Southern Gardening

Being a horticulturist means I really enjoy plants. Let's take a close look at some of the marvelous flowers found in our landscape and garden. In an earlier Southern Gardening segment we enjoyed the delicate blue flowers of the aptly named blue butterfly plant. In this segment, I would like to share some other interesting flowers. One of the most unique flowers I know belongs to the Mississippi Medallion winner yellow shrimp plant and the related red shrimp plant. The plant begins blooming by sending up colorful four to five inch spikes, which are very long lasting.

As we travel around the state sharing the sights of Southern Gardening, I always come away with ideas for my garden and landscape. Today we're visiting our friend Kathy to see what new ideas she's come up with. When visiting Kathy it's quite apparent that the plants are not the only the stars in her garden and landscape. They get lots of support from various hardscape materials. The most prominent "supporting" character is this garden path entranceway.

Perhaps the most welcome landscape visitors are butterflies. Gardeners love having the various shapes and colors fluttering through the garden. While everyone enjoys watching butterflies, many gardeners ask what plants will attract them to your garden? Two characteristics are shared by a majority of butterfly attracting plants: tubuler flowers and shades of red. Mexican Firecracker cuphea are magnets for butterflies like the beautiful black swallowtail. The black swallowtails also can't resist the Mississippi Medallion winner yellow shrimp plant.

One of the flowering plants I remember from my youth is cleome. I loved the tall plants with the flowers I thought looked a little spidery. I still love the flowers and these plants are perfect for our summer landscapes. Several years ago a new and exciting cleome was introduced. Senorita Rosalita cleome is a great garden and landscape plant and it doesn't have thorns like the older varieties. This plant has been a strong summer performer all across the southeast. Flowers are produced freely all summer long.

When the summer temperatures are sweltering, gardeners still have the option for bright landscape color. Today I'm at Mississippi State University's Truck Crops Experiment Station looking at the 2011 Mississippi Medallion winner, sizzling summer SunPatiens. Sunpatiens are an improvement in New Guinea-type impatiens that can be grown in the full sun. They bloom from the time they are planted in late April or May, through the fall. In fact they were three feet tall and covered with blooms at the Fall Flower and Garden Fest last October.

Just as an artist must have a creative eye, the same is true in landscape design. For homeowners, the key to landscape success is looking out for opportunity. In a previous segment I visited with my friend Jerry and watched as he transformed an unwanted dead stump along his driveway into a beautiful rustic planter, made from scraps of tin. This season, Jerry has one-upped last year's efforts by creating a tropical jungle theme using the thriller, filler, and spiller format.

In our hot and humid summers, sometimes it's difficult to have a whole landscape full of color. This is when it's good to have small pockets of color that are easy to maintain and keep your landscape looking good. Today we're back visiting our friend Iris and her beautiful and relaxing landscape. One of the best plants we can grow in our hot summer landscape is flowering vinca, of which Iris has made good use. In the front landscape, Cora and Mediterranean flowering vinca are paired with Margarita sweet potato vine for a colorful entrance to the driveway.

The dog days of August are often tough on summer color. But there are still some bedding plants options that provide a colorful "pop" even in the most oppressive summer heat. Today we're looking at a large mailbox garden that shows out with a lot of color. The first thing you notice about this bed is the height of the plantings. The tall wispy seed heads of the purple fountain grass give the whole bed a natural look along with the mixed Wave petunias flowing freeing over the sides of the whisky barrel planter.

Home gardeners are always looking for information on how plants may perform in their home landscapes. All-America Selections provides good information based on the premise of nationwide trials for local success. The South Mississippi Branch Station in Poplarville is an All-America Selections evaluation garden. Many of the past winners are grown every year for landscape and garden enthusiasts. In the past Southern Gardening has featured the easy to grow New Look celosia with its bright red plumes and attractive burgundy foliage. There is another celosia selection called Fresh Look.

Sometimes the size or shape of a landscape can seem limiting. But with the right design and plant selection the options can be limitless. Today I'm visiting my friends Helen and Pete and seeing how they make the most of their New Orleans styled back landscape. The gravel walk around the side of the house opens up on a broad paver patio area. The linear pattern of the pavers helps to visually make the patio look bigger. Both ends of the patio are anchored by river birch and Southern magnolia enhancing the area.