Southern Gardening

Garden walls are more than just barriers. They create a backdrop for landscape plantings, and can be an integral part of the garden. Today I'm at a friend's to share ideas how they utilize garden walls in the landscape. The outside wall is brick and is composed of different levels and a conventional landscape. The plantings around the lower wall consist of white flowering vinca and butterfly penta. A favorite landscape plant of mine is agapanthus, commonly called lily of the Nile.

Some home owners just have that eye for creating landscapes from repurposed materials. A great example is my friend Reggie who collects old farm relics and has fashioned a garden with rusty pockets of color. Reggie has arranged his collection underneath a stand of pines that creates a soft and dappled shade. The combination of plants in this old wooden tool chest is a magnificent mix of textures.

It's the cool season, and there are still options to add color and interest to your landscape. Let's take a look at some of my fall favorites. Today I'm at Dogwood Ridge Farms in Poplarville where Barbara and Mike Levy are growing a variety of great cool season landscape plants. A favorite bedding plant that is related to the pansy is the viola. Violas are good choices for both landscape and containers. The Penny Citrus mix is a prolific flower producer.

With autumn fast approaching it's the perfect time to enjoy some favorite plants that are putting on a beautiful show here at MSU's Truck Crops Branch Station in Crystal Springs. One of my absolute favorite fall plants that commands attention is pampas grass. This perennial grass with wiry serrated leaves is definitely not shy, with flower heads that can normally shoot 10 feet tall. But look at this dwarf selection called 'Pumila', which only grows 6 feet tall. The flower heads are extremely dense and the stalks are held in tight groupings.

Just as the changing colors in nature signal the arrival of autumn, so do the appearance of beautiful flowering mums. Today I'm at Pine Hills Nursery enjoying their colorful fall mums. Adding fall mums, which is actually short for Chrysanthemum, is a stress-free way to add color to the fall landscape. It's easy to see why as there will be more flowers than you could possibly count. The selection of colors can almost seem limitless, from rustic earth tones to bright and cheery pastels.

If there's one bedding plant that just can't be beat in our cool season landscape, it has to be the pansy. As a group, pansies are great for outstanding performance. The pansy series that has taken the landscape by storm are the Matrix pansies, and they have quickly become one of the industry'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.

What is one of the best free horticulture field days in Mississippi and the southeast? Of course the answer is the Fall Flower and Garden Fest at MSU's Truck Crops Branch Station in Crystal Springs. Whether you're a garden novice or Master Gardener, you need to be here Friday and Saturday, October 18th and 19th for the Fall Flower & Garden Fest. There will be fun for the entire family. The event normally attracts over 6000 visitors to see the latest in vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

The poinsettia may be the quintessential holiday plant, but there are other plants that are just as festive and deserve their own holiday cheer. Today I'm at Natchez Trace Greenhouses where they are growing some of the most striking Rex Begonias, which are perfect for holiday decorations. Rex Begonias are primarily indoor plants known for their colorful and textured foliage. The coarse textured leaves are certainly colorful, with streaks and splashes of silver to cream to burgundy. There is a symmetry to the spiral shape of the leaves which adds to their beauty.

Many years, the cool fall temperatures will give our summer color annuals one more chance for a colorful show. Today I'm at the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona and sharing some of their beautiful landscape trial gardens. While we are in the fall season, the landscape zinnia are getting their second wind. I really like the Zahara Cherry zinnia. The cooler temperatures are allowing the bright pastels of the zinnia to shine in their landscape bed. One of the hottest trends for any season in landscape color is anything burgundy.

Many gardeners consider annual salvia is the most colorful, but perennial salvia deserves a place in your landscape and garden. Today I'm visiting the salvia trial garden at the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona. It's the fall season and these perennial salvia are a favorite for insect visitors. Popular perennial salvia for Mississippi gardens and landscapes are the blue varieties, such as Bedder's Blue. This plant will grow to about 30 inches tall with beautiful flower spikes featuring vibrant deep blue flowers until frost in the fall.