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Southern Gardening

The snowball viburnum produces 6- to 8-inch glistening white blossoms. While three or four flowers would make a dramatic statement, the Chinese snowball produces them by the scores.
March 31, 2005 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

It won't be long now until landscapes across the state are alive with color. Certainly the azalea will be putting on its usual show, but so will the 2005 Mississippi Medallion Award-winning Chinese snowball viburnum.

There are a lot of good viburnums, but with its white, snowball-like flowers, the Chinese snowball (Viburnum macrocephalum) is the showiest. This plant is always for sale but in small quantities, rarely meeting demand.

Flower beds will come ablaze when Profusion Fire zinnias are mass planted.
March 24, 2005 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The best group of landscape zinnias, the Profusion series, just got better thanks to two new varieties: Fire and Apricot.

The Profusion series put zinnias back in the mainstream garden of America. The Cherry, Orange and White each earned the All-America Selections Gold Medal award. The Profusion series is disease-resistant and blooms from spring until frost. The Fire and Apricot varieties look to have the same superior performance.

Red verbena and lantana join with geraniums to create an inspiring display of mixed plants.
March 17, 2005 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist

Geraniums were among the showiest plants at the recent Jackson Garden and Patio Show. Exhibits had just about every color and kind you could want, including scented ones. Judging from the carts going out the door, they were a hit with the shoppers, too.

Large containers of geraniums welcomed visitors to front doors in landscapes all over the state last year. Whether a container is all geraniums or mixed with other spring-bloomers, these are showy flowers that can be admired from a great distance.

Grow a variety of textures and shapes to add interest to a container. Try large, spiky plants in the center, followed by another layer and then those that cascade or tumble over the rim.
March 10, 2005 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Designing mixed containers has become a frenzied passion nationwide, and I have to admit I'm hooked, too. Nothing can liven up a porch, patio or deck like a large container filled with several species of blooming flowers.

Part of the appeal of mixed containers is that they allow those of us with cement-like soil to grow beautiful bouquets with ease. There are hardly any rules to container gardening, but good drainage is of paramount importance.

Among the hottest plants in the United States this spring is the new Kong coleus. While the demand may make it hard to find, the easiest opportunity to grab some will be the Jackson Garden and Patio Show.
March 3, 2005 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Red-leafed bananas and citrus of all sorts were among the hottest plants at the Gulf Coast Garden and Patio Show in Biloxi.The Jackson Garden and Patio Show has expanded to three days, March 11-13, and looks to have jaw-dropping displays as well as highly sought-after plants.

The Japanese Magnolia, also called saucer magnolia or tulip magnolia, features flowers that may reach 6 inches across in shades of pink to dark purple. The saucer magnolias pictured here provide a beautiful setting for the state Capitol.
February 24, 2005 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Look around and you will quickly spot the old and still wonderful heirlooms we prize in today's garden. Mississippi and much of the South provide some outstanding old homesteads with long-standing plants announcing spring's arrival.

The hybrid tea, like this Love & Peace, is the most popular rose for its form, beauty and cutting ability.
February 17, 2005 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

It's rose-planting time all over the South, and garden centers are loaded with just about every type under the sun -- hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras, shrub roses, climbers, antiques, English roses and many others.

The sprays of yellow blossoms opening up on this Mahonia signal that, groundhog or no, spring is right around the corner.
February 10, 2005 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

I was at an office complex last week when I noticed the Mahonias right outside the door were just beginning to open up their sprays of yellow blossoms. It's like a signal, groundhog or no, that spring is around the corner.

From my perspective, the Mahonia deserves a place in the landscape similar to a piece of statuary: as an accent near the front door or just off the patio. I also have seen very nice mass plantings.

Thousands of star-shaped blooms show out against the dark green leaves of the Kousa dogwood.
February 3, 2005 - Filed Under: Trees

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Last year I was giving a program in Oxford and just outside the building on campus was the most beautiful Kousa dogwood in full bloom. I muttered to myself that if everyone could see it, they would know why I put it high on my list.

Growing fresh produce can be as simple and fun as growing a basket of cabbage, cherry tomatoes or this lettuce hanging basket.
January 27, 2005 - Filed Under: Vegetable Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Despite recent weather ups and downs -- by the time you read this, the temperature may be 75 or 17 degrees -- be assured that planting time is not too far away. Consider planting in containers this season for a fun, new gardening experience.

Garden centers are getting in fresh flower selections that can help add a little color to dried-out landscapes.
January 20, 2005 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Blame it on last fall's warm weather, but I procrastinated and simply did not plant cool season flowers. My pentas, Joseph's coats and Mexican heather looked good almost until Christmas.

Perhaps you, too, had salvias, lantanas, verbenas or some other perennials that will return next spring but now look a little like tumbleweeds in the soil. We can correct this color deficiency fairly quickly.

