Flower Gardens
Annuals and perennials spice the landscape with their colorful flowers and foliage. Beds of color provide brilliant accents against backgrounds of permanent plantings, soften man-made lines, and provide graceful transitions from one outdoor area to another. Flowers can be used to catch the eye, accent a view, frame a door, or just draw attention to their own blooms.
Annual plants
Annual plants are practical in that they are versatile, sturdy, and inexpensive. They quickly yield color for one long season.
Perennial plants
Perennial plants return year after year. They fit into many landscapes and can be used in borders, as accents, or as strong focal points. The foliage of many perennials is attractive during nonflowering seasons as well.
Roses
Where noted, much of the content of this area was taken from an Extension short course, Growing and Enjoying Roses in Mississippi, presented in the spring of 2007.- Control Fire Ants in Your Yard
- Crafting with Roses*
- Insect Pests of Roses
- Other Sources of Information on Roses*
- Propagating Plants For The Home Landscape
- Pruning/Deadheading*
- Pruning Diagrams*
- Recommended Roses for Mississippi Gardens (slides)
- Recommended Roses for Mississippi Gardens (text)
- Rose Propagation
- Site Selection, Bed Preparation and Planting of Roses
- Spicy Rose Potpourri*
- Suggested Roses for Landscape Uses*
- Techniques and Tips for Growing Good Roses
- Using Roses in the Landscape*
- Watering and Plant Disease
Content for parts of this section comes from Extension Publication #P1826 - Annual & Perennial Flowers For Mississippi Gardens and *where noted, from a rose short course, Growing and Enjoying Roses in Mississippi, presented in the spring of 2007 by the MSU Extension Service.
Publications
News
Weeds are often defined as being any plant out of place, but that definition never sat well with me. This simplistic definition seems to emphasize the aggressiveness of plants that don’t behave in the garden. For example, I’ve never heard anyone having problems with hydrangeas popping up in the landscape unexpectedly.
I’m a fan of whatever plants happens to be in bloom at any given time, but sunflowers are definitely one of my top five favorites, especially for use in arrangements. Last summer, I decided I wanted to have sunflowers every week until frost.
Daffodils can be pulled up when the leaves turn completely yellow by tugging on the foliage. (Photo by MSU Extension)
For a few short weeks, daffodils grace the planet with their beauty and remind us of warm weather right around the corner.
Azaleas are starting to produce their beautiful flowers in my landscape, and it is a welcome sight after a few months of cold weather. Like many of your azaleas, mine had some tender, new growth that suffered cold damage from the freezing temperatures we got last December. I hope you did the right thing and did not do any pruning to your azaleas yet.
It’s time once again to clean those hummingbird feeders and cook up the sugar water. In Mississippi, we can set our feeders out in early March as hummingbirds are migrating north from southern climes. Providing food in backyards is important, as these birds need to consume half their body weight each day.
Success Stories
When teachers and administrators at Leland School Park began taking steps to install a school garden in 2019, they had no idea they would get a first-of-its-kind outdoor classroom.
The annual Christmas Cactus Showcase in Brooksville each December features anywhere from 45 to 60 colorful cacti, most of which are under the year-round care of Pat Hill.
Popular post
Hummingbird migration information reached more than 400,000 on Facebook, thanks to this post highlighting the featured Extension for Real Life blog post.
Nursery using Extension publications to host workshops, reach new customers
Business continues to blossom at Jackson Farms in Bassfield, and one reason may be because the family-owned nursery connects with its clientele in ways that its big-box competition does not.
Celebrating Arboretum Excellence
The Mississippi State University Crosby Arboretum in Picayune received the 2016 Garden Excellence Award from the American Public Gardens Association.
