): A pinprick "sting" in the skin of a ripening olive that turns into a brown, collapsing tunnel through the flesh. The single most damaging pest of olives across the Mediterranean and the Middle East, established in California since the late 1990s, and still a biosecurity target in Australia.
- [Pea and bean weevil: U-shaped notches that do not matter](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/pea-and-bean-weevil): Neat semicircular bites all round the leaf edges of peas and broad beans. The notching alarms people and costs an established plant nothing. The damage that costs you a crop is underground and invisible.
- [Pink bollworm: a rosetted flower and a stained, tunnelled boll](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/pink-bollworm): A small pink caterpillar that tunnels inside a cotton boll from the flower stage onwards, staining the lint and cutting both yield and fibre quality. One of the most damaging cotton pests worldwide, eradicated from the continental United States after a five-decade campaign but still a major threat across much of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
- [Plum curculio: a crescent-shaped scar on young fruit](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/plum-curculio): A distinctive curved scar cut into a young apple, peach, plum or cherry by a snouted weevil playing dead the moment it is disturbed. The North American answer to the maggot-in-the-fruit question that plum moth and codling moth answer everywhere else, and a pest confined to the continent it is named for.
- [Plum moth: maggots in ripening plums](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/plum-moth): Plum moth leaves a pink caterpillar curled around the stone and fruit that ripens early. Use pheromone traps from May and separate it from plum sawfly, which damages young fruitlets in June.
- [Pod borer: caterpillars inside pods](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/pod-borer): A caterpillar bores into pods, bolls and fruit, then moves on before finishing the first one. Control depends on catching small larvae before they enter the crop and protecting the parasitoids that suppress them.
- [Queensland fruit fly: stings in the skin and maggots in the flesh](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/queensland-fruit-fly): Fruit that looks sound and turns to a rotting, maggot-riddled mush from the inside within days, caused by a fly native to eastern Australia that attacks nearly two hundred kinds of fruit and vegetable. The pest behind the fruit-fly-free zones and quarantine checkpoints that structure so much of Australian and New Zealand produce movement.
- [Rabbits and deer: clean cuts, torn shoots and fencing](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/rabbits-and-deer): Rabbits cut shoots cleanly at an angle, while deer tear them off ragged. Damage height and the cut surface tell you which animal is feeding and what kind of fence will work.
- [Raspberry beetle: grubs in raspberries and blackberries](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/raspberry-beetle): Raspberry beetle leaves a small brown grub at the stalk end of the fruit and a dried, hardened feeding patch. Autumn-fruiting varieties usually escape it, while summer varieties need monitoring around flowering.
- [Red palm weevil: a crown that collapses without warning](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/red-palm-weevil): A palm that looks healthy until its whole crown suddenly topples, hollowed from within by a grub that can grow to the length of a finger. Native to South and Southeast Asia, now established across the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean, and one of the reasons ornamental and date palms in those regions are monitored so closely.
- [Red spider mite: pale speckling and fine webbing](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/spider-mite): Spider mites leave fine pale speckling on the upper leaf and webbing at shoot tips. Tap leaves over white paper to confirm them, then raise humidity and wash plants before colonies build.
- [Root aphids: a plant that wilts in sun and has white powder on its roots](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/root-aphids): A plant that flags every afternoon, recovers overnight, then stops recovering. Nothing on the leaves explains it, so knock it out of the pot and look for grey aphids and white waxy powder on the roots.
- [Root-knot nematodes: beaded, swollen roots and stunted crops](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/root-knot-nematodes): Root-knot nematodes swell roots into beads and knots that restrict feeding. They have wide host ranges, persist in warm soil and can overcome some resistant tomatoes when soil gets hot.
- [Rosemary and mint beetles: metallic beetles on herbs](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/rosemary-and-mint-beetles): Rosemary and mint beetles are small jewel-bright beetles that strip lavender, rosemary and mint. They feed through cooler months, and hand-picking is the safest control on herbs you eat.
- [Sawflies: larvae that skeletonise leaves](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/sawfly): Sawfly larvae strip gooseberries, roses and aquilegias, often leaving only the ribs of the leaf. Count the prolegs to separate them from caterpillars, because some caterpillar treatments will not work.
- [Scale insects: fixed bumps on stems and leaves](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/scale-insects): Scale insects look like brown or yellowish domes stuck to stems and leaf veins, often with sticky leaves below. Control works best against the mobile crawler stage in summer.
- [Scarlet lily beetle: the red beetle eating your lilies](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/lily-beetle): Lily beetles are bright red adults with orange grubs hidden under their own droppings. Hand-pick from March and check lilies and fritillaries before eggs and larvae build up.
