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Gardening

How to Grow and Care for Dragon Tree (Dracaena Marginata) Indoors

Dragon tree (Dracaena marginata), is a tall plant with green, sword-like, red-edged leaves. Native to Madagascar, the eye-catching spiky tree is a great entry plant for household gardeners wanting an indoor tree—it's easy to care for, drought-tolerant, and nearly indestructible. This slow-growing tree can take a decade to reach a few feet tall but can eventually grow to about 20 feet. However, it is generally grown as a potted houseplant and kept pruned to 6 feet or less. Keep the dragon tree away from pets because it's toxic to animals if ingested.1 Dragon Tree Tips for Beginners Where to Put It: Place your dragon tree in a spot that receives bright to medium indirect sunlight. How to Water It: Dragon trees are drought-tolerant plants, so give it a good watering once every three weeks. Soil Type: Use a loose, well-drained potting mix when growing dragon trees, as they'll thrive best in this mixture. Dragon Tree Care Dragon trees are very popular as large potted plants for homes and offices. Here are the most important care requirements. Plant in well-draining soil Water regularly during their growing season. Place in bright, indirect light, though they can thrive in a variety of light conditions. Fertilize conservatively at the beginning of spring. Light Place your dragon tree in an area with bright, indirect light. These plants can also survive in partial shade. Keep in mind that plants kept in lower light situations will grow slower and produce smaller leaves with less intense color. Additionally, take care not to place your dragon tree in a spot that receives direct rays of sunlight—its foliage can burn easily.2 Soil Use a loose, well-drained potting mix when growing a dragon tree as a potted plant—loamy soil amended with peat moss is ideal. Make sure the container you choose has room for the plant's extensive root system. Some varieties are imported from Hawaii and will arrive with lava rock—if this is the case, remove about a third of the rock and replace it with potting soil. Water Wait until the top half of the soil is dry before watering a dragon tree, which could take three weeks or more. Like many drought-tolerant plants, the dragon tree can be easily overwatered. Temperature and Humidity Keep your dragon tree in their preferred warmer temperatures of between 70°F and 80°F. Regular household humidity should be fine for them, but if your house is particularly dry, you can consider misting the plant lightly from a spray bottle every few days. Fertilizer Feed a dragon tree lightly at the beginning of spring with a balanced controlled-release liquid fertilizer. Although they have a relatively low need for fertilizer and it is not an essential component to having a thriving plant, it can support new growth. Types of Dragon Tree Although there are several varieties of dragon tree, the most commonly found at plant stores (and used as household plants) include: Dracaena marginata 'Tricolor': This varietal has dark red margins, green leaves, and an ivory stripe down the leaf center. D. marginata 'Colorama': This dragon tree may appear to be completely pink, but it's actually variegated with white and green stripes. It will need very bright light to keep its unique colors. D. marginata 'Bicolor': True to its name, this dragon tree varietal has red and green stripes. Tips for Buying In-Store Check for pests. Look underneath leaves and along the stem to make sure no critters follow you home. Avoid plants with brown spots on leaves. Read the plant label. Make sure that this plant works for you, your lifestyle, and your space. Pruning It's perfectly normal for a dragon tree to self-shed dead leaves—just pick them up and discard them. To keep the plant trimmed and neat, remove leaves that look like they are about to fall off or cut back stems with sterile, sharp pruning shears to tidy up the tree. Sterilize your pruning tool with a clean rag doused in a common household item, such as rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, then rinse with water, and wipe the tool dry before using it on your plant. Pruning Tip No pruners? No problem! We've tested over 10 top-rated pruners to help you choose the right one for your comfort and personal needs—there's an option for everyone. Propagating Dragon Tree You can propagate