Southern Gardening

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

At the risk of giving away my age I ask, Do you remember a popular hair dressing commercial that had the phrase "A little dab will do you"? That is precisely how the general public has been viewing a group of the most beautiful plants we can grow, the coleus.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Sometimes the landscape world seems dominated by dark green shrubs, but there is one group available that offers some strikingly colorful options for the home.

The group I am referring to is the Japanese barberry. The barberry is related to the nandina and the mahonia, which also are outstanding plants. In a sea of green, red-leafed Japanese barberries are worth every penny spent on the purchase.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Dragon Wing has got to be the most beautiful begonia for planters or the landscape. While it works great in full sun, the look in partial shade is absolutely awesome.

The Dragon Wing has really just hit the market this year. It has been sold under the name Sunbrite on a limited basis. It is kind of funny that it has been around for close to 20 years, but many of us have failed to recognize the beauty and durability of the plant.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If you are looking for a plant for the shade, then you can hardly do better than hostas. The hosta is in the lily family and has the common name of Plantain Lily. Despite the fact that they are cold hardy way up north in zone 4, their beauty and leaf texture adds a tropical flair to the garden.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Every state has wildflowers they boast about, and Mississippi can certainly hold its head high in this category as well. Flowers like the coreopsis and spigelia, or Indian Pinks, have been awesome. The Stokes' Aster is one of my favorite wildflowers budding up now and showing color in many gardens.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

It seems the gardening world has gone crazy with arbors, trellises, towers, fences and more. Everyone is looking for perfect or unusual vines to drape or climb these structures. One of the best choices is the crossvine.

It is also called quartervine and is known botanically as Bignonia capreolata. It is hardy throughout the state. Bignonia comes from the name of King Louis IV's librarian.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

It can be considered a thornless rose for the shade. It could be thought of as a rose with virtually no disease or insect problems, or as a rose that blooms all season and never needs deadheading. While there is no such rose, the plant I refer to is the rose-form, or double, impatiens.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

A Mississippi native has garnered top honors for the spring of 2000. When plants pour in from places like Australia, China and Japan, it is refreshing to announce one of the most beautiful shrubs in the United States, the oakleaf hydrangea, as a Mississippi Medallion winner.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If you want your landscape or patio to look like French Martinique, the jewel of the Caribbean, you should try growing this year's Mississippi Medallion award-winning yellow shrimp plant.

The yellow shrimp plant, Pachystachys lutea, is the first tropical plant to receive the Mississippi Medallion award. These plants will bloom all summer and are so easy to grow you will be amazed. You may start hearing the tropical sounds of steel drums in the distance.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The blossoms of spring have bordered on the spectacular this year, and the Lady Banks rose has contributed to the gorgeous displays.

Lady Banks is a species rose, not a hybrid, that hails from China. It is named after the wife of Sir Joseph Banks, the legendary head of the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If your neighborhood has any deep red-bronze Japanese maples growing, they are probably this year's Mississippi Medallion award winning tree, the Bloodgood. This maple has earned the respect of landscapers and gardeners throughout the South.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The first flower to have its own web site has garnered another honor, the 2000 Mississippi Medallion Award. This prestigious honor goes to the Wave series of petunias, whose web site can be found at www.wave-rave.com.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

There is a revival of sorts going on in the world of gardening, and it's all around us. It may be as close as the house next door. It is the revival of the cottage garden.

I know in some places cottage gardens never left. But now cottage gardens are popping up not only in rural areas, but also in new neighborhoods with the most modern homes. Included in this revival of style comes the old fashioned picket fence.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Hundreds of bright, brilliantly colored flowers are popping out all across the state. These are flowers that make other states with alkaline soil weep with jealousy. You know what I am referring to, the azalea, one of the most loved, revered and sought after shrubs anywhere.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Spring has arrived with all of its glorious colors -- purples, pinks, yellows and reds, but the color guaranteed to catch your eye every time is white. We all need to use white more often.

White reflects light to offer ideal landscape use. Notice what Mother Nature does in the forest. The dogwoods are just now starting to bloom, attracting our attention to the glistening, reflective bracts in an otherwise dull forest.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

I wanted to title this article "Loosen Up and Garden Au Naturel," but my editor wouldn't let me because the phrase implies naked and no one gardens that way. I had already cast a blight on the University with a previous article about Naked Ladies, a.k.a. spider lilies.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

2000 has been declared the year of the zinnia, but we beat the National Garden Bureau to the punch. Zinnias were the queen of the show at the Fall Flower and Garden Fest held last October at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station in Crystal Springs.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

One of my favorite plants that has been harder to find than a four-leaf clover has been blessed recently by other Southern horticulturists. Now that horticulturists whose words carry more weight than mine are pronouncing Persian Shield a great plant, nurseries everywhere will propagate it.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

A couple of years ago a grower in Kosciusko was very excited about a plant that I thought looked sick. Now, I am prepared to eat crow because I want that plant and I think you will, too! It is known botanically as Stenotaphrum secundatum variegatum; in short, it is variegated St. Augustine grass.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Every once in awhile a plant comes along in which I wish I could buy stock. It would be investing in a plant like you do the Blue Chip stocks. A new plant this spring that is almost guaranteed to make big bucks is called Million Bells Terra Cotta.