Southern Gardening

In the cold and dreary winter months, gardeners need to rely on plant features besides flowers for color interest. Pyracantha is a good choice with its colorful berries that add beauty to any winter landscape. The botanical name for pyracantha literally means firethorn, for which it is commonly known. This plant certainly lives up to this name with the sharp and painful thorns on almost all of the branches. Pyracantha is a medium large landscape shrub, and is evergreen in mild winters. This shrub is versatile with many landscape uses.

Camellias are those true southern treasures that provide color and beauty that brighten cool season landscapes. Today I’m visiting with Webb Hart and enjoying his collection of gorgeous camellias. There are two main species of camellia that can be planted and enjoyed in landscapes all across Mississippi. Camellia japonica, and Camellia Sassanqua. Camellia japonica, orJapanese camellia, is best known for its large flowers which can be five inches across. But there are several variations of flowers.

I really enjoy the spring season. Today I’m at Pine Hills Nursery looking for new plants for Mississippi gardeners. A plant that is sure to find a place in my landscape this year is blue butterfly plant. Known botanically as Clerodendrum ugandense, blue butterfly plant has intricate flowers that actually resemble little blue butterflies in flight. The flowers are arranged in multiples on long arching branches. Individual flowers are about an inch in diameter with several pale blue lobes and a single darker blue-violet.

There’s nothing like visiting a greenhouse in the spring for landscape inspiration. Here at JDS Nursery Sandra Showles and her crew are getting ready for the coming gardening season. One of the flowering plants that has left me in awe the past couple of years has been the Senetti pericallis. The flower colors can be almost iridescent. Colors include magenta, blue bicolor, and light blue bicolor. The bicolors are really pretty with their center white halos. One of the best attributes of Senetti pericallis is their love of the cooler temperatures of early spring.

This time of year I get calls about this moldy stuff growing on plants, and whether it will harm the tree and shrubs. The cause for concern is an organism called lichen. Lichen are very interesting and are found throughout the southeast and beyond. A misconception many gardeners have is that lichen are parasites, feeding on the landscape plants. Actually the lichen is only growing the surface of the bark. They are composed of an unlikely combination of a fungus and algae that are combined in a symbiotic relationship. In other words the algae and fungus have taken a “likin” to each other.

During the late winter and early spring, it can be easy to ignore some of the shrubs that provide the backbone of our landscapes. One of the best landscape shrubs we can grow is loropetalum. There are many selections available that will fill any landscape need. Burgundy loropetalum was selected as a Mississippi Medallion Winner in 2001 and is still a landscape favorite. As you can see this selection will grow to ten feet if left unpruned. However, Burgundy Loropetalum tolerates pruning well if wanting to maintain the plant at a certain size.

Mississippi is famous for the Blues music. But for most gardeners, finding true blue flowers can leave them feeling blue. Even though blue flowers are hard to come by, they can be found. In previous Southern Gardening segments we have shown some cool blue flowers. One of the most popular was blue butterfly plant whose flowers actually resemble little blue butterflies in flight. Another plant with cool blue flowers is Lobelia. This old timey annual has the reputation of melting away in the summer heat. But not anymore!

One of the showiest groups of plants we can grow in our gardens are zonal geraniums. The brilliant colored flowers of these plants are sure to impress. Red zonal geraniums are a classic garden plant that does not go out of style. The flowers are clusters of tightly grouped buds. The buds don't open all at once. The top buds open first, followed by those underneath. Here you can see the color starting to show. While there are other colors available besides red, the other colors I really like are pink or salmon. Zonal geraniums get their name from the coloration of the foliage.

There are many excellent petunias on the market, so how do you decide? Let me share some simple advice: you can't go wrong choosing Supertunias. Supertunias have been a good performer in Mississippi for the past few years. In fact, Vista Bubblegum was selected as a Mississippi Medallion winner in 2012 with its clear, bright pink flowers. Some of the other colors are just as stunning. Vista Silverberry has silvery-white flowers that have delicate magenta veins. Raspberry Blast is a bicolor with pink flowers that are edged in deep cerise violet.

If there's a single shrub that could be called a staple in the southern landscape it is the azalea. The spectacular flowering has made azaleas one of the all-time most popular landscape shrubs. It's early spring in south Mississippi and the azaleas are putting on a show. One of the earliest blooming varieties is the southern Indica azalea. Whether used as specimen plants, hedges or backgrounds, Southern Indica azalea has to be my favorite azalea. The blooms are huge resembling rhododendrons, and are created in great quantities.