Southern Gardening

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

A couple weeks passed before I told anyone I'd purchased a sweet gum tree from a local garden center. The laughter subsided days later and ended with friends trying to sell me all kinds of things, including beachfront property in Arizona.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Never before have garden centers had such healthy, richly-colored bedding plants for planting glorious mixed containers. Gardening season is not over yet!

These mixed containers can liven up the porch, patio or deck all winter long. But what is exciting are some of the newest, hottest plants available to choose from.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Over the past few months I have begun to pay particular attention to a group of stately evergreens that are performing well from the Coast to North Mississippi. This fast growing evergreen starting to be recognized as an outstanding tree is the Japanese cedar, or cryptomeria.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

As you prepare to entertain family for the Thanksgiving feast, why not also prepare a feast for your feathered friends in the neighborhood. Hang some bird feeders and make holiday treats for them.

We have one thing in common with many birds, and that is a love for sunflower seeds. While we eat the ones with stripes, birds prefer the black-oil type sunflower seeds. Birds like cardinals, chickadees, titmice and finches all love sunflower seeds.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

A cereal commercial from a few years ago reminds me of a predicament I now face with my readers. In the commercial, adults sat in the shadows where their faces could not be seen and admitted they liked a children's cereal. Now, with my heart pounding hard, I confess that I like elaeagnus.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The fall blooming azaleas have not only been showy but are really starting to gain some fans. Encore azaleas have been out for a couple of years, and everyone that I have talked to has been impressed with them. This year there are two new Encore azaleas.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Panola is a new plant this fall that will have gardeners talking. The promotion will be called Panola Panache. I can see the wheels turning now. "What is a Panola?" Well, it is a cross between a pansy and viola, and it comes from Waller Flowerseed in California. They are already starting to show up in garden centers and more are on the way.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Orange will continue to be a hot, trendy color next year in the world of flowers, thanks to a couple of All-America Selections Winners. One is a compact Mexican sunflower, or tithonia, called Fiesta del Sol and the other is a dwarf cosmos sulphureus called Cosmic Orange.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Garden snakes can certainly perform valuable services around outdoor plants, but finding a 6-foot chicken or king snake when you are reaching for a weed can cause some people to have a coronary.

There is one reptile I do love having around the garden, and it is called the anole, pronounced "a-know'lee." Like many of you, I grew up calling these green lizards chameleons. They probably got that name because of their ability to change colors.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If you are one of those gardeners with more silver and gray on your head than in your landscape, you are passing up a group of plants that lends an artist's touch.

In a gardening world dominated by a sea of green, well-placed pockets of plants with silver and gray leaves is ever so striking. We have choices here from perennials, herbs and even shrubs.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

One of the most drop-dead gorgeous camellia sasanquas will soon be showing up at a garden center near you. It is obvious that most gardeners haven't really learned about this awesome variety called Shishigashira.

When you consider the waxy leather leaves of these evergreens coupled with blooms as pretty as a rose, you wonder why people would plant anything else. The Shishigashira is a dwarf-to-compact form of camellia sasanqua with rose-pink blooms.

By Norman Winter

MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Propagating favorite plants is something every gardener wants to do at some time. This is a good time of the year to put the thought into practice.

Division equals multiplication when you talk about perennials. Dividing not only makes your perennial garden better, but gives you additional plants to create wonderful new gardens.

By Norman Winter

MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Not too far from where I grew up in Texas, there is a huge bicycle race this time of the year called the "Hotter Than Hell 100." While I don't know the actual temperature of that southern destination, it does seem too hot here to ride a bicycle or to garden.

Nevertheless, this is the time to consider planting for some of our best fall color. Garden mums are ready for planting, and there are some huge advantages to making those purchases now.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

It was a fight worthy of a National Geographic special, but I was the only witness. Hummingbirds swept down from adjacent oaks to the deep-blue flowers of the anise sage only to be met with fierce resistance and a screeching warning from the protecting hummer.

I have always been a fan of the Blue Anise Sage (salvia guaranitica), but until I saw this fight for its nectar, I never fully appreciated all the attributes the plant offered.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Our long growing season lends itself to enjoying exotic flowers from tropical regions of the world. A coffee relative, Ixora, is a jungle-type plant that is ideal for porches or patios.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Very few people know anything about abelia, but it has some outstanding qualities worthy of consideration in Mississippi landscapes.

Consider this, they bloom for months with clusters of flowers, the foliage is attractive and they have no pests. This should put this delightful shrub at the top of the list for those desiring a low maintenance garden.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If there was a poster child for underused plants, the bottlebrush buckeye would be the spectacular winner.

The word bottlebrush should make you want to grow it, but when you consider the flowers are 4-inches wide and 12-inches long and produced in huge quantities, it really is time to go shopping.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

This really has been a year for the black-eyed Susan called Indian Summer. They are showing off brilliantly in my garden and were one of the Mississippi Medallion winners for 1999.

Goldsturm (Rudbeckia fulgida), which is the most reliable perennial black-eyed Susan, was the 1999 Perennial Plant of the Year, and the award is deserving. Next year, Goldsturm will be the Louisiana Select award winner.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

I was sitting on the shaded patio the other afternoon moaning about the heat when a darting visitor approached and changed my outlook on the day. A ruby-throated hummingbird decided my hanging basket of pink wave petunias was just the feast for which he had been searching.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The 30-inch tall, spiky blue flowers of the angelonia continue to be the most impressive of recent plant introductions. In a world where round flowers seem to dominate, the texture from the plant is a joy to behold. The Florida Plant of the Year last year was a variety called Hilo Princess, and it performs well here too!