CORVALLIS – It’s discouraging when your lettuce bolts or you can’t get your mum to bloom. There’s a reason for that, and it’s all about day length, which determines or how much light the plant gets.

When the winter solstice occurred Dec. 21, we experienced the day of the year with the shortest period of light and the longest period of darkness. We all know that the length of days and nights ...

Question: In various articles you have described plants as long-day, short-day and day-neutral. Was that a reference to the number of hours of sunlight? How do plants respond to changes in day length?

It's that time of year again when the days are becoming shorter. Daylight Saving Time ended on Sunday and for many of us, that means dark commutes home and cold, long nights. For plants, it means less ...

Have you ever heard the word Photoperiodism and, if so, do you know what it means? Photoperiodism is the effect of the relative length of daylight exposure upon the growth and flowering (reproduction) ...

One sure sign that fall is near is garden centers beginning to fill with beautiful chrysanthemums — better known as mums. If you haven’t spotted them yet, you likely will soon. Mums aren’t all hype; ...

Now is a good time for us to consider how light changes in our gardens in winter. The light an area of your landscape receives can vary tremendously from season to season. The amount of light a plant ...

Just go to any garden center this time of year and the impulse aisles will be full of plants that can be given as gifts. Rarely do these plants come with instructions and often don’t make it long past ...

Surprise! Today is National Poinsettia Day in the United States. During just a few short weeks in November and December, Americans will buy more than 35 million of the bright beauties. Sales figures ...