- [Slugs and snails: damage, timing and control](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/slugs-and-snails): Slugs and snails leave smooth-edged holes, missing seedlings and slime trails. Most species do little harm, but grey field slugs, keeled slugs and garden snails need control around young plants and potatoes.
- [Spotted lanternfly: a striking planthopper that can kill a vine](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/spotted-lanternfly): Grey-winged, red-flashing insects mobbing a trunk in their hundreds, sooty mould growing on the honeydew beneath, and a vineyard that can die within a few years of the first sighting. Spreading fast across the eastern and midwestern United States, a quarantine pest everywhere else, and a hitchhiker that travels in egg masses stuck to almost anything.
- [Spotted wing drosophila: maggots in fruit that looked perfect](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/spotted-wing-drosophila): Soft fruit that collapses into a bruised, weeping mush within a day of picking, because this fruit fly lays eggs in ripening fruit while it is still on the plant rather than waiting for it to spoil. Established across North America and Europe since 2008, still a quarantine pest in Australia and New Zealand, and now one of the costliest soft fruit pests worldwide.
- [Squash vine borer: sudden wilting with sawdust at the stem base](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/squash-vine-borer): Squash vine borer makes a healthy-looking squash collapse, with sawdust-like frass at the base of the vine. Check stems early, remove larvae where possible and bury damaged sections so they reroot.
- [Squirrels and mice: dug-up bulbs and vanished bean rows](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/squirrels-and-mice): Squirrels and mice dig crocuses, take peas before germination and strip bark from young trees. Use barriers, storage and planting depth rather than poison in a garden.
- [Sweet potato weevil: a bitter, tunnelled root](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/sweet-potato-weevil): Sweet potato weevil tunnels through roots and makes them bitter as the plant produces defensive compounds. Deep planting, regular hilling and clean planting material help stop adults reaching the roots.
- [Thrips: silvered leaves and tiny black dots](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/thrips): Thrips are slender insects that rasp the surface from leaves and flowers, leaving silver streaks and black specks. Their life cycle includes stages in compost, so repeated control is needed.
- [Tomato hornworm: the finger-thick caterpillar stripping the vine](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/tomato-hornworm): A plant defoliated overnight by a caterpillar the length of a finger, camouflaged so well it is usually found by its droppings first. Two nearly identical species, why a hornworm carrying white cocoons should be left alone, and why this is a North and South American problem rather than a global one.
- [Viburnum beetle: laurustinus stripped to lace, twice a year](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/viburnum-beetle): Viburnum beetle skeletonises leaves in May and again in August. Check shoot tips for eggs in winter, remove affected growth and choose less susceptible viburnums when replanting.
- [Vine weevil: notched leaves above, no roots below](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/vine-weevil): Adult vine weevils cut neat semicircles from leaf edges, while the grubs eat roots from container plants over winter. Use nematodes while the compost is warm enough and larvae are active.
- [Whitefly: tiny white insects under leaves](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/whitefly): Whitefly gathers on the undersides of young leaves and leaves sticky honeydew below. Spraying adults does little to the scales, so control depends on repeated washing or parasitoid wasps under cover.
- [Wireworms: narrow holes bored straight through potatoes and roots](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/wireworms): Thin orange-brown grubs that bore clean round tunnels deep into potatoes, carrots and seedling stems. Worst in the first years after grass is broken up, and the damage is done by a grub that takes four years to grow up.
- [Pigeons: brassicas stripped to the ribs in winter](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/pigeons): Wood pigeons reduce cabbages and sprouts to bare midribs between November and March. Netting works only when it is taut, supported clear of the crop and sealed so birds cannot get trapped.
- [Woodlice and millipedes: when they matter](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/woodlice-and-millipedes): Woodlice and millipedes usually eat tissue that is already rotting, so they often get blamed for damage they did not start. They can still graze seedlings under glass, hollow fruit on wet soil and damage potatoes in damp ground.
- [Woolly aphid: cotton wool on apple bark](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/woolly-aphid): Woolly aphid forms tufts of white wax in bark cracks on apple, cotoneaster and pyracantha, with lumpy swellings beneath. Brush colonies off, protect predators and watch for canker entering the galls.

### Diseases

- [Allium white rot: white fluff on onions and garlic](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/allium-white-rot): Onions and garlic yellow, wilt and pull out with white fluff and black grains at the base. White rot survives in soil for years, so control depends on clean planting stock, hygiene and growing alliums away from infested ground.
