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The forsythia sage is a short-day or long-night bloomer that reaches 6 to 7 feet in height and is topped by bright yellow blossoms reaching 12 to 24 inches in length.
October 28, 2004 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

I always like to go back to the Truck Crops Experiment Station after the Fall Flower and Garden Fest. It's kind of like going back on the football field after winning the game.

The hummingbirds seem happy now that the 6,000 visitors are gone, but they sure put on a show for them during the Fest. One plant they were really feasting on was the forsythia sage, known botanically as Salvia madrensis.

The glass lamp to the left gives light during the night and a statuesque appearance during the day.
October 21, 2004 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The time change is one of the few times of the year I always dread. I don't mind getting up to sunshine, but I really dislike coming home to dark.

If you are like me, probably we both could use a little landscape lighting to welcome us home as we pull in the drive. After mulch, lighting is the perfect finishing touch to landscaping. Lighting can really make a dramatic impact in the landscape, especially when featuring the old oak, water pond or flower garden.

The strikingly beautiful Red Giant mustard is a colorful addition to fall and winter landscapes. Here it is surrounded by pink, spring-blooming tulips.
October 14, 2004 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The 2004 Mississippi Medallion award-winning Red Giant Mustard may be just what you need to liven up your fall and winter garden.

If you haven't tried Red Giant mustard, you have missed one of the hottest new plants for the fall and winter. They are strikingly beautiful in the landscape, and partner well with pansies like the Ultima Apricot shades and Delta Fire, and are incredible interplanted with spring-blooming pink tulips.

The Magellan zinnia produces enormous flowers that reach a whopping 6 inches in width. These bright, colorful flowers are produced on short, stocky plants that reach 18 inches tall.
October 7, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens, Vegetable Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If you want to see next year's hot new zinnias, be sure to attend the Fall Flower and Garden Fest Oct. 15-16 at the Truck Crops Experiment Station in Crystal Springs.

Among the new zinnias is the Magellan series, which is sure to be hot. The Magellan Coral will be an All-America Selections winner next year. As you look at the colors available, you'll think they are all winners.

Muhly grass looks at home in any kind of garden.
September 30, 2004 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Muhly grass is already showing out with its incredible display of color. No doubt, it will be the hit again at the Annual Fall Flower and Garden Fest Oct.15-16.

This event, held at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station in Crystal Springs, is unsurpassed as the best free horticultural festival in the South.

This Hancock County tree will not have the option of recovery, but immediate attention can help salvage very small trees blown over by Hurricane Ivan. (Photo by the Sea Coast Echo in Bay St. Louis, Miss.)
September 23, 2004 - Filed Under: Disaster Response, Lawn and Garden, Trees

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Taking care of the landscape after a hurricane or tornado can seem like an overwhelming task, especially if a lot of trees are down. Unfortunately, what took a few hours to bring down may take weeks to clean up.

First and foremost, take care of any damaged trees that could fall or break. Hire trained professionals to deal with these damaged trees to avoid, or at least minimize, further damage.

The Princess Flower is native to Brazil and produces flowers of exceptional beauty. This tropical can be grown in the landscape as an annual or as a container plant on the porch, patio or deck. Here it looks beautiful in bloom in front of bananas.
September 23, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The prettiest plant at my house right now is called Princess Flower. With a name like Princess Flower, or Glorybush, you can probably guess this plant has some outstanding attributes. You're right: mine has hundreds of royal-purple flowers opened, and it looks beautiful towering above my Indian Summer rudbeckias.

Containers may be the perfect place for small, manageable flower gardens. Stair-stepping containers at the home's entryway will make visitors feel welcome.
September 17, 2004 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

When the quantity of flower plantings gets out of hand, even good folks can become slaves to the garden.

To be perfectly honest, I had a home where I felt like I had created the botanical garden from you-know-where. Sure, it was pretty and everyone "oohed" and "ahhed," but after a while it started to feel like I should be getting paid for the upkeep. Sadly, my garden stopped being fun and became work.

The Panola Scarlet is so beautiful, it will take the breath of passers-by.
September 9, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If you think bigger is better, you'll be excited to hear about the varieties of pansies and violas arriving at garden centers any day now. The super-sized pansy is especially impressive.

Two years ago it was the Colossus, then last year the Majestic Giants II. This year the monolithic award goes to XXL, which obviously stands for Extra Extra Large.

The Bengal Tiger is well-suited for the back of the perennial border. Combine them with sun coleus, Joseph's coats, and blue flowers like salvias or climbing thunbergias.
September 2, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

This time of year, you should have a tiger making a terrific statement in your garden. The tiger I am referring to is one of the hottest cannas anywhere: the Bengal Tiger.

Bengal Tiger canna, also sold under the name Pretoria, is not new, but the interest in this variety probably surpasses what it saw at its debut.

