Southern Gardening

To borrow a phrase, “I’m all about easy” when comes to maintaining the landscape, especially in the summer season. But this time of year there is one garden chore that helps to keep many flowering plants looking good that often gets overlooked. Despite its name, deadheading is good for your flowering plants. Deadheading extends the bloom period, maintains the health of garden plants and removes the seed source of beautiful flowering plants that have the potential of becoming a weedy mess for years to come.

I read once that many flowering plants we use in our landscapes were once mere weeds found on the side of the road. Purslane is one of those plants that has been of interest to me and has long been regarded by many as a weed, but it can be a nice addition to your landscape. This plant has summer-loving qualities that make the improved selections perfect for many places in your gardens. Purslane is popular because it thrives in our high summer temperatures. Need a good ground cover? Many selections form a dense mat of drought resistant color.

One of my favorite plants for easy-care consistent color is celosia. Celosia plants produce a plethora of brightly colored plumes of feathery flowers. They are easy to grow, and their color holds up great even in the hottest and driest of Mississippi summer conditions. Bright, vibrant red flowers are popular, but are far from being the only choice. For example, the Castle Series mix will grow up to 16 inches tall, and produces a wide range of colors, from orange to yellow to pink and red. When planted in mass, the Castle Series Mix reminds me of a colorful family of gnomes.

It’s all the gardening rage to plant flowers to attract butterflies and pollinators to our Mississippi gardens. Here are some of my favorites for the landscape. One of the stars of the butterfly garden has to be Golden Delicious pineapple sage. The foliage is a chartreuse yellow that really shines and shows off the tubular fire engine red flowers. Butterfly weed was chosen as a Mississippi Medallion native plant in 2012. This plant grows up to 36 inches tall and 24 inches wide.