Southern Gardening

It’s time again to open up the mail bag and answer a couple of questions from the fans of Southern Gardening. First up is George from Biloxi. “Hey Doc, every year in the late summer and fall I see these purplish blue flowers popping up everywhere that really look like azaleas. What are these plants?” George, thanks for the question. The plant is called Mexican petunia and the flowers are trumpet shaped and do look a bit like azaleas. These plants also produce lots of seed and results in finding these plants in random places.

Sometimes those gardeners who like to grow in containers don’t think there are many options in the winter. Today I’d like to share some ideas for cool season combo containers. There are actually quite a few cool season plants to use. Some of my favorites include the colors and textures of ornamental kale, cabbage and even mustard, colorful Matrix pansies and Sorbet viola and the bright spikes of Sonnet snapdragons. But many gardeners don’t think to put them together in the same container. Let’s take a look a few combo examples.

While growing up in Michigan, one of my favorite Christmas memories was going out to the farm to pick out the tree to bring home. Down here in Mississippi, many families have a similar tradition. Today I’m at Thomley’s Christmas Tree Farm in Hattiesburg getting ready for the holiday season. The Thomley family has been growing Christmas trees since 1967. There are three varieties of trees being grown here that have adapted to our southern growing conditions. Leyland Cypress is one of the most popular Christmas trees grown in the south.

There’s no other plant that embodies the holiday season like the poinsettia. Southern Gardening is visiting Natchez Trace Greenhouses getting into the Christmas spirit. Traditionally, red poinsettias are the first choice of many holiday gardeners. Prestige Red is a great choice with dark green foliage providing the background to display its brilliant red color. Now I need to point out that the colorful “flowers” that we love so much are not flowers at all. They are actually modified leaves called bracts. Let’s take a look at how the greenhouse tricks these bracts into changing color.