News

The Fall Flower and Garden Festival at Mississippi State University’s Truck Crops Experiment Station in Crystal Springs is one of the best horticulture field days in the Southeast. Come Oct.15 and 16 for free fun for the entire family. There will be a lot to see for everyone from garden novices to Master Gardeners.

The 3-acre garden site will showcase a great selection of tough roses, ornamental grasses like the native Gulf Coast muhly grass, tropical plants, and fall vegetables and herbs.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University researchers added two rice varieties this year to the university’s growing list of intellectual property holdings that generate revenue and benefit consumers.

As a major research institution, MSU holds a number of commercially valuable patents and other forms of intellectual property protections.

This summer, researchers at MSU’s Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville released a new conventional rice variety named Rex. They also submitted a Clearfield variety to a company for potential commercial release.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Demand for Mississippi peanuts could be up because of season-long production problems in Georgia and Alabama.

“Peanut crops in the central areas of Georgia and Alabama are hurting,” said Malcolm Broome, executive director of the Mississippi Peanut Growers Association. “If our farmers can get the crop out, they may see some price improvement because of the anticipated decreases in supply.”

By Justin Ammon
Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station

MISSISSIPPI STATE – In 1999, a Madison boy lay bed-ridden for more than two weeks, and breathing treatments, inhalers and bronchitis medication all failed to treat his mysterious flu-like symptoms and high fever.

“It was just a total energy drain,” said Joe Short, the once-sick junior high student who graduated from Mississippi State University last spring with a degree in marketing.

PRAIRIE -- Mississippi beef producers can fine-tune their forage-fed operations with information offered at an Oct. 22 workshop in Monroe County.

The Forage-Fed Beef Workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mississippi State University’s Prairie Research Unit.

Program topics include forage systems for pasture-finished beef, current forage-fed research, cattle buying decisions, selling and marketing, and the benefits of forage-fed beef. All beef producers are invited to attend the free workshop. Lunch will be provided.

PICAYUNE – Music lovers and plant enthusiasts are invited to enjoy blues and jazz music during Crosby Arboretum’s fall plant sale.

As part of the Crosby Arboretum music series, Jackson native Latongya Garner will perform a blend of traditional blues and jazz at 1 p.m. on Oct. 9.

I firmly believe that many of our flowering landscape plants are only a step or two away from being weeds growing in a ditch. But goldenrod is an exception. Can you believe some gardeners are intentionally growing goldenrod?

Most folks recognize goldenrod growing wild when they see the explosion of golden color late in the summer, just before the temperatures start to decrease in the fall.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Hurricane Katrina hit Mississippi’s horticulture hard, but the current economic conditions could be even more devastating to this important green industry.

Mengmeng Gu, assistant professor of ornamental horticulture for Mississippi State University’s Extension Service, said nurseries and greenhouse businesses are experiencing different challenges.

By Katelyn Byrne
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi 4-H youth are teaming up with other groups to protect the state’s water resources through the Adopt-A-Stream Mississippi program.

Laura Giaccaglia, Bolivar County Extension director and 4-H agent, said local 4-H’ers and volunteers have been inspired to protect the water supply in their own counties.

By Karen Templeton
MSU Ag Communications

BILOXI – Vera Ramsey’s yard in the St. Martin community was full of amaryllis, daylilies and azaleas, but she was most known for her chaste tree full of beautiful lilac blooms.

“For years, she had the only known chaste tree on that side of the Bay,” said Ramsey’s granddaughter, Lori Ramsey Massey of Latimer. “So many people would stop and admire what they called the ‘lilac tree.’ They’d always ask for a cutting.”

A garden itself is a form of personal expression, so what better way to say something about yourself than with garden art?

When we think of a garden, we often think of flowering annuals and perennials, foundation shrubs like hollies and Indian hawthorns, and small ornamental trees. But add a sculpture or homemade piece of art, and you start to bridge the gap between the gardener and the garden.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Local gardeners know fall has arrived when Mississippi State University’s horticulture club announces its annual fall plant sale.

This year’s sale will take place Oct. 1 from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. in the campus greenhouses behind Dorman Hall. The event is free and open to the public. A wide variety of flowering plants will be available such as chrysanthemums and pansies, as well as ornamental display options including pumpkins and corn stalks.

OXFORD – Representatives from small communities will get the chance to learn how to attract tourists by promoting their towns’ unique history, culture and charm at the annual Alabama-Mississippi Rural Tourism Conference Oct. 25-27.

The conference is sponsored by the Mississippi State University Extension Service, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, the Tennessee Tombigbee Tourism Association and other community and economic development entities.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The Mississippi State University Extension Service 4-H Youth Program received a $5,000 grant from the Monsanto Fund to support the 4-H cooperative business tour in 2011.

The annual 4-H Cooperative Business Leadership Conference is the reward given to senior level 4-H members who placed first in their state competitions at 4-H Congress. They are joined on this tour by the state awareness team members and the state 4-H Council officers.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – 2010 is shaping up to be a sweet year for Mississippi sweet potato growers, a total change from the rains that destroyed 75 percent of last year’s crop at harvest.

Benny Graves, sweet potato specialist with the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce’s Bureau of Plant Industry, summed the year up by saying the Vardaman sweet potatoes are back.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The number of non-Mississippians applying to Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine has more than doubled in three years as the total number of applications continues to grow, defying a national trend.

Dr. Rich Meiring is a professor in the Department of Pathobiology and Population Medicine and director of admissions for the college.

By Justin Ammon
Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station

MISSISSIPPI STATE — Sharon Hodge is not a social scientist, but as a Gulfport resident who stayed for two of the nation’s deadliest hurricanes -- Camille (1969) and Katrina (2005) -- she understands the type of person who chooses to tackle these mega storms.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Visitors to the South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station in Poplarville on Oct. 7 will have the chance to spend the day focusing on ornamental horticulture.

The 37th Annual Ornamental Horticulture Field Day will offer tours of the trial gardens at the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station branch. There will also be research updates from Mississippi State University and U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agriculture Research Service researchers.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – In many rural counties, gaining access to statistical data about local demographics, education and economics is difficult.

Communities need this data to make decisions, recruit employers, and prepare for the future, said Bo Beaulieu, director of the Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University. In response to this need for centralized information, the center has updated its Community Data Center, a resource that collects, manages, and presents statistical data organized by county.

After reading about ornamental vegetables several years ago, I became interested in expanding the selection of ornamental bedding plants in my landscape. Then I saw a planting of ornamental peppers.

I am a true “chili head” with a passion for hot peppers, and I have even made an apple and habanero wine. I have grown jalapeño, habanero and the like as bedding plants, as many of the extremely hot peppers produce very colorful fruit.