Southern Gardening

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

One of the most beautiful cities in the South is Port Gibson, Miss. Labeled "too beautiful to burn" by Civil War Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, this town indeed has persevered and entices travelers to wander the streets in awe.

The Mississippi Plant Selections Committee is proud to announce the Port Gibson Pink verbena as a 2004 Mississippi Medallion award winner.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

A tomato variety has charmed the Mississippi Plant Selections Committee to become the first vegetable chosen as a Mississippi Medallion award winner. This standout performer is the Mini Charm Tomato.

By Norman Winter

MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Yubi portulacas will stop traffic with their eye-popping, jaw-dropping displays. These moss roses have been out a few years, but most Mississippi gardeners still are timid with them.

In Texas, the Yubi has garnered awards and caught on very quickly with gardeners. The single-petaled blossoms of the Yubi are as big as their rose-formed cousins in the Sundial series. The centers of the flowers expose the stamens and give a two-tone effect.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Incredible things are happening in the world of the tropical hibiscus when it comes to new colors. There are many new varieties, so remember to check your garden center this spring.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

There is a new, bold gardener out there stirring up excitement. What I like about the bold gardener's style is that it uses plant selections or combinations in atypical ways. The result is that we're pushed outside our comfort zone -- we are challenged.

One instance of this bold style involves plants thought of as only for the arid west or perhaps Mexico. These plants typically have sword-like leaves and even prickles.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

My imagination runs wild when I think about a white coneflower I saw last summer. I can picture a man saying, "Honey, I got a new white coneflower and I am going to name it after you -- Kim's Mophead."

I suppose it didn't happen that way, but it sure would be fun to think so. If so, that was probably the last flower he named -- right after Kim's Knee High, a more traditional but shorter purple coneflower.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

This year it looks like the snow bush will again be one of the hottest plants at the garden and patio shows, but you had shop early if you want one or more.

Some may ask, "What in the world is a snow bush? Isn't the winter long, cold and wet enough without mentioning snow?"

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Victoria Blue, a 1998 Mississippi Medallion award winner, has always been one of my favorite varieties of Salvia farinacea, or mealy-cup sage, but there are certainly some other selections worthy of a prime spot in the landscape.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If you are ready for some new garden appeal, look no further than two of this year's All-America Selections winners: Fresh Look Red and Fresh Look Yellow celosia.

Fresh Look Red celosia performs like a fresh floral arrangement all summer and for that reason is an All-America Selections Gold Medal Winner.

Thriving in the summer heat and humidity with drought or rainy conditions, Fresh Look Red decorates a garden or patio container with rosy red plumes.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If silver foliage is the first thing you think of at the mention to the word artemisia, you haven't seen Oriental Limelight. This introduction by Proven Winners has really captured the imagination of landscape designers everywhere. It is also an incredible plant for mixed baskets and containers.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The Rajun Cajun ruellia really impressed me last summer and makes it high on my list for the landscape in 2004. I have grown this fiery red flower before but as usual, it is other gardeners' applications or companions that really cause my excitement.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

To be perfectly honest, I like the 70-degree days we had around New Year's Day, and I loathe the low-20s that followed. A two- or three-week winter would suit me fine because I am ready to dig in the dirt.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The key to happiness with flowers in 2004 may depend on raised beds.

Twenty years ago the phrase "raised bed gardening" conjured up visions of railroad or landscape timbers encompassing the vegetable garden. The reasons were simple: the soil was yucky, and these walls of wood could hold in the perfect organic and topsoil blends brought in by a truck.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The Perennial Plant Association has been one of the hardest working and innovative promotional organizations in the country. They keep you on your toes because you never know whether the winner will be a flower, grass, or in this year's case, a fern.

The Perennial Plant Association has named Athyrium niponicum Pictum the 2004 Perennial Plant of the Year. This perennial low-maintenance Japanese painted fern is one of the showiest ferns for shade gardens.

By Norman WinterMSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The cold holiday season seems like a good time to give everyone a glimpse of the new All-America Rose Selection winners that will be at garden centers in just a few weeks.

This year's trio is just what you would expect award-winning roses to be: beautiful, fragrant, disease-resistant and easy to maintain. Day Breaker, Honey Perfume and Memorial Day have outperformed the field to be awarded the coveted AARS honor.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Although I don't come from a long line of kissers, many families enjoy the holiday tradition of hanging the mistletoe. Most of us probably remember running to or fleeing from the mistletoe as teenagers, depending on who happened to be under it.

By Norman WinterMSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Winter is not normally the time to tout the virtues of the crape myrtle unless you have newer varieties. Several of the new hybrids have bark that is really something special in the winter landscape.

This hybridization primarily is between Lagerstroemia indica, the old-fashioned crape myrtle of our ancestors, and Lagerstroemia fauriei. Both are native to China, Southeast Asia and Japan.

By Norman WinterMSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

With almost indescribable leaf color and huge panicles of bright red berries, nandinas are among our very best shrubs for fall and winter color in terms of both leaves and fruit. Sad is the home landscape without a heavy sampling of these wonderful shrubs.

Sometimes called heavenly bamboo, nandina does indeed have a somewhat exotic appearance. It is actually in the barberry family and has relatives like the mahonia.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

At our house the dianthus have really started to show out, and I would encourage all gardeners to make use of this wonderful cool-season flower.

I say cool season, but today's dianthus are a far cry from the ones we used to call pinks. Today by virtue of hybridizing species, they are tough from the standpoint of both cold and added-heat tolerance. This hybridization brought together species from China (chinensis) and Southern Europe (barbatus) for a great new plant.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Garden centers are loaded with the highest quality fall bedding plants, getting gardeners ready to pull up those marigolds and cut back lantanas, verbenas, salvias and mums if they haven't already.

The last few weeks I have been touting the traditional pansies, snapdragons, violas and cabbages, but there are other great plants that you might not have tried.