- [Alternaria leaf blight: dark spots with rings inside them](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/alternaria-leaf-blight): Dark brown spots with concentric rings and a yellow halo, starting on the oldest leaves. It arrives on the seed as often as on the wind, which is why the same bed goes down to it every year.
- [Apple and pear scab: black blotches on leaves and corky fruit](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/apple-scab): Apple scab causes olive-black blotches on leaves and rough corky patches on fruit. Raking up infected leaves in autumn reduces spores, and resistant cultivars are the best long-term fix.
- [Apple canker: sunken bark and dying branches](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/apple-canker): Apple canker makes sunken rings of dead bark that can girdle a branch and kill everything beyond it. The fungus enters through wounds and leaf scars, and cutting it out in dry summer weather is the main treatment.
- [Ash dieback: what it looks like and what not to do](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/ash-dieback): Ash dieback causes thinning crowns, diamond-shaped stem lesions and bushy growth from the trunk. Many infected trees persist for years, but trees near roads, paths and buildings need professional assessment.
- [Aster yellows: green flowers and leaves where the petals should be](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/aster-yellows): Flowers that come out green, deformed and sterile, or turn into tufts of small leaves. A bacterium with no cell wall is rewriting the plant's development, and a leafhopper brought it.
- [Bacterial canker: gum on cherry and plum bark](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/bacterial-canker): Bacterial canker makes amber gum weep from sunken bark on cherries and plums, with dead buds and shot holes in the leaves. Prune only in dry summer weather and cut back into healthy wood.
- [Bacterial soft rot: the one you identify by the smell](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/bacterial-soft-rot): Tissue collapsing into a wet slimy mush with a foul smell. Bacteria dissolve the glue holding plant cells together, and they can only get in through a wound, which is where the prevention sits.
- [Barley yellow dwarf: bright yellow or red patches in a cereal crop](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/barley-yellow-dwarf): Circular patches of stunted cereal, yellow in barley and wheat, red in oats. Aphids brought it in the autumn, and the sowing date decides how much of it you get.
- [Black Sigatoka: streaked leaves and a fraction of the fruit](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/black-sigatoka): Dark streaks spreading across a banana leaf and coalescing into dead patches, cutting the leaf area a plant has left to ripen its fruit. The most damaging foliar disease of banana worldwide, controlled mainly by frequent fungicide spraying that few smallholder growers can afford or justify.
- [Blackleg: potato stems that blacken and collapse](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/blackleg): A potato plant yellowing and toppling with a slimy black stem base. Where blackleg comes from, why certified seed is the whole prevention, and how it turns into soft rot in store.
- [Tomato and potato blight: fast collapse in wet weather](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/blight): Blight causes brown leaf blotches, stem streaks and rapid crop collapse in tomatoes and potatoes. Watch for Hutton Periods, keep foliage dry and cut potato haulms quickly once infection appears.
- [Box blight: black stems, bare patches and what to do](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/box-blight): Box blight causes falling brown leaves, black streaks on green stems and spreading bald patches. Reduce clipping, improve airflow and remove infected debris to keep a hedge going.
- [Bracket fungi: shelves on trunks and wood decay](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/bracket-fungi-and-wood-decay): A bracket on a tree is the fruiting body of a fungus growing inside the wood. Knocking it off does not remove the decay. Identify the fungus and the tree before deciding whether the tree is unsafe.
- [Brown rot: rotting fruit and dried mummies](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/brown-rot): Brown rot makes apples and plums rot on the tree in concentric rings of buff pustules, then shrivel to hard black mummies. Remove mummified fruit in winter to reduce the next infection cycle.
- [Cassava mosaic disease: a crop free of its worst enemy in its own homeland](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/cassava-mosaic-disease): Leaves puckered and mottled yellow-green, roots stunted and yields cut by more than half, caused by whitefly-spread viruses found across Africa and South Asia. Cassava originated in the Americas and remains free of this disease there, one of the clearer examples on this site of a crop's homeland not being where its worst problem lives.
- [Chestnut blight: lethal cankers on chestnut](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/chestnut-blight): A sunken, orange-pustuled canker girdling the trunk or a branch, caused by a fungus that reduced the American chestnut from a dominant forest tree to scattered understorey sprouts within decades. Native to East Asia, where local chestnuts tolerate it, and now present across most of Europe and North America.
- [Citrus greening: lopsided bitter fruit and a tree in decline](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/citrus-greening): Citrus greening causes blotchy yellow leaves, small bitter fruit and decline that cannot be cured once a tree is infected. The disease is spread by psyllids, so keeping the vector out is the main defence.
