Southern Gardening

Many landscapes look drab and dreary in January, and extremely cold temperatures across the state have presented gardeners with an even bigger challenge than usual this winter.

But I had an uplifting experience last week when I attended the Gulf States Horticultural Expo in Mobile. I came away having seen the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel and remembering that the warm days of spring will soon be upon us.

Shopping at the local garden center for potting mix for container plants can be confusing. A bag that simply says “garden soil” can have anything in it. While this may work for in-ground plants, plants in containers require a totally different kind of mix.

Bagged mixes for container plants are often called potting or container mixes. These mixes actually contain no soil at all. They are sold under a variety of trade names and are similar in their basic recipe.

The onslaught of gardening catalogs arriving at our homes is a sure sign of the impending spring and summer gardening seasons.

They have started to pile up at my house. Looking at the stack, I found myself daydreaming this weekend as the wintery blast came sweeping through Mississippi. How will our gardens look in a few short weeks? And how can we make this transformation a little easier?

Whoever said great looking gardens can be maintenance-free? A great looking garden is a lot of work, and with our busy lives, taking a few shortcuts can help us work more efficiently.

January is a good time to take a look at your landscape because views are not obstructed by much foliage. When we can get a really clear view of what lies beyond our own yards, we sometimes don’t like what we see.

Many times we see the neighbor’s house or some view we’re not interested in. These views are hidden in the summer but seem to stare back in the winter. You may notice some traffic noise that gets blocked out by summer foliage.

You could build a privacy fence or wall, but these can seem a little cold and stark. It may be time to plant a living screen.

The brand-new year is the perfect time to make gardening resolutions.

My job at Mississippi State University’s Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi gives me the opportunity to answer a lot of questions and solve many garden problems. Based on this experience, here’s my list of resolutions Mississippi gardeners can make to be more successful in the new year.

Gardening, be it vegetables or flowers, is a popular pursuit. But as enjoyable as gardens can be, there are times when gardeners have problems. Here are some of the traps that gardeners fall into from time to time, and tips to help you avoid them.

With their brightly colored bracts full of holiday cheer, poinsettias are truly the quintessential Christmas plant.

The range of available poinsettia colors is truly phenomenal. Red, white, pink, maroon, speckled and marbled are just the tip of the iceberg. Recently, you may have noticed orange and even blue poinsettias with sparkles. Growers use plant dyes to change the bract colors and expand the variety of colors available to consumers.

The freezing temperatures we are experiencing this week are a stark reminder of the need to provide winter protection for some landscape and garden plants.

Here are some tips to help ward off some of old man winter’s chill. One of the best things you can do for evergreen landscape plants is to give them a good layer of mulch and water them thoroughly. The mulch acts as a blanket, insulating the root system from cold temperatures.

A plant I first saw early this year that has continued to amaze me through summer and fall is Galphimia glauca, commonly known as Golden Thryallis. It started flowering early in the summer, and the stand-out yellow flowers caught my full attention.

The flowers are a bright and cheery yellow and occur in clusters that are up to 6 inches long. Flowering begins in early June and continues through the fall. If warm temperatures linger, the flowering period will extend to the fall.

When the cooler months arrive, many home gardeners think it is time to put away thoughts of fresh vegetables on the table and settle for the local grocery store’s offerings. If this describes you, I hope to change your mind by giving you tips on growing fresh lettuce during the winter months.

The cool months of winter are the perfect time to grow lettuce as it can tolerate frost and light freezing temperatures. It doesn’t get bitter from the heat of summer. You don’t even have to grow it in your normal vegetable garden.

Some of my favorite spring flowers are annual and perennial dianthus, with their wide variety of pinks, whites, and purples, but you don’t have to wait for warmer temperatures to enjoy colorful dianthus.

Annual landscape dianthus hybrids, such as Telstar dianthus, will add color and interest to your landscape right through fall and winter.

When you consider that violas tolerate winter weather and can thrive in both the landscape and containers, it is no wonder they are a favorite bedding plant for Mississippi gardeners.

The viola, which is related to the pansy, will grow from Thanksgiving to Easter and beyond. In fact, violas are often more hardy than pansies.

Violas are known botanically as Viola cornuta but are commonly called Johnny Jump Ups. They are prolific seed producers, and it is quite common for viola to act as a perennial in the home garden.

Winter is right around the corner, and many Mississippians are starting to put their gardens to bed, waiting for the warm days of early spring. But just because it is getting colder doesn’t mean we must have drab landscapes. Now is the perfect time to put some winter color in gardens, and I’m not talking about ornamental cabbage and kale.

I am sure you have seen brightly colored pansies while visiting your favorite garden center, and those pansies are a great way to add color to your winter garden. They are tough, cold tolerant, and flower almost nonstop.

Gardening is consistently listed as one of this country’s most popular hobbies and can give joy and satisfaction to the gardener in return for the work involved. But gardening can be frustrating for gardeners who have physical limitations.

Today, gardeners with mobility issues have more alternatives and tools than ever before, and their options increase every day. The Fall Flower and Garden Fest at the Mississippi State University Truck Crops Branch Station in Crystal Springs this past weekend featured an exhibit that highlighted ways to make the garden more accessible.

The 2010 Mississippi Medallion Award Winners are Fireworks Gomphrena, Electric Lime Coleus, Purple Flash pepper and Gulf Coast muhly grass. Mississippi Medallion Award Winners are selected each year based on their ability to thrive in Mississippi’s hot, humid summers and cool winters.

The changing season and cooler temperatures make now the perfect time to decorate the front porch with a fall harvest display. These displays are ideal for Halloween and add charm through the season.

Remember to use more than just pumpkins in your display. Pumpkins are a member of the cucurbit family, which also includes squashes and gourds. Pumpkins can be orange, red, yellow, white, blue, or striped. They can be miniature, flattened, necked, smooth, winged or warty.

The Fall Flower and Garden Festival at Mississippi State University’s Truck Crops Experiment Station in Crystal Springs is one of the best horticulture field days in the Southeast. Come Oct.15 and 16 for free fun for the entire family. There will be a lot to see for everyone from garden novices to Master Gardeners.

The 3-acre garden site will showcase a great selection of tough roses, ornamental grasses like the native Gulf Coast muhly grass, tropical plants, and fall vegetables and herbs.

I firmly believe that many of our flowering landscape plants are only a step or two away from being weeds growing in a ditch. But goldenrod is an exception. Can you believe some gardeners are intentionally growing goldenrod?

Most folks recognize goldenrod growing wild when they see the explosion of golden color late in the summer, just before the temperatures start to decrease in the fall.

A garden itself is a form of personal expression, so what better way to say something about yourself than with garden art?

When we think of a garden, we often think of flowering annuals and perennials, foundation shrubs like hollies and Indian hawthorns, and small ornamental trees. But add a sculpture or homemade piece of art, and you start to bridge the gap between the gardener and the garden.

After reading about ornamental vegetables several years ago, I became interested in expanding the selection of ornamental bedding plants in my landscape. Then I saw a planting of ornamental peppers.

I am a true “chili head” with a passion for hot peppers, and I have even made an apple and habanero wine. I have grown jalapeño, habanero and the like as bedding plants, as many of the extremely hot peppers produce very colorful fruit.