Tricolor features green leaves and a variegated, irregular band of cream and pink down the middle of the leaf. Both Chocolate and Tricolor reach about 36 inches in height and thrive in full or partial sun.
August 26, 2004 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Just when we are getting comfortable with a few new plants, an excellent and versatile plant called Graptophyllum comes along and demands we learn its name.

Botanically speaking, it is known as Graptophyllum pictum and is in the family of Acanthaceae. This means the Graptophyllum is related to the Mexican petunia and Shrimp Plant, but don't go looking for any similarities. It originates in the South Pacific.

Dreamland zinnias produce enormous flowers reaching close to 4 inches wide that almost resemble those on a homecoming mum. The bright, colorful flowers are produced on short, stocky plants that reach just 18 inches tall.
August 19, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

I don't know if it has happened before in my lifetime. If it has, I don't remember, and I am sure it never happened during my brief football career. I am talking about the weather.

I have always been a proponent of planting some flowers in August, but with the recent weather, it should be a no-brainer. The weather, coupled with fresh crops of zinnias, marigolds and others arriving at your garden center, is making it fun to get back out in the yard and do a little digging.

The new tumbled glass mulch was an instant hit at the garden and patio show in Jackson and is starting to be seen everywhere. Whether using one of the new mulches or the old standards, mulching is mandatory for shrubs, trees and flowerbeds.
August 12, 2004 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Last night I was planting some new Dreamland zinnias for late summer and fall, and finished the job with the new red-dyed mulch. Even though the zinnias weren't blooming, the contrast of the red mulch and the green leaves sure looked impressive.

Joe Pye weed and Goldsturm rudbeckia partner well in this lakeside planting, looking impressive even from a distance.
August 5, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

A reporter once asked me, "If you could convince all garden centers to sell one perennial, what would it be?" The answer was simple for me: the Joe Pye weed.

Featuring larger flowers and a sweet aroma, Peach ginger is known usually as Hedychium angustifolium, but has been reclassified as H. coccineum.
July 29, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

One of the lyrics in a Jimmy Buffett song says, "I have a Caribbean soul I can barely control," and I must admit to the affliction, too!

Sure, the water and the laid-back atmosphere are great, but the plant life is what I love. It was in the Caribbean that I first discovered a passion for gingers, especially hedychiums.

Mojo's Gem and Illumination offer the gardener great creamy-gold and green variegation on a vigorous groundcover or vining plant that will hang gracefully from a basket or cascade over the rim of a mixed container.
July 22, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens, Cut Flowers and Houseplants

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

One of the hottest plants for container gardens is the old-fashioned vinca. Maybe I should not say old-fashioned because the popularity is coming from selections like Illumination and Mojo's Gem.

It seems like it was only yesterday that the word vinca brought to mind the Madagascar periwinkle, now known botanically as Catharanthus, the common periwinkle we use as a groundcover. Now we look at the common periwinkle as a hot, new plant for large, mixed containers.

The hyacinth bean is an environmentally friendly vine to grow with low insect and disease pressures. Plant the seed adjacent to a sturdy support structure for climbing such as a fence, trellis or pergola.
July 15, 2004 - Filed Under: Vegetable Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The hyacinth bean is one of those vines that, once it starts growing in the fall, everyone wishes they had planted. If you don't want to be left out, get yours started quickly.

The hyacinth bean was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, and you also will love it once you start growing it. This heirloom, also known as Egyptian Bean, Indian Bean and Bonavist, originates in tropical Africa and once had the botanical name Dolichos lablab. The name now in favor is Lablab purureus.

In all but the extreme southern coastal Mississippi, the bougainvillea will have to be treated as an annual or grown in a container for protection during the winter. They bloom easily in containers and can be kept pot-bound for a long time.
July 8, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens, Cut Flowers and Houseplants

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

When the intense heat of summer sets in, we often find it is tropical plants that explode with color around the home. One of the most floriferous is the bougainvillea, which has hundreds of almost-iridescent-colored flowers.

These colorful flowers are actually three bracts, or modified leaves, and surround a small white or yellow tubular flower. This tubular flower is a delight to the darting ruby-throated hummingbird that will come to feast on the nectar.

The colorful-leafed caladiums give a lush, cool, tropical feeling to any part of the landscape, and light up areas like this shady garden sidewalk.
July 1, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The Cancun Mix of Tempo Impatiens will literally pop out of the shady garden, making everyone take notice.
June 24, 2004 - Filed Under: Flower Gardens

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Every time I give a seminar, someone wants to know what flowers they can plant in the shade. I always answer first with impatiens. The impatiens is related to the old time touch-me-not and originates in East Africa.

When you consider that impatiens bloom from the time you plant them in the spring until the first hard frost, you are talking about an extremely good value for your landscape dollar. What other plant can you name that blooms for an average of 210 days?

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