- [Clubroot: swollen roots, stunted brassicas, twenty-year spores](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/clubroot): Clubroot makes cabbages wilt in the sun and recover overnight, with roots swollen into clubs. It persists in soil for years, so liming, drainage, resistant cultivars and strong transplants matter more than treatment.
- [Coral spot: pink pustules on dying wood](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/coral-spot): Coral spot forms coral-pink cushions on dead branches and can move into weak or wounded wood. Prune out affected twigs, avoid leaving snags and do not reuse diseased sticks as plant supports.
- [Damping off: why your seedlings collapse at soil level](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/damping-off): A tray of seedlings that were fine yesterday, toppled over this morning with pinched dark stems. The conditions that cause it, and why the water butt is part of the problem.
- [Downy mildew: yellow patches on top, fuzz underneath](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/downy-mildew): Downy mildew causes angular yellow blotches held between the veins, with a grey or purple bloom underneath. It spreads in wet foliage and still air, unlike powdery mildew on dry-stressed plants.
- [Ergot and smut: black bodies and sooty ears in cereals](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/ergot-and-smut): Two fungi that replace grain in the ear and could not be more different. One is a hard dark horn carrying the alkaloids behind St Anthony's Fire and behind LSD; the other is a bag of black dust, and one kind of it is eaten as a delicacy.
- [Fairy rings: dark green circles and dead arcs in a lawn](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/fairy-rings): A ring of lush dark grass, a bare arc inside it, or a circle of toadstools in autumn. A fungus is working outward through the soil at about 30 cm a year, and the dead grass has died of drought rather than infection.
- [Fireblight: shoots that look burnt and bend over](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/fireblight): Fireblight browns blossom overnight, hooks shoot tips and leaves blackened leaves attached to the stem. Cut well below infection in dry weather and check whether the host is in the rose family.
- [Fusarium head blight: bleached ears and toxins in the grain](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/fusarium-head-blight): Fusarium head blight bleaches spikelets in green ears, sometimes with pink at the base. The fungus dies at harvest, but the toxins it made can remain in the grain.
- [Fusarium wilt: yellowing from the bottom up, one side at a time](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/fusarium-wilt): Lower leaves yellow and die while the plant wilts in the heat and recovers overnight. Cut the stem and the water-carrying tissue is stained brown. The fungus is host-specific, so what killed the tomatoes will not touch the beans.
- [Grey mould (botrytis): fuzzy rot on fruit, stems and seedlings](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/grey-mould): Fuzzy grey growth on fruit, seedlings and greenhouse plants releases spores when touched. It starts on dead or wounded tissue, then spreads fastest in still, damp air.
- [Honey fungus: white sheets and black bootlaces](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/honey-fungus): Honey fungus attacks the roots and base of garden trees and shrubs. Confirm it by looking for white fungal sheets under the bark, black rhizomorphs in the soil and honey-coloured toadstools in autumn.
- [Bleeding canker of horse chestnut: rusty ooze running down the trunk](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/horse-chestnut-bleeding-canker): Dark sticky liquid weeping from the bark of a horse chestnut and drying into rust-coloured streaks. It looks terminal and often is not, so the first advice is to wait a year rather than to fell.
- [Laurel wilt: wilted foliage that stays on a dead branch](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/laurel-wilt): Leaves that wilt, turn reddish-brown and dry out but do not drop, on a tree in the laurel family attacked by a fungus carried in by a tiny ambrosia beetle. Spreading through the southeastern United States since the early 2000s, a serious threat to commercial avocado there, and not yet established anywhere else avocado or bay laurel is grown.
- [Leaf spot: brown and black spots on leaves](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/leaf-spot): Leaf spot causes dark marks with defined edges, often spreading through wet weather. Hold the leaf to the light to separate fungal spots from bacterial ones, and remove badly affected foliage where needed.
- [Mosaic virus: mottled leaves that will not come right](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/mosaic-virus): Mosaic viruses cause dark and pale green blotching, puckered leaves and misshapen fruit. There is no treatment once a plant is infected, so remove affected plants and control the routes of spread.
- [Panama disease: fatal wilt in bananas](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/panama-disease): Yellowing leaves collapsing one after another around a splitting pseudostem, caused by a soil fungus with no cure and no way back once it is in the ground. The original strain wiped the Gros Michel banana off supermarket shelves in the twentieth century; a new strain, Tropical Race 4, is doing the same to Cavendish, the variety that replaced it.
- [Peach leaf curl: red blistered spring leaves](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/peach-leaf-curl): Peach leaf curl makes new peach and nectarine leaves emerge thickened, puckered and crimson. Infection happens before the leaves open, so rain protection from winter to bud burst is the main control.
