Southern Gardening

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

One of the hottest plants at last year's garden and patio shows in Mississippi was the Senetti Blue pericallis. The blue is truly electrifying.

The Senetti Blue has a wonderful fragrance, but it is the rare shade of blue that has everyone mesmerized.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Container gardening has exploded in popularity with about 47 percent of American households admitting to using some form of it.

There are a lot of great reasons to garden in containers, in addition to the fun. Compared to fighting tight, heavy clay in the landscape, it's also easier to provide a good environment when it comes to soil or planting mixes for your plants.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Few people recognize the plant name tradescantia, but most people are familiar with spiderwort, Purple Heart, Wandering Jew, Moses-in-the-cradle, Three-men-in-the-boat and Moses-in-the-bulrushes, which are all tradescantia. Now add Sweet Kate to the list of must-have tradescantias.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If you are looking to add some character to your shade garden, then you must add the leopard plant to your mix. This terrific plant is still mostly unknown to gardeners, but new varieties are popping up that are simply irresistible.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The lilac chaste tree, or vitex, was chosen as a Mississippi Medallion award winner in 2002, spurring a revival of this great, old-fashioned plant, which some consider a small tree and others describe as a large shrub.

Known botanically as Vitex agnus-castus, the lilac chaste tree is a marvel with its small structure and large, marijuana-looking leaves. Its fragrant, blue blooms are rare among trees.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

When spring arrives and gardeners start trying to jazz up the landscape with color, many will look for long-lasting color so they won't have to change out plant material a couple of times before fall. If that is your goal, too, I would like to heartily recommend the Astoria and Intensia series of phlox.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The Mexican petunia, or ruellia, is getting more popular with each growing season, and I give a hearty “amen.” One thing that surprised me is how it has crossed from home to commercial landscapes. Most of the time, commercial landscape plants create a frenzy with homeowners.

As you pace the aisles of your garden center this spring, wondering what to plant for color and what to choose as a partner, think about the iridescent blue from the Mexican petunia.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

More and more homeowners are sticking herbs or vegetables in their flower borders so they can snip a few leaves or flowers for culinary purposes. With that in mind, I've got another plant for everyone to consider.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

As you contemplate what plants to try when winter has finally run its course, let me recommend using a lot of colorful foliage. There are amazing choices available today in both leaf color and texture.

In our Mississippi State University trials last year, two coleuses attracted quite a bit of attention. Both were planted in full sun, but they would do equally well in filtered light.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

As we enter the New Year, most of us have planted everything we are going to plant until spring, making this a time for reflecting on how things went the past growing season and to plan for next year's flower border.

Last summer, we were filming our Southern Gardening TV news segment at a site with beautiful bedding plants. If I made a poster of the photo I took and put a title on the picture, it would be something like “Adjectives and Accolades.”

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Once a year, the horticulturists from Mississippi State University travel around to see how the nursery industry is doing and brainstorm how we can help. While touring Mynelle Gardens in Jackson, an old spotted aucuba caught my eye.

Mynelle Gardens is undergoing restoration, and you can see exciting plans being put into place everywhere. If you've never been there, think about making a trip to the gardens this spring during the azalea and dogwood season.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Sometimes we take for granted native plants and forget about the outstanding attributes they bring to the landscape. One example is the parsley-leaved hawthorn.

My office is located at Hinds Community College, and the campus here is a virtual arboretum. Every tree and shrub looks as though it was part of a plan, and winter color from berry-producing plants was definitely in the design.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The Bright Lights have finally come on in the landscape. Kind of catchy, isn't it? This outstanding, award-winning Swiss chard is being planted in cool-season landscapes everywhere -- from homes to office buildings and even the mall.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

A new foliage plant called Cardoon is sweeping the South in popularity, and it's being used extensively in Mississippi. We've been growing this perennial for a couple of years at Mississippi State University's Truck Crops Experiment Station in Crystal Springs.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

When we were filming a Christmas Southern Gardening TV segment on cyclamen, we should not have been hit with spring fever, but that is what happened to us in November 2006.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

No tree can paint a picture in the landscape quite like the Ginkgo biloba. I recently wrote about the Autumn Blaze red maple and how its fiery scarlet oranges were lighting up landscapes, and now it's the Ginkgo tree's turn.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Once again I am surprised by the fall leaf color, especially after the drought across so much of the region. Native hickories are showing outstanding golden orange color, but the stalwart performer in many landscapes is the Autumn Blaze red maple.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

With cold weather arriving and the holiday season nearly upon us, I could write about fall leaf color or cool season flowers, but I cannot pass up the opportunity to tell you about Blue Fortune agastache.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Colorful, cool-season containers near the front door or entryway serve as welcoming beacons to friends and visitors coming our way this fall and during the holiday season.

I just returned from speaking at the 19th annual Southern Garden Symposium in St. Francisville, La., where historic homes were accented with colorful flower containers. The landscapes all had incredible form and texture from evergreen trees, shrubs and groundcovers.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Flowering kale and cabbage are starting to show up in garden centers everywhere along with the other cool-season flowers. There still seems to be a little perceived mystery about using these plants for their colorful foliage in the landscape.

Your first question might be, “How cold tolerant are they?” The Chicago Botanic Garden has seen them survive minus 10 degrees.