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North Mississippi Gardening Tips
June, 2002

Notes for June

For gardens in north Mississippi, late May and early June is the peak of bloom time. June is the transition month between spring and summer. The garden never looks better because typically (if you have been a good gardener and done your springtime chores), weeds, bugs and disease have not gotten a foothold. As the summer wears on these pests tend to get worse-one reason being you just get worn out, the weather gets hot and you'd rather be cooling off in the old swimming hole than battling bad things in the garden! So my advice is to enjoy the show, but keep up with your maintenance chores so you can take the kids swimming at Pickwick or Bay Springs and not feel guilty!

Using Foliage for Color in the Garden

Ever get annoyed when some flower color turns out not to be what the catalog said or the dang thing bloomed at the wrong time in conjunction with another plant and the combination of colors makes you nauseous. It can be difficult to arrange the garden such that flower colors do not sometimes clash. One way to avoid that sick feeling is to use the foliage of plant material for color in the garden. You know from the being what color you are dealing with. Foliage enriches a garden. Carefully chosen and combined, leaves become a point of interest that last long after seasonal flowers fade. We all learn by imitation, so if you see a combination of foliage colors you like copy it in your own garden!

Why Doesn't It Bloom?

One question I am frequently asked is why doesn't my plant bloom? Mercy, that's a hard one, because flowering of plants can be affected by so many factors. I usually have to ask a zillion questions like: Has it ever bloomed in its present location? Have you recently moved it, pruned it or otherwise done anything differently? It's usually a guessing game. What follows are some general reasons for no blooms in some common plants used in the landscape. Azalea-Pruning in summer or fall; winter cold killed flowerbuds; soil too dry; soil not acid enough; and believe it or not, not enough sun. Crepe myrtle-Too much shade; excessive pruning; powdery mildew destroyed flowerbuds; growing season was not long enough; winter cold killed plant to the ground the year before. Daffodils-Cutting foliage before it turns yellow; bulbs need dividing; bulbs too small to bloom; poor drainage; spring cold snap killed flowers before they opened; dry soil caused flowers to abort. Dogwood-Too much shade; tree is seedling and not grafted; pruning in summer or fall; tree isn't old enough; drought the previous year; winter cold killed the flowerbuds; disease destroyed the flowers. Gardenia-Bud drop caused by too warm temperatures, air too dry, lack of sun; poor drainage; iron deficiency in soil; winter damage. Hydrangea-Pruning in wrong season; too much shade; winter cold killed flowerbuds. Peony-Not enough sun; planting too deeply; botrytis blight killed flowerbuds; spring cold snap killed flowers; dry soil caused the flowers to abort. Wisteria-Vine is a seedling and not grafted; fertilizing with nitrogen; not enough sun; excessive pruning in summer. Or it could boil down to this--you have ignored the collection plate in church one too many times! Live right and maybe that will help-it sure can't hurt.

Bulbs, Corms, Roots and Rhizomes

Support lilies and dahlias before they grow too tall and bend over. Tie plants loosely to their stakes, using natural twine or green twist ties to blend into the background. Loop the tie once around the stake, cross the strands, and then loop them around the stem of the plant to form a figure eight.

Trees and Shrubs

Containerized evergreen and deciduous shrubs can be planted all summer; just keep well watered and mulch after planting. Be sure and consider spacing requirements when planting masses of shrubs. One of the most common mistakes of homeowners is planting shrubs too close together. Cut back fast growing shrubs such as eleagnus, privet and photinia as needed. Now is the time to feed azaleas, camellias and gardenias with an acid-forming fertilizer such as 11-5-5. Apply as directed on the label. If the leaves of these plants are yellow with green veins, ask your favorite nursery or garden center for iron chelate, or you can treat the surrounding soil with aluminum sulfate.

Annual and Perennial Flowers

You still have time to set out summer bedding plants. Keep them well watered until the roots grow into the surrounding soil. Plants in full sun will benefit from the temporary shade of a light sprinkling of pine needles. Stake hollyhocks to keep them from falling over after summer rainstorms. One tall annual that never needs staking and is a favorite of mine is the cleome (spider flower, old man's whiskers). I love everything about this plant, but its smell. Goodness, it smells just like a polecat! I call it stinky but stupendous. As the plant progresses, it can become leggy as it begins to go to seed. Go right ahead and whack them off below all the long seedpods to the point where you see a new branch beginning to sprout. This does two things; it keeps mother from strewing all those seeds everywhere and forces her to flower again in an effort to produce more seed.

Lawns

Now is the time for the second application of fertilizer on Bermuda grass, zoysiagrass and St. Augustine grass. Continue to seed common Bermuda grass seed throughout this month. Wait until fall for seeding of the cool season turf grasses such as tall and creeping fescues. Be sure and ask your favorite garden center for the turf type tall fescues as there are forage-types that are not recommended for home lawns.

Vegetables and Herbs

To get maximum sun, plant tallest crops on the north side of the garden, so they don't shade shorter ones, or make rows north and south. Smart gardeners locate frequently harvested crops at the edges of the garden to avoid compacting the soil by walking through the garden excessively.

Take advantage of all the space you have by utilizing vertical cropping, intercropping and succession planting. What do all those big words mean? Vertical cropping means training sprawling plants to grow up. Try it with cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and melons. Intercropping means planting quick-maturing vegetables such as lettuce and spinach between widely spaced rows of a slow-maturing crop such as tomatoes, or growing squash, pole beans or pumpkins in with corn. Succession planting means making a second planting. For example, putting beans where you've just harvested early spinach.

Lelia Scott Kelly, Ph.D., writes North Mississippi Gardening Tips monthly and is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.