- [Phytophthora root rot: a shrub that dies from wet ground](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/phytophthora-root-rot): A healthy-looking shrub wilts and dies over a few weeks, and the bark at the base is dead. Cut into it and the edge between live and dead wood is a sharp line, which rules out honey fungus. The organism is a water mould, so fungicides aimed at true fungi disappoint.
- [Plum pox: rings on the fruit and marks on the stone](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/plum-pox): Pale rings and blotches on plum, apricot and peach fruit, with the fruit dropping early and tasting of nothing. Aphids spread it in seconds, so spraying them does not help, and in several countries a suspected case has to be reported.
- [Potato scab: rough patches that a watering can prevents](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/potato-scab): Common scab makes corky marks on potato skins that go no deeper than the peel. Keep soil evenly moist while tubers form, and separate it from powdery scab, which favours wetter ground.
- [Powdery mildew: white patches on dry-stressed plants](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/powdery-mildew): Powdery mildew makes white patches on leaves and stems, especially when roots are dry and air is humid. Watering, mulching and airflow matter more than spraying, and each mildew has a narrow host range.
- [Ramorum disease: bleeding trunks and blighted rhododendron](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/phytophthora-ramorum): Dark bleeding patches on a trunk, or blackened shoot tips on rhododendron and viburnum. It is notifiable in most countries that have it, so the first action is a report rather than a treatment.
- [Red thread: pink patches in underfed lawns](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/red-thread): Bleached patches in a lawn with pink threads on the grass tips. Red thread looks alarming, kills nothing, and usually means the lawn is short of nitrogen.
- [Rice blast: diamond-shaped lesions and a dead panicle](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/rice-blast): Grey-centred, diamond-shaped lesions spreading across the leaves of a rice plant, caused by a fungus that also rots the neck of the panicle so the whole head dies while still green. The single most damaging disease of rice worldwide, destroying enough grain most years to feed tens of millions of people.
- [Rose black spot: why your roses defoliate every August](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/black-spot): Rose black spot causes dark fringed blotches, yellowing leaves and bare stems by late summer. The green rings around spots show where the fungus is still active, and resistant varieties matter more than sprays.
- [Rust: orange pustules under the leaf](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/rust): Rust diseases make rusty spots under leaves and yellow blotches above. Most rusts are host-specific, so control depends on dry foliage, resistant varieties and removing infected leaves.
- [Sclerotinia: white mould and collapsing stems](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/sclerotinia): Sclerotinia makes stems soft and water-soaked, with dense white mould and hard black sclerotia inside. Dead petals often start infection, and the sclerotia can keep soil infectious for years.
- [Silver leaf: silvery leaves on plum branches](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/silver-leaf): Silver leaf turns leaves on one branch of a plum dull silver and stains dead wood purple. Confirm it with a cut through affected wood, and prune plums in June to reduce infection risk.
- [Sooty mould: black film on sticky leaves](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/sooty-mould): Leaves turning black and sticky under a tree or a houseplant. Sooty mould grows on the honeydew that sap-sucking insects drip, so the fix is whatever is feeding overhead.
- [Tomato spotted wilt virus: bronzed leaves and ringed fruit](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/tomato-spotted-wilt-virus): Tomato spotted wilt virus causes pale rings on fruit and bronze young leaves. Thrips spread it only if they acquired the virus as larvae, so removing infected plants matters more than spraying adults late.
- [Verticillium wilt: one branch at a time, and a stain in the wood](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/verticillium-wilt): Verticillium wilt can make a maple lose one branch at a time while the rest looks healthy. A cut through affected wood shows staining, and replanting needs resistant species.
- [Xylella fastidiosa: a scorch that starves the plant from within](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/xylella-fastidiosa): A bacterium that blocks a plant's own water-conducting tissue, producing a scorched, drought-like browning that no amount of watering fixes. Different strains cause olive quick decline in the Mediterranean, Pierce's disease in American vineyards and citrus variegated chlorosis in Brazil, and there is no cure once a plant is infected.

### Disorders

- [Bitter pit: sunken brown spots in stored apples](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/bitter-pit): Bitter pit makes small sunken marks on apple skin and bitter brown flecks in the flesh, worst at the eye end and in store. Steady watering helps the tree move calcium into the fruit.
- [Blossom drop: flowers everywhere and no fruit](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/blossom-drop): Tomatoes, beans and courgettes flowering freely and setting nothing. The temperature limits pollen works within, why courgettes drop their first flowers, and what to do at midday.
- [Blossom end rot: the calcium is already there](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/blossom-end-rot): Blossom end rot makes a black leathery patch on the bottom of a tomato. The plant is failing to move calcium into the fruit, so steady watering usually matters more than adding calcium to the soil.
