Southern Gardening

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The crisp, 58-degree mornings turn my thoughts to the planting season that is upon us. Once the summer heat lifts, a new gardening enthusiasm gets into the air, almost as much as during the spring.

During a program in Oxford last spring, I saw some unbelievable beds of pansies and tulips that I wish the entire state could have seen. Mississippians can grow tulips to rival anyone -- we simply treat them as annuals.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Sonrise was first, then came Samson (the perfect fall plant), and now Sonset is probably the prettiest lantana ever created. These are precious gifts from a divine creator, and developer Jim Covington will quickly give the glory where it is due.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Several landscapes in Kosciusko recently caught my eyes. This Mississippi town is not in the Tropics, but wandering into one back yard made me feel as though I were in the Balata Gardens of French Martinique. The plants that gave me the Caribbean feel were huge Black Magic elephant ears.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to see a planting of a Japanese sweet flag variety that absolutely mesmerized me. I shot photo after photo and never captured its beauty to my satisfaction.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Whether you want to call it a "spot of gold" or a "thread of gold," a new gardening trend will have you striking it rich. Your garden will be well rewarded with envious glances from your neighbors when you add plants the color of gold to your landscape.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Several new plants should make this fall a great one, and the newcomer that has everyone talking is the Amazon series of dianthus.

In our trials at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station in Crystal Springs, growers from several states were mesmerized by the size and beauty of these plants. It was the same at the Park Seed Trials in Greenwood, S.C., where the Amazon dianthus was the most photographed plant in the garden.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Several plants caught the eyes of growers from Mississippi and surrounding states who toured the flower trials during the recent Mid-South Greenhouse Growers' Conference at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station near Crystal Springs.

Silver Falls dichondra was one such stunning plant that offers a most unique, silver foliage.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

In just a few short weeks, many gardeners are going to be jealous of their neighbors simply because of ornamental grass.

Growing ornamental grass is a lot easier than you think. The first suggestion would be to make beds large enough that the grasses can reach their full potential in size and elegance.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Occasionally I am guilty of pronouncing a plant a failure without giving it a second year or a better garden location. I preach otherwise, but it still happens. Probably you would admit to making this mistake, too.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Yellow bells, or Gold Star esperanza, has become a hot plant in the past couple of years. As a testament to its showy nature, people are buying it despite not knowing much about it.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

As I drive around Mississippi this summer, it seems the old-fashioned scarlet sage is still the showiest plant in the garden. Scarlet sage is our annual salvia known botanically as Salvia splendens.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Wherever I've gone this summer -- the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Park Seed Trials in South Carolina, even the landscape at North Park Mall in Jackson -- the Magilla Perilla has performed wonderfully.

Magilla Perilla became famous before gardeners even got a chance to try it. It is the plant that has shoppers everywhere counting the days until it is available at local garden centers.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

It seems the gardening public has finally discovered the most beautiful banana in the world, the Red Abyssinian. This banana is not the least bit cold-hardy, but who cares when it grows like a rocket and makes a landscape statement from spring until the first frost in the fall?

The Red Abyssinian is known botanically as Ensete ventricosum Maurelii. Most of the bananas we grow are of the genus Musa.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The past couple of weeks have seen my woodland trails look like small, flowing tributaries of the Mississippi River. My dry creek has been flowing, and rain is still in the forecast.

What kind of plant can tolerate such wet conditions? I am so glad you asked because one of the most elegant and striking plants for boggy conditions or upland soil is the umbrella palm.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

A new vine in town this spring could change our landscape habits for a long time. The vine is called Blue Glory, known botanically as Thunbergia battiscombei.

We know thunbergias from the clock vine or black-eyed Susan vine Thunbergia alata and, of course, the Brazilian sky flower Thunbergia grandiflora.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Many gardeners want plants that will bloom all summer and right up until fall. The first option always seems to be New Gold lantana. Believe it or not, there is a tropical vine that will bloom until the first freeze as well. It is called Brazilian Jasmine, or Mandevilla.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

As you drive down Mississippi's highways and by-ways, don't lament that we don't fare well with blue bonnets, because this year our own wild phlox, coreopsis, Queen Anne's lace and Indian Pinks have been as pretty as a painting.

Another of my favorite wildflowers -- the black-eyed Susan -- is just starting to advertise its landscape attributes to all who pass by. Their roadside performance should be a clear signal they will work just as well in our yards.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

At a garden center recently, I saw one of the best buys in flowers just waiting for a good home. This plant was offered in feathery plumes, cockscombs or flowers resembling wheatears. You guessed it -- it was the celosia.

Originating in the tropics, the celosia produces flowers from summer through fall. Its ability to withstand drought and extremely hot temperatures should win it a Mississippi Medallion Award, a Georgia Gold Medal and every other honor in the South.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Who knows why I remember the Brylcream slogan, "A little dab'll do ya," or what the connection is in my mind to coleus? I'm thinking that a little dab of coleus may do, but the bigger the dab, the better.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Visitors fell in love with a previously loathed plant in a shade garden on the Gardens of Madison County tour.

While some gardeners think of oxalis as a tough plant to kill or eradicate, they also should consider the beauty of the purple oxalis. Purple oxalis has large, triangular leaves of deep purple. Its nearly 1-inch flowers range in color from pink to lilac.