your dragon tree using stem cuttings rooted in water. It's so easily done that the varietal is often used in dish gardens and readily propagated by nurseries and retailers. It's best to do this in the spring when the plant is growing vigorously. It takes just about three weeks for the cuttings to sprout roots, and using a rooting hormone isn’t necessary. Using a sterile, sharp scissor, cut a long length of stem that's about 8 inches. Remove any low-hanging leaves. Put the cutting in moistened potting soil. Place the cutting in bright, but indirect sunlight. Once new leaves have sprouted, you'll know the plant has grown some new roots, and you can care for the plant as usual. Potting and Repotting Dragon Tree Make sure to check your dragon tree at least once a year to see if it should be repotted into a bigger pot. Check the bottom of the container for roots coming through the drainage holes, which is a sign that the tree is root-bound and in need of a larger container. Choose a new pot with a diameter about 2 inches larger than its current container. Make sure that it has one or more drainage holes. Because these trees grow so slowly, they generally require repotting only every second—or even third—year. In the meantime, you can refresh the potting soil annually to replace any of the mixture that has become compacted. Planters for Dragon Tree Plants When checking your dragon tree plant annually, you'll likely have to size up a planter for repotting. Here are our favorite indoor planters to pick from. To prevent overwatering, you can also go with one of these self-watering planters. Common Pests Although they are fairly disease-resistant, dragon trees are susceptible to scale insects, mealybugs, and thrips.3 Mealybugs are easy to identify as they leave small, sticky, cottony deposits on the leaves of the tree. Dragon tree plants are also at risk of acquiring the common plant pest, spider mites.4 They tend to occur when temperatures are warm and the air is very dry; however, mites are very difficult to see until they have already damaged the plant. Pests to Watch If you spot any of these pests on your dragon tree, fight back with neem oil, insecticidal soap, or horticultural oil. Mix them with the recommended amount of water and spray on the leaves, stems, and soil. Common Problems with Dragon Tree While dragon trees are fairly easy to maintain, there are a few things to watch for. Leaves Falling Off Overwatering can cause the leaves of dragon trees to become yellow and fall off. These trees are sensitive to excessive moisture in their roots. To avoid this, check the soil regularly. If the top 2 inches of soil feel too wet, it's a sign that you may have gone too far with watering. Drooping Leaves If you notice the leaves of your dragon tree drooping, it could be a sign that the plant is thirsty. You should avoid waiting for the plant to dry out completely before watering it. If the lower leaves are drooping significantly more than the rest of the plant, it could be a symptom of root rot. To avoid any problems, also ensure that you are not over-watering the plant. Brown Leaves or Leaf Tips If the soil is too moist or too dry, dragon tree leaves may start to brown. Make sure you're striking the right balance when irrigating. Additionally, lack of humidity can lead to browning tips and eventual leaf loss. Improve humidity by placing the plant on a dish filled with pebbles and water or use a humidifier. If the plant develops brown tips on its leaves, that's usually a sign the water you're using has too much salt or fluoride, which can cause discoloration. Water your dragon tree with distilled or non-fluoridated water to avoid fluoride buildup. Crispy Leaves If you notice that the foliage on your dragon tree is crunchy, it could be a sign that the plant is receiving too much direct sunlight. When exposed to bright light, the leaves can curl and become crispy. Keep the plant in indirect sunlight or partial shade for best results. Yellowing Leaves In some instances, you may notice the leaves of your dragon tree turning yellow, which could be the result of too much direct sun. The leaves can scorch, become discolored, and start to droop.2 Move the plant to a spot receiving more indirect or filtered sun before excess light causes permanent damage. Yellowing leaves could also be a sign the plant needs more or less water. Make sure you strike the right balance.

