Flower Gardens
Annuals and perennials spice the landscape with their colorful flowers and foliage. Beds of color provide brilliant accents against backgrounds of permanent plantings, soften man-made lines, and provide graceful transitions from one outdoor area to another. Flowers can be used to catch the eye, accent a view, frame a door, or just draw attention to their own blooms.
Annual plants
Annual plants are practical in that they are versatile, sturdy, and inexpensive. They quickly yield color for one long season.
Perennial plants
Perennial plants return year after year. They fit into many landscapes and can be used in borders, as accents, or as strong focal points. The foliage of many perennials is attractive during nonflowering seasons as well.
Roses
Where noted, much of the content of this area was taken from an Extension short course, Growing and Enjoying Roses in Mississippi, presented in the spring of 2007.- Control Fire Ants in Your Yard
- Crafting with Roses*
- Insect Pests of Roses
- Other Sources of Information on Roses*
- Propagating Plants For The Home Landscape
- Pruning/Deadheading*
- Pruning Diagrams*
- Recommended Roses for Mississippi Gardens (slides)
- Recommended Roses for Mississippi Gardens (text)
- Rose Propagation
- Site Selection, Bed Preparation and Planting of Roses
- Spicy Rose Potpourri*
- Suggested Roses for Landscape Uses*
- Techniques and Tips for Growing Good Roses
- Using Roses in the Landscape*
- Watering and Plant Disease
Content for parts of this section comes from Extension Publication #P1826 - Annual & Perennial Flowers For Mississippi Gardens and *where noted, from a rose short course, Growing and Enjoying Roses in Mississippi, presented in the spring of 2007 by the MSU Extension Service.
Publications
News
This Thanksgiving week, I’m recovering from a particularly nasty infection in my leg. I’m not looking for sympathy, but it has given me the opportunity to think about what I’m thankful for in the garden and landscape.
This past weekend, the weather was glorious on the Coast, and I hobbled through my garden, which I hadn’t seen for a week.
When leaves fall and landscapes begin to look bare for winter, it can be easy to think it’s time to stay indoors. But fall is the ideal time for a variety of landscape chores. One job for chilly weather is planting and preparing for spring-flowering bulbs. This is an optimistic chore, as you get to prepare for blooms and beauty months away.
As cold weather makes it way to Mississippi, the vibrant colors of summer and fall begin to fade. Winter months are traditionally very bland in terms of landscape, but they don’t have to be! There are several colorful plants that work well in cold temperatures, and many of them are low maintenance. Here are five annual plants you can incorporate into your flowerbeds or containers to add a nice pop of color into your winter landscape:
I usually don’t need a calendar to tell where we’re at in the four gardening seasons of the year. Each season fills my email inbox and social media channels with the current landscape and garden problems and concerns.
One of the fun gardening activities I enjoy living on the Gulf Coast is collecting and growing interesting tropical and subtropical fruit trees. Earlier this year, I wrote about my cold-hardy avocados, and I’ve added new citrus trees to my “grove” that I will discuss in the future. But this week, I want to talk about a really interesting new addition to my collection, the Barbados cherry.
Success Stories
Popular post
Hummingbird migration information reached more than 400,000 on Facebook, thanks to this post highlighting the featured Extension for Real Life blog post.
Nursery using Extension publications to host workshops, reach new customers
Business continues to blossom at Jackson Farms in Bassfield, and one reason may be because the family-owned nursery connects with its clientele in ways that its big-box competition does not.
Celebrating Arboretum Excellence
The Mississippi State University Crosby Arboretum in Picayune received the 2016 Garden Excellence Award from the American Public Gardens Association.
Master Gardener volunteers despite pandemic challenges
The sun was beating down, the humidity oppressive, and the flower bed dry. It was April 29, 2020, and the pandemic had closed the Mississippi State University Extension Service office in Washington County, where the snapdragons are.
Mississippi’s Pine Belt Master Gardeners are extending their knowledge across state lines, with prize-winning results.
