Southern Gardening

Many gardeners love the tropical look a flowering bougainvillea has hanging on the patio or front porch. With a little care these plants can give many years of enjoyment. One of the most popular ways to grow bougainvillea in Mississippi is in a hanging basket. Bougainvillea grown in hanging baskets typically have long arching branches. But be careful as you handle the plants, because of the long and sharp thorns on the stems. The variegated leaves commonly are heart-shaped. The flowers are actually bracts, and are very thin and have a paper-like texture.

A longtime favorite flower of mine for the cool season landscape has always been the snapdragon. A couple of years ago, we shot a Southern Gardening segment and talked about snapdragons. These were the tall Sonnet and Rocket varieties. These are great for cut flowers, and have a soft cinnamon scent. In this segment I want to show you a dwarf variety I really like called Montego. Montego snapdragons will only grow up to ten inches tall and wide. Like their big cousins, there is a wide variety of colors.

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.

You don’t have to have a lot of color for an attractive garden. Today, I’m visiting a cool and relaxing backyard retreat that features many textures and different shades of green. Out the back door opens up onto a shady patio. The most striking feature is the set of tall and majestic crape myrtles. The exfoliating bark is beautiful. The plantings beneath the crape myrtles are a rich combination of asparagus fern, dwarf mondo grass, pittosporum, and Boston fern in a hanging basket. In this side garden underneath these Japanese maples is a wonderful combination of shade loving plants.

Many gardeners have learned that flowers are not the only option when come to providing color. Ornamental foliage is an easy to grow landscape workhorse. Today I’m visiting a house where the owner has made quite an impact with big combination containers. It’ the end of summer and these colorful foliage plants are still going strong. The ornamental plant I like the best is the Persian shield which is typically grown as a houseplant. The leaves have a colorful iridescence. Elliptically shaped four to six inch leaves are washed in purple, pink, and silver metallic with purple undersides.

Fall is in the air and harvest related displays must have a pumpkin or two.. But there’s a lot more to choose from than the traditional jack-o-lantern. Today I’m at Courtney Farms in Ocean Springs where the garden center has been transformed into a pumpkin patch. Pumpkins are a member of the cucurbit family that also includes squashes and gourds. Besides orange, colors include red, yellow, white, blue, and multi-colored stripes. They can be miniature, flattened, necked, smooth, winged and warty. The Cinderella pumpkin is a variety from France.

A common garden design trick is to layer your flower beds front to back with short, medium, and tall plants. Today I’m the campus of Mississippi State University where that are wonderful examples of this planting strategy. This beautiful shady bed is at one of the historical entrances to campus. The short plants in front are Aaron caladium with white leaves and green margins. Caladiums should always be mass planted for the best landscape performance. The intermediate plants are beautiful angel wing begonia. The bright red flowers are gorgeous above the white caladium.

Today I’m at the home of Nina and Charles Rivenburgh. Their backyard is an attractive example of the landscape transitioning into winter. All throughout the garden there are sculptures that help to add interesting character. This large ceramic frog is sitting in a pond in a pond of Liriope with red and green oxalis in the foreground. The yellow and black pansies add winter color. Though the weather is getting cooler the garden still has a tropical feel. Elephant ear and green Autumn Fern have a warm feeling.

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.

A popular trend in landscaping is including vegetables with ornamental interest. Probably my favorite group are the ornamental peppers. Today I'm in the trial garden at the MSU South Mississippi Branch Station in Poplarville looking at great examples of ornamental peppers. There's a wide variety of foliage colors and fruit shapes. The overall impact and adaptability of ornamental peppers was recognized in 2010 when Purple Flash pepper was named a Mississippi Medallion winner. With its purple and white variegated leaves, it is one of the showiest peppers available on the market.