Southern Gardening

The growers are getting ready for a busy fall season. So what should you plant? In my opinion… pansies and violas. Matrix pansies have quickly become one of the Southeast’s leading cool season bedding plants. There is a wide range of colors available. Many have the traditional blotch, sometimes known as being faced. This is the dark coloration of the lower flower petals. A really attractive group of Matrix flowers have the clear colors. These flowers don’t have a blotch, and really flash pure color. In my opinion, Matrix pansies are the best for gardeners in Mississippi.

Some landscapes require a little bit of extra care, while others are good on their own. Cannas are an easy flowering plant that every gardener should grow. Cannas are commonly grown as large specimen plants and look fantastic mass planted in landscapes. Their tropical-looking foliage lends bold texture to the space until the flowers steal the show from summer through fall. If you love the look of tropical plants but need some that grow more like petunias, meaning easy to grow, then look no further. Toucan cannas are fast growers, vigorous, and highly disease resistant.

After a long summer, lantana still looks good in the fall. Today Southern Gardening is at Truck Crops Branch Station looking at their latest trial plants. I really like lantana in the fall of year. Not only do they brighten the landscape, but they are literal butterfly and pollinator magnets. You may even get to enjoy a hummingbird grabbing a snack. Now let’s look at a few of newer varieties. Bloomify lantana are a new type of lantana being certified sterile and not cycle out of color or go out of flower in summer heat.