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Gardening

This Is How Often You Should Really Deadhead Petunias for Healthier Blooms, According to Gardeners

Petunias are known for their vibrant, trumpet-shaped blooms and long flowering season, making them a staple in many home gardens. But to keep these colorful plants looking their best, regular maintenance is key, especially when it comes to deadheading. Removing spent flowers not only improves the plant’s appearance but also encourages more blooms throughout the season. So, how often do you really need to deadhead your petunias? We turned to gardening pros for the answer. Meet the Expert Julia Omelchenko is the resident botany expert at Plantum, a plant care and gardening app that helps identify plants and improve plant care. Kelly Funk is an experienced gardening expert and the President of Jackson & Perkins, an online plant nursery specializing in roses and other garden plants. Why Is Deadheading Important? When a plant’s flowers start to fade, it signals to the plant that it’s time to direct its energy into producing seeds. Deadheading disrupts this process and naturally extends the blooming season by removing the spent flower altogether, thereby redirecting the plant’s energy from seed production to producing more flowers. Not all flowering plants require deadheading, but many benefit from it, especially annuals like petunias. If you want your petunias to bloom all summer, deadheading is the way to do it. How Often Should You Deadhead Petunias? According to gardening pros, it’s best to deadhead petunias regularly to encourage more blooms and prevent them from going to seed. The frequency will vary slightly depending on your climate and the cultivar you have, but in general, you can expect to be deadheading your petunias at least once a week. “Ideally, petunias should be deadheaded at least once a week, but checking on them a few times a week is better, especially during peak bloom periods," says Kelly Funk, President of Jackson & Perkins. "I recommend making it part of your routine when watering or doing other tasks." Some petunia cultivars, such as Wave petunias and Supertunias, are bred to be self-cleaning, meaning they don’t require deadheading to encourage more blooms. Still, according to Julia Omelchenko, resident botany expert at Plantum, it’s best to prune these varieties occasionally to maintain their shape and stimulate vigorous growth. If deadheading your petunias multiple times a week sounds like a lot of work, we have good news for you: deadheading is super easy to do, and will only take you a couple of minutes to complete. The key is to ensure you’re doing it properly. How to Deadhead Petunias Deadheading involves removing the entire flower head once it starts to wilt. This includes the petals, the peduncle, and the receptacle. Basically, you want to remove the entire trumpet-shaped flower, including the green base that attaches it to the stem. This can be done by hand, or using sterilized scissors or pruning shears. “It’s important to deadhead properly by removing not just the petals but also the green base of the flower," Omelchenko says. "If you only pull off the petals, the plant will continue to produce seeds in the ovary." Additional Petunia Care Tips for Continuous Blooms Besides regular deadheading, there are a few other ways you can encourage your petunias to bloom all summer. Ensuring they have adequate light (full sun) and water (soil shouldn’t dry out completely) is the first step. Funk also recommends fertilizing your petunias every two weeks to help support vigorous growth. Finally, our experts say it’s common for petunias to start looking leggy by mid-summer, even if you’re deadheading regularly. To facilitate bushy growth, they recommend a light pruning to help tidy the plant. Not only will you be rewarded with fresh, compact growth, but you’ll also get a flush of new blooms.

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Home Decor

My Brother’s River House Guest Bath Reveal (+ Are Pony Walls Back?)

