Southern Gardening

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If you would like to give your garden a festive fall atmosphere, then find a prominent place to put in ornamental peppers. Their blooms are not noteworthy, but varieties like Sweet Pickle and Garda Tricolore have fruit that will show off like Christmas lights.

Ornamental peppers are one of the plants that leap off the garden center shelves this time of the year. If you love them in the fall, try growing them all season.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

'Trumpets and Daggers' is what I call one of the more unusual plant combinations we’ve created at Mississippi State University’s Truck Crops Experiment Station. It is always on striking display this time of year.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The vegetable garden looks to be “Sweet ‘n’ Neat” next year, thanks to some new varieties of tomatoes by that very name.

More and more urban dwellers are joining in the latest trend of growing their own produce, and tomatoes are the No. 1 choice of those growing edibles.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Given the recent economic conditions, there has been a lot of talk of “bean counters.” It was no different at the Hot to Trot Pot Competition in Hattiesburg. Beans were literally counted, and a kaleidoscope of colorful succulents earned the most.

The Mississippi Nursery and Landscape Association created the first Hot to Trot Pot Competition at this year’s Hattiesburg Garden and Patio Show, a friendly competition showcasing Mississippi’s best mixed container designers.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Red is a color that many gardeners want in the landscape but find very difficult to use successfully. The secret, however, may lie in your accent features.

It seems strange to think that red may be hard to use. There are red roses, red zinnias, red petunias and scores of other red flowers, but if you place them near each other, a wave of nausea may sweep over you.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

“Simply unbelievable” is how I would describe the new Fireworks gomphrena. Gomphrena, sometimes called globe amaranth or bachelor’s button, is already considered a tough plant and you would think it would be hard to improve on it, but Fireworks is like none other.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

We count on tropical plants to be the stalwart landscape performers when August heat rolls in, and one you need to consider is an elephant ear named Elena. In case you haven’t noticed, elephant ears have changed; in addition to their big, coarse or bold-textured foliage, they offer exciting color, too.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Gardeners can rejoice because there are two great new choices for yellow zinnias in the landscape: Zahara is available now, and gardeners can buy Profusion next year.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

In the South, I hear people referring every now and then to snow in July. Of course we rarely get snow even in the winter, and it sure doesn’t fall in July, but we can have the illusion of snow with a new plant called Snow Princess.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If you love hummingbirds, then let the Royal Purple Queen reign in your garden.

Many people have a renewed passion to create a “backyard wildlife habitat,” and I am regularly asked if certain plants will attract hummingbirds. While natives are naturals in this setting, there are some stalwart performers from other countries that make it fun to garden. One such plant is the Royal Purple Queen.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Hey, Tiger, there’s a new Blonde in town, and she’s a real looker. I’m neither joking nor talking about girls, but I am referring to two of the hottest ferns in the gardening world.

The Tiger fern has been climbing steadily in popularity, but the competition just got a lot tougher thanks to the Blonde. If you are a fern lover, then you will delight in having both.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The Black Thai banana was one of the most sought-after bananas at the early spring Mississippi Garden and Patio Shows. If you were like me, you missed the chance to grab one for yourself. My friend Barbara Harvey in Kosciusko did not miss out on the opportunity to brighten up her landscape with this banana.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

After three years, I am hooked on the New Guinea-type impatiens series called SunPatiens. The heat over the past few weeks has made gardening a real struggle. But every day, I pull into the driveway next to SunPatiens putting on a show.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Red Emperor ginger is one of those plants people treasure even if it never blooms. I did not know much about this plant but received a cluster of them from my daughter, who had been using them as a thriller plant in a mixed container for a special event.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

It’s easy to love Shasta daisies, but when they look like shredded coconut on top of round cupcakes, they seem good enough to eat.

Last week we filmed a Southern Gardening segment in Mississippi’s hot Delta at the Wister Gardens in Belzoni. It’s called The Delta’s Garden, but the readers of Mississippi Magazine recently honored Wister as Mississippi’s Best Garden.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Many of us who live in Mississippi’s heat have wished for geraniums with blooms as tough as our summers, and we finally have Caliente and Calliope to make life more enjoyable.

Each year when I visit the big flower trials in California, I drive from San Diego to San Jose. I get green with envy seeing the ivy geraniums growing almost like weeds along the more than 700 miles I travel between these cities.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

At this time of year, you could plunk me down in a woodland setting surrounded by hydrangeas and I would be in total bliss. I love all types of hydrangeas, including the most elegant of all: the lacecap.

Each year I get three or four calls, emails or letters asking what went wrong with a hydrangea because it did not form a large, mophead shape. Sadly, these gardeners aren’t enjoying the exquisite beauty of this particular type of bigleaf hydrangea.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Move over Red Abyssinian, there is a new banana in town – the Siam Ruby. Siam Ruby showed up at garden and patio shows and local garden centers last year, and quickly found favor with tropical plant nuts like me.

Before I go further, please know I am still a fan of the Red Abyssinian. It is just that the Siam Ruby is so colorful, you can’t pass it up. The trunk and leaves of this exotic tropical are burgundy with irregular iridescent lime green variegation in the foliage.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Spring landscapes with azaleas, rhododendrons, dogwoods and redbuds look simply incredible. But as magnificent as these landscapes are, they are not complete without the addition of a Japanese maple with its lacy, fern-like foliage.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The clematis looks like it was created for royalty, but in my area it’s the preferred mailbox bloomer. We have plenty of mandevillas and confederate jasmine, but in the end, the real winner in the popularity game is the clematis.