- [Bolting: why lettuce, spinach and beetroot run to seed](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/bolting): Crops shoot up a flower stem before they are ready to eat. Cold, long days, heat and drought can all trigger it. Once a plant has bolted, sowing time and steady growth matter more than rescue.
- [Bud drop: buds that form beautifully and then fall off](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/bud-drop): Bud drop makes gardenia, camellia and Christmas cactus shed buds before they open. It usually follows movement, uneven watering, temperature swings, dry air or frost followed by early sun.
- [Dog urine patches: dead spots with a dark green ring](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/dog-urine-patches): A brown circle the size of a saucer with a collar of lush grass around it. Nitrogen rather than acidity does the damage, so the supplements sold to fix the dog are the wrong answer and a watering can is the right one.
- [Drought stress and underwatering: how to tell it from root rot](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/underwatering): A wilting plant may be dry or drowning, and the treatments are opposite. Check the compost or soil before watering, and soak dry rootballs thoroughly enough for water to reach the roots.
- [Etiolation: pale, stretched, leggy growth reaching for light](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/etiolation): Etiolation makes seedlings thin and weak, and stretches succulents into bare stalks. The pale growth will not shorten again, so recovery means improving the light and pruning back when new growth is strong.
- [Failure to flower: a healthy plant that never blooms](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/failure-to-flower): Failure to flower can come from age, pruning, shade, feeding or damage to developing buds. Check the cause before feeding or pruning, because the right fix depends on the plant.
- [Fertiliser scorch: burnt leaf edges from too much feed](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/fertiliser-scorch): Brown crisp margins on the oldest leaves, a white crust on the compost and a plant wilting in soil that is plainly wet. Too much fertiliser stops roots taking up water, and the plant shows drought symptoms while standing in it.
- [Frost damage: blackened shoots and what to do next](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/frost-damage): Frost damage blackens soft new growth in spring and browns exposed shrubs in winter wind. Wait before pruning, protect tender growth and harden plants gradually before cold nights.
- [Fruit splitting: cracked tomatoes, cherries and burst cabbages](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/fruit-splitting): Fruit splits when it swells faster than the skin can stretch, often after rain follows a dry spell. Pick damaged fruit quickly, reduce swings in soil moisture and protect cherries from rain where possible.
- [Green potatoes: why they happen and when to throw them out](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/potato-greening): Light turns a tuber green and raises its solanine at the same time. The green is harmless and the alkaloid is not, boiling destroys neither, and a bitter taste is the warning to stop eating.
- [Guttation: water droplets on leaf tips and edges](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/guttation): Clear drops along a leaf margin at dawn, gone by mid-morning, leaving a white crust behind. The plant is pushing sap out under root pressure, which is normal, and the crust is what makes people think they have scale insects.
- [Hard water and salt build-up: white crust and brown tips](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/hard-water): Hard water leaves white crusts on compost and pots, browns leaf tips and yellows lime-hating plants. Flush containers, refresh compost and use rainwater for plants that need acid conditions.
- [Herbicide damage: twisted growth from contaminated manure](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/herbicide-damage): Herbicide damage twists tomato and bean leaves into fern-like growth and cups the shoot tips. Test manure or compost before spreading it, and keep contaminated material away from sensitive crops.
- [Leaf scorch: sun, wind and the myth about water droplets](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/leaf-scorch): Leaf scorch causes bleached patches and brown crisp margins that appear all at once. It follows sun, wind, frost or water stress rather than infection, so the pattern and timing matter more than sprays.
- [Moss in lawns: what it is telling you about the ground](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/moss-in-lawns): Moss moves into a lawn where the grass has given up, so killing it without changing the conditions buys one season. Which moss you have narrows the cause to shade, compaction, drought or close mowing.
- [Nutrient deficiencies: read the leaf position first](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/nutrient-deficiency): Yellow leaves at the bottom of the plant mean something different from yellow leaves at the top. The rule that halves the diagnosis, and why most yellowing is not a shortage at all.
- [Oedema: corky bumps and blisters on leaves](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/oedema): Raised watery blisters that dry into rough corky scabs on leaf undersides and stems. Not a fungus and not a pest, whatever the search results say. A watering and light problem with a straightforward fix.
- [Pot bound: roots circling a container with nowhere left to go](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/pot-bound): A houseplant drying out within a day, water running straight through, and roots out of the drainage holes. When to pot on, when to root prune instead, and the plants that prefer to stay tight.