Another reveal of the rooms that are done in my brother’s house – this one being a really quiet, neutral bathroom that makes me want creamy beige everywhere and dare I say a pony wall (shout out to Max). This bathroom has a small footprint, off the mudroom near the family room, and will be used for guests and dirty kids from the river (probably not that frequently). It turned out really pretty, quiet, clean, and simple with high-quality materials and a timeless contemporary style (with a touch of PNW whimsy). As a reminder, here we are: The shaded pink area is where we are located in the house (right next to the also finished mudroom:)), and the layout of the bathroom is relatively classic and simple – small vanity, toilet, and shower. The layout was done by Anne Usher (then I came in, with Max Humphrey, to choose the finishes). Bathrooms are so hard to shoot (because they are small) but here you can see the whole space – the mix of tiles, the layout with this rather adorable pony wall, and simplicity in shapes and colors with a really nice contrast. As a lover of tile (and I LOVE these creamy tiles) we wanted to see them more instead of more glass, so we added this pony wall with the glass panel above it to help create a sense of a shower “room” and have more visual interest. I pitched this house to Kohler and Ann Sacks early on (3+ years ago), knowing that inventories run deep, quality is high, and we’d be able to make every bathroom feel custom and yet cohesive. So this bathroom is in partnership with Kohler so almost everything is from their many lines of plumbing, vanities, mirrors, and now lighting! And thank god their plumbing designs are so timeless because things change a lot in 3 internet years, but our choices still look really fresh and perfect for the house. The Plumbing We went with the Purist Faucet line and the Components handles. I love how clean and simple they are (but they look cool). We put the main handles to be reachable from outside the pony wall, further away from the shower so you don’t have to get drenched before you get in. For the tile, we chose the MADE Provencal for the walls in two different shapes, staggered them, and paired them with a really warm black hex on the floor. For a contemporary house (read: new build) we wanted to stay within the simple parameters of the home, but keep it warm, timeless, and use high-quality materials that wouldn’t date. But we didn’t want boring. So finding that balance between interest but not trendy felt really good in here. If you are a grout nerd (which I am – my GOODNESS it changes the look of a tile and room) we chose Dove Gray for the floor, lighter than the tile but not too bright, and Oyster Gray for the walls. The wall grout added depth and brought out the pattern, without making it too busy and we triple obsessed about the tones of the grout to make sure they had the right level of warmth without being too “brown”. The Vanity For the vanity side, we chose the 36″ Winnow Vanity which is a super transitional style (i.e. can be classic or contemporary). It comes with the stone countertop which makes life so easy (one order and done) and for a guest bath I like to break up the bulkiness and have a shelf at the bottom). This color is mostly black but has a slight blue hue as you can see in the photos. The mirror is a simple pill-shaped called “The Essential Mirror”, which they sell in so many different styles and finishes and works so well with all the shapes in here – it contrasts the squareness of the vanity and calls back to the shape and finish of the faucet. The sconces are part of Kohler’s newer line called “Jabot” and have a really creamy, oyster-like color which we really liked with the tile and wallpaper. We flanked the mirror with two double sconces (they have single sconces, too) and a semi-flush light fixture that matches. The faucet is part of the Components line which I LOVE – there are a lot of different faucet and handle styles to choose from, again making it easy to customize in a way that you know will look good together. These knobs are easy to twist on and off, hot and cold (obviously), and look so unfussy and simple. The Natural Light And A Window Around 3 pm the light in here gets so dreamy that we had to capture it. There is a window in the shower that floods the room with reflection and brings out all the gloss and texture in the tile. It’s soooo beautiful. The Tile Pattern Max Humphrey and I played around with the tile pattern, wanting it to feel staggered and yet random and the tile installer totally got it. I was nervous about some of the lines being too close or not looking random enough but they did a great job. The Wallpaper Once again I chose a wallpaper that in person is so perfect, warm and fun to look at but it’s so hard to see in photos. It is QUIET. It’s a Nordic treescape in all of our neutral colors. It brought so much to the room, without adding any busyness or style contrast. We did end up adding wallpaper to now 5 of the spaces in this home and almost all of them have this nature element that brings together the contemporary vibe of the house with the sense of a young fun family. There she is:) It’s a bathroom that people see the most right now and it’s undeniably lovely to be in. The light, airy quality mixed with the high contrast faucets and tile creates a neutral yet interesting bathroom that is totally timeless. The resources are below. A huge thanks to Anne Usher, Sierra Custom Construction, and Max Humphrey for all the work on this project.

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Fashion & Beauty

The 4 Active But CUTE Swimsuits I Bought To Play With My Kids On Spring Break (+ Our Favorite Past Swimsuit Posts)

