A plant that grows without soil… sounds impossible, right? Not so. Air plants actually grow and thrive without soil as their leaves absorb water and airborne or waterborne nutrients. Air plants need constant air circulation to keep them happy. They also need some moisture through daily or weekly misting, depending on how dry your climate is.

With little maintenance required, these plants look great alone or in air-plant terrariums. Here’s what several local landscapers had to say about air plants.

Roses always have been special to the Missouri Botanical Garden. When first establishing the Missouri Botanical Garden, founder Henry Shaw wrote a book in 1882 dedicated to the emblem of his native England, “The Rose.” He wrote, “Human art can neither colour nor describe so fair a flower.” [Its] beauty is composed of all that is exquisite and graceful.”

Four years ago when Mark Kalk set out to create the garden that would surround his Lafayette Square home, he found himself between a rock and a hard place. Literally. He and his partner Mark Lammert had just purchased four parcels of empty land grouped together to create a .3-acre site. On that space they planned to design and construct a new home in the style of the surrounding historic homes and a garden that would complement the beauty of the house. Following in the footsteps of both his father and grandfather, who were avid gardeners, the landscaping of the property fell to Mark Kalk.

A visit to the Ruth Palmer Blanke Boxwood Garden virtually transports visitors to another time and place, as the meticulous plantings display the Missouri Botanical Garden’s outstanding collection of boxwood. There are 60 unique varieties of boxwood in the Boxwood Garden, which have the reputation of being difficult to grow in the Midwest. Boxwoods have been valued in gardens for thousands of years, from the “pleasure gardens” of ancient Persia and the landscapes of Greece and Rome, to the formal gardens of Europe.

Dot your landscape with potted plants and flowers in beautiful planters. Colorful and decorative, planters add an extra touch of style to your yard.

one: Versatile wide opening planter, available at Greenscape Gardens and Gifts.

two: Colorful ceramic planter, available at SummerWinds Nursery.

three: Blue scalloped top planter, available at Sugar Creek Gardens.

The Shaw Nature Reserve (SNR) encompasses 2,400 acres of natural Ozark landscape, breathtaking Meramec River frontage, and an extraordinary diversity of native plant and animal habitats. The Missouri Botanical Garden founded the Shaw Nature Reserve, formerly known as Shaw Arboretum, in 1925 when coal smoke in St. Louis threatened the living plant collections at the Garden. The orchid collection was moved to the Reserve in 1926, but pollution in the city abated before it was necessary to move the entire plant collection.