- [Reversion: when a variegated plant goes green](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/reversion): Reversion sends plain green shoots through a variegated plant, often faster than the patterned growth. Cut reverted shoots out at the source and propagate only from correctly variegated material.
- [Root rot and overwatering: why a wet plant wilts](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/root-rot): Root rot is one of the commonest ways a houseplant dies. Wilting in wet compost means roots are failing, so recovery depends on removing rot, improving drainage and watering less often.
- [Salt and wind exposure: scorched, one-sided growth](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/salt-and-wind-exposure): Salt and wind exposure brown leaf margins, kill buds on one side and scorch plants after coastal gales or road salt. Shelter with permeable barriers and leach salt from soil with fresh water.
- [Sunscald and frost cracks: split and dying bark on young trees](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/sunscald-and-frost-cracks): Sunken dead bark on the side facing the low winter sun, and long vertical splits that open with a bang on a cold night. Both come from winter sun rather than winter cold, and both are prevented rather than treated.
- [Tipburn: brown leaf margins in lettuce, cabbage and celery](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/tipburn): Young inner leaves with scorched brown edges, often hidden until the head is cut open. Calcium reaches the leaves that transpire, and the leaves buried in the heart of a head do not transpire at all.
- [Transplant shock: why a new plant sulks and how long it lasts](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/transplant-shock): Transplant shock makes a moved plant wilt, drop leaves or stand still for weeks. Protect the roots, water deeply and reduce stress until new roots start growing.
- [Waterlogging: wet soil and failing roots](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/waterlogging): Waterlogging causes yellow leaves, wilting on wet ground and winter losses. Roots fail when air is pushed out of the soil, so drainage, raised planting and soil structure are the real fixes.
- [Wind rock: loose stems and damaged roots](https://raychis.app/guides/problems/wind-rock): Wind rock makes a shrub or sprout rock until a funnel opens around the stem. Firm plants in autumn, reduce tall growth where needed and stop water collecting around damaged roots.

## News and writing

- [News](https://raychis.app/news): Release notes, launch announcements, and updates from the Raychis team.
- [Release notes](https://raychis.app/release-notes): What changed in every version of Raychis, one entry per release, newest first.
- [Field Notes](https://raychis.app/field-notes): A build-in-public series on making Raychis.
- [Stories](https://raychis.app/stories): Long-form writing about plants, the things that live on them, and the people who grow them.
- [Version 1.2.0 release notes](https://raychis.app/news/version-1-2-0): A feature update on top of 1.1.2. Send a plain care list that anyone can read without Raychis, and pause your own reminders while you are away so your care streak stays safe.
- [Version 1.1.2 release notes](https://raychis.app/news/version-1-1-2): A feature-and-fix update on top of 1.1.1. Care reminders are easier to set up and start from your last care, you can set your own default reminder time, and an identification can be double-checked with a quick web search.
- [Version 1.1.1 release notes](https://raychis.app/news/version-1-1-1): A reliability patch on top of 1.1.0. Care reminders are added to older plants, the first health check is saved accurately, and the camera and results screen are more reliable.
- [Version 1.1.0 release notes](https://raychis.app/news/version-1-1-0): The first feature update. Each plant's full care guide now lives on its own page, any species reads in full from Explore, and care checks are set up automatically when you add a plant.
- [The app's guides are moving to the web](https://raychis.app/news/the-guides-move-to-the-web): We are copying the care content inside Raychis across to the website and publishing it as guides, a wave at a time. Early users have also asked for changes in the app.
- [Version 1.0.1 release notes](https://raychis.app/news/version-1-0-1): The first update since launch. A stability and reliability patch, with clearer identification results and a few things that were more awkward than they needed to be.
- [Raychis is live](https://raychis.app/news/raychis-is-live): Raychis is out. Download it free on the App Store and Google Play, and put a plant in front of it.
- [Version 1.0.0 release notes](https://raychis.app/news/version-1-0-0): What ships in the first release of Raychis, and what the free tier and Plus each include.
- [Launch is coming](https://raychis.app/news/launch-is-coming): Raychis has a release date. It ships on Wednesday 29 July 2026, with the build already through review at both stores.
- [The beta is open](https://raychis.app/news/the-beta-is-open): We're looking for gardeners to test Raychis before it launches. Early builds, a direct line to the team, and a say in what ships.
- [What a rachis is, and why the app is called Raychis](https://raychis.app/news/the-name): The rachis is the central stem of a compound leaf, the axis its leaflets branch from. What the word means, how to say Raychis, and why we chose it.
- [Overwatering vs underwatering: how to tell](https://raychis.app/stories/watering-guide): How to tell overwatering from underwatering, why a wet plant wilts, and how to water houseplants and garden plants well. Check the soil before you water.