It’s that special time of year (ha) – our tans aren’t on yet (well, they are for some of us LOL) and we usually aren’t as “ready” in all the ways we want to be, but alas swimsuit season is upon and we should feel great regardless. I mean it’s about to be warm and we can be outside as much as we want! Every year we do swimsuits post with different body sizes, preferences, price points, etc – but all driven by what we feel really good in because if you don’t, you won’t wear them. It’s not easy but when you have one you love it makes spring/summer life so much easier and is such a confidence boost. I have some new ones that I bought specifically for our Belize trip which was very, very active (think more spelunking and kayaking than cute beach outfits). So below you’ll find what I bought and wore for those purposes. I wore this rashguard suit no less than 6 times over the 10 days because the Caribbean sun was so hot on my fair flesh and reapplying sunscreen was its own full-time job (and not great for the water). And while the princess sleeves might be too cutesy for a lot of people, I’m telling you – this suit is FLATTERING. I had it in blue stripes (til I burst the zipper after wearing it 20 times) and in rainbow (which is admittedly a bit toddler-esque but I wore it during Pride month a lot). I don’t love the belt they sell with it, but if you are into belted suits that’s an add-on. So I just bought the red and love it. The other two styles had a bra shelf for support and this one didn’t, but I had already bought their matching red bikini top to go underneath it (shown in the photo). It’s a compression suit, meaning that it has 2-3 layers that hold you IN without being uncomfortable (I’m wearing a small). It is very smoothing and shows no little bumps and diminishes pouches if that’s of interest to you (it is for me). Yes, they are so expensive and I wish they weren’t. But I wore this suit snorkeling then to the pool then to lunch then to dinner, with swimshorts or those lightweight jean shorts – I lived in it. And I felt really cute and protected all day. 10/10 (but wish this one had the support shelf, TBD). OK. This is another magical suit from TA3 that frankly, makes your body look really hourglass-y (without the corset back). I wore this A LOT which Brian was thrilled about, LOL. I’m wearing a small and the bust is a bit small, but still fits (these TA3 suits are made for curvier gals to enhance and tuck, and boy do they work). If you have smaller love pillows you might not want this type of constriction nor will it be as figure-flattering. But for curvier ladies, it’s been game-changing. They also have long or short torso options. My only beef with this company is that I want less crazy bright colors. This comes in black which I’m going to buy as well after wearing and loving this one so much in Belize. Oh, and it’s a medium-rise in the leg which is so flattering and doesn’t cut in at all (but is a little bit cheeky in a good way). I would have shot it that way for this post but I had yet to get waxed before my trip, so… This one-piece is also a compression suit from Stylest and I love the square neck and the white stripes. I ended up wearing this one only once because I think I need to size up (this is a small) so I was spilling over the top a lot, and not in a good way. So I wish I had bought the medium instead (and still might). It also cuts in a bit around the thigh (low cut) but I think that’s due to being a bit too small. Ah, the famous Andie Malibu swimsuit. Five of my friends have this suit because it’s so easy to wear, comfortable, supportive (it has a shelf), and looks like a tank top so it is the best “around town on vacation” suit in case you should want to jump in (which we did). I wore this cave tubing, kayaking in the mangroves, and in town a bunch (as well as at the pool/beach). I would love a brighter blue version or stripes on it. It’s definitely my go-to in Portland for the hot tub, too. HUGE fan (and ready for some new colors!) 5 Non-Model Women Tested Summersalt’s Swimsuits – Here Are Their Reviews (And No Photoshopping, Ever) If you want to see the results of the most fun and empowering shoot of all time then click on this one. I love these women so much and was so grateful and proud that we all decided to cheer each other while modeling these really great swimsuits. Not every suit 100% worked for everyone so we give our honest reviews. Unphotoshopped Women Honestly Review Summersalt’s 3 Bestselling Swimsuits This post was our first Summersalt review post where we got to include a couple of our wonderful contributors. Again, always honest and never any photoshopping! Where To Buy ALL The Best Swimsuits (Affordable, Black Owned, AND Size-Inclusive) – Because I’ve Been Heavily Insta-Marketed, Believe Me Not all of our swimsuit posts still have the suits available but we did a post about 27 different swimwear brands that you can shop from if you are looking for some new options! Another Swimsuit Review: This Time On 27 Different Women With Different Bodies & Swimwear Needs This post is one of those that likely a lot of the suits aren’t available but I wanted to include it in this post because we did a reader call out where we asked if anyone had any swimsuit recommendations. They would just need to take a photo of them in their suit, write a little blurb, and then I would of course pay them since I know how vulnerable it can be putting yourself on the internet in a swimsuit. But wow were we blown away by these beautiful women! If you want a feel-good post as we enter swimsuit season, this is a great one. Hope this was helpful on the swimsuit search journey this year.

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