Not all winter landscape appeal comes from colorful bark. The weeping mulberry may be unsurpassed in beauty because once its leaves have dropped, it reveals its fantastically twisted and gnarled branches.
January 13, 2005 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

There is so much to enjoy and see in the winter garden once trees and shrubs have been stripped bare of foliage. The dormant season reveals whether or not we planned for form and structure in our gardens.

Very early in the season, Miss Mary Mary offers single-petalled, small, gold blooms on 12- to 17-inch stems. Then fluffy, double-petalled blooms begin appearing with increasing number on repeat bloom scapes throughout the summer and until frost.
January 6, 2005 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The All-American Daylily Selection Council recently announced the 2005 additions to its growing family of winners. Red Volunteer, a striking crimson, is the 2005 winner in the exhibition category. Miss Mary Mary, a petite gold, won in the landscape category.

Knock Out's fluorescent, cherry-red blooms begin in spring and continue to provide color until the first frost. During the winter months, orange-red rose hips provide added winter interest.
December 30, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

At the Midsouth Greenhouse Growers Conference, a speaker told of a recent rose introduction that was surprising everyone with its non-stop blooming and apparent tolerance, if not resistance, to the cursed black spot. What was this knock-out rose? It was Knock Out, a 2000 All-America Rose Selections winner.

In a gardening world dominated by a sea of green, well-placed pockets of plants with silver and gray leaves is ever so striking, like in this planting of Sweet Alyssum and Dusty Miller.
December 23, 2004 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

When choosing plants for borders this spring, strive to vary heights and leaf textures, and don't overlook plants with gray foliage.

In a gardening world dominated by a sea of green, well-placed pockets of plants with silver and gray leaves is ever so striking. We have choices here from perennials, herbs and even shrubs.

The Crippsii can grow to around 20 feet tall, but most are in the 10-foot range. The golden-yellow foliage really looks incredible during cold, dreary winter weather.
December 16, 2004 - Filed Under: Trees

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

I recently attended a meeting in Lucedale at one of the nurseries that produce woody ornamentals. As I was walking across the field, I noticed some beautiful conifers with glowing golden foliage.

These gold, Christmas tree-shaped plants are known botanically as Chamaecyparis obtusa, or false cypress. The variety that is becoming more popular in the southeast is Crippsii.

DayDream is a low-growing, compact landscape shrub rose reaching just 2 feet in height. A unique color in the shrub category, the massive clusters of lightly scented, fuchsia-pink blooms will flower all summer long. Foliage is glossy, deep green and highly disease resistant. DayDream's moderate size and neat, round habit make it an appropriate choice for a variety of garden situations.
December 9, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Any mention of champions at this time of the year and everyone thinks about the Orange Bowl or some other football game. But the All-America Rose Selections Committee names champions every year, and they are not determined on a football field in Miami or even Pasadena.

The nonprofit All-America Rose Selections Committee looks for roses with traits like striking color, a profuse bloom, unparalleled disease resistance or an unbelievably sweet fragrance.

Get into the holiday spirit by heading to the outdoors and collecting things for an old-fashioned wreath. Harvest sprigs of greenery from an eastern red cedar or leyland cypress. Look for tallow tree seed clusters, magnolia leaves with fruit pods, pine cones, and holly and nandina berries.
December 2, 2004 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

To be perfectly honest, decorating for Christmas has never been high on my list. I know my family would like me to have a session with Dr. Laura, but then all of you would recognize my voice, which the TV crew already says is an embarrassment.

Known botanically as Brugmansia, Angel's Trumpets come from Ecuador, but they couldn't look more at home in Mississippi. The most beautiful of Angel's Trumpets reach 12 to 18 inches in length and make a statement in the landscape. Combine them with large bananas for a tropical appeal, or try them with Purple Hearts or red coleus like Burgundy Sun, New Orleans Red or Plum Parfait.
November 23, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The prolonged fall with no frosts has made this a banner year for Angel's Trumpets. It seemed those at the Truck Crops Experiment Station were a little behind others at first, but now I see these pre-holiday treasures everywhere.

The giant, trumpet-shaped flowers in apricot yellow, pink or white gracefully hang along branches in Mississippi landscapes as if waiting for Gabriel to choose one for an upcoming announcement.

Fall is a great time to plant Japanese maple trees. Bloodgood, like the one pictured here, is a popular selection and also a Mississippi Medallion award winner.
November 18, 2004 - Filed Under: Trees

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

This past weekend I was giving a program in Tuscaloosa and noticed the Japanese maples were starting to show their first hints of fall color. The trees were really healthy and exquisite in form.

Another great town for Japanese maples is Brookhaven, which may be the garden spot of our state. They not only have many lace-leaf or dissected types, but also some of the oldest non-dissected Japanese maples.

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