- [Lawn care by climate: grass, mowing and watering](https://raychis.app/stories/lawn-care): How to care for a lawn in any climate. Choosing cool- or warm-season grass, mowing height, deep watering, feeding, and fixing moss and weeds.
- [Companion planting: what works and what doesn't](https://raychis.app/stories/companion-planting): How companion planting works, from the three sisters and flowers for useful insects to trap crops and carrots grown with onions, and where the evidence is weak.
- [Drought-tolerant gardening: a garden that needs less water](https://raychis.app/stories/drought-tolerant-gardening): Drought-tolerant gardening needs more than tough plants. Build soil that holds water, mulch to reduce evaporation, water deeply while plants establish, capture rainfall and choose plants that survive dry spells.
- [Fertilisers: what NPK means and which type to use](https://raychis.app/stories/fertilisers-explained): What nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium do for a plant, how to read the NPK numbers on the bag, and how organic and mineral feeds differ.
- [Gardening for extreme heat: keeping plants alive through a heatwave](https://raychis.app/stories/gardening-for-extreme-heat): Heat stress is a separate problem from drought. How high temperatures scorch leaves, stop fruit setting and cook roots in pots, and how shade, deep watering, mulch and the right plants keep a garden through a heatwave.
- [How to make compost at home](https://raychis.app/stories/how-to-make-compost-at-home): Compost is rotted plant waste turned into a soil improver. How to balance greens and browns, keep a heap damp and airy, and choose hot or cold composting.
- [How climate zones are changing: why the hardiness map keeps moving](https://raychis.app/stories/how-climate-zones-are-changing): Hardiness zones are thirty-year averages of winter cold, and those averages are rising. How the USDA and RHS maps have moved, how much is warming and how much comes from better data, and what a shifting zone tells you.
- [How to make a wildflower meadow](https://raychis.app/stories/how-to-make-a-wildflower-meadow): A wildflower meadow needs poor soil, weak grass and one cut a year. How to lower fertility, sow or plug the flowers, use yellow rattle and start at any size.
- [Succession planting: what it is and how to do it](https://raychis.app/stories/succession-planting): Succession planting means staggering your sowings and following one crop with another so harvests arrive in sequence and no ground sits bare. How it works, the botany behind the timing, and worked examples for salad, roots and beans.
- [Gardening in a changing climate: plan for the range, not the average](https://raychis.app/stories/gardening-in-a-changing-climate): Winter lows are rising, hardiness zones are shifting, and gardens now face more heat, drought, flooding and overwintering pests. Plan for the full range your garden has to survive.
- [Chillies and peppers: the five Capsicum species and how they differ](https://raychis.app/stories/chillies-and-peppers): Chilli and pepper are common names for five separate Capsicum species. Their flowers, seeds and climate needs separate them more clearly than heat.
- [Hardiness zones explained: what your zone does not show](https://raychis.app/stories/climate-zones-and-what-to-grow): Hardiness zones measure winter lows only. Use USDA and RHS zones for cold, heat zones for summer stress, Koppen climate types for rainfall and season shape, and cultivar notes for day length and winter chill.
- [The best low-light houseplants, and why they can take it](https://raychis.app/stories/plants-for-low-light): Houseplants for dim rooms, grouped by how little light they tolerate and whether they need damp air. How to test a corner, why shade leaves survive on very low light, and the signs that a room is too dark.
- [How to encourage the predators that eat your pests](https://raychis.app/stories/encouraging-natural-predators): The predators and parasitoids that control common garden pests, which ones you are likely to see in different regions, and the flowers and shelter that keep them in the garden.
- [Huitlacoche, the disease that became a delicacy](https://raychis.app/stories/huitlacoche): Corn smut can ruin a sweetcorn crop, but young galls are also huitlacoche, a valued Mexican ingredient. Edibility depends on timing, correct identification and how the crop is being grown.

## Policies and contact

- [Privacy policy](https://raychis.app/privacy): What the app and the site collect, which is close to nothing.
- [Terms of service](https://raychis.app/terms): Terms covering use of the app and this site.
- [Model licence](https://raychis.app/model-licence): Licensing and attribution for the identification model and its training data.
- [Security](https://raychis.app/security): How to report a vulnerability, and the disclosure policy.
- [Contact](https://raychis.app/contact): How to reach TerraRoxoAI about support, press, or partnerships.
- [About Matthew Moughtin](https://raychis.app/about/matthew-moughtin): The engineer and gardener who writes the guides and field notes, and the authorities the safety